No New Jets for Honduras

Not content with the military aid it is funneling to El Salvador and anti-government rebels in Nicaragua, the Reagan Administration now proposes to send a dozen jet fighters to Honduras. The transfer would further militarize the conflict in Central America at a sensitive time. Congress can, and must, say no.

Under the military aid plan announced by White House spokesmen on Tuesday, the Pentagon will sell Honduras 10 F-5E fighters and two F-5F jet trainers from surplus U.S. stocks. The jet deliveries would begin in October and continue for two years, until the Honduran air force has completely retired its current fleet of aging French Mystere jet fighters.

Because the U.S. jets will be replacing older models, Administration spokesmen insist the deal will not change the military equation in Central America. Under normal circumstances that would be a plausible argument. Honduras does not have as large an army as El Salvador and Nicaragua, relying instead on the air force to patrol its mountainous national territory.

But these are not normal times in Central America. Convinced that it faces a military threat from the United States and its allies--including Honduras--Nicaragua’s Sandinista government is engaged in a massive military buildup. The Sandinistas are certain to use the transfer of new U.S. jets to Honduras as one more reason to further strengthen their own army. More importantly, there is a chance that a meeting of Central American presidents in Guatemala next month will revive long-stalled peace talks in the region. For the Administration to insist that selling jets to Honduras now is routine, is either ingenuous or cynical. We suspect the latter, given the way Administration officials have tried to sabotage Central American peace talks in the past.

For the jet transfer to go through, Congress must give its approval within 30 days. The deal must be stopped.