Panel Kills Bid to Stop Jet Sale to Honduras

In a surprise move Thursday, a House subcommittee killed a Democratic move to block the Reagan Administration’s planned sale of F-5E jet fighters to Honduras.

Rep. Stephen J. Solarz (D-N.Y.) broke party ranks to join with Republicans on the House Foreign Affairs subcommittee on Western Hemisphere affairs and voted against a resolution of disapproval. The resulting 6-6 tie effectively puts an end to the matter in the House.

Solarz, talking with reporters afterward, said he disagrees with arguments by his colleagues that the replacement of Honduras’ 13 obsolete French Super-Mystere jets with 12 F-5Es will significantly alter the balance of power in Central America and touch off an arms race.

In addition, he said, a vote on the House floor would be uncertain and proponents of the ban could not muster the necessary two-thirds to overcome a presidential veto.

“The vote simply blows taps for the resolution a little bit earlier,” Solarz said.

Deterrent Cited

The Administration has maintained that Honduras needs the F-5Es to deter any attack by the Marxist-led Sandinista government of Nicaragua, which has no modern jet fighters but a much larger land army.

“Honduras either needs to get new planes or give up its air force--the only hope they have of deterring an attack,” Solarz said.

Two days earlier, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee voted 10 to 9, on strict party lines, to block the $75-million sale.

To prevent sales of weapons to a foreign country, both houses of Congress must approve a resolution of disapproval within 30 days of notification by the Administration. In this case, the deadline is June 16.

Democratic Pleas

The House panel killed its resolution despite passionate pleas by Democratic members.

“At a time when Central America is exploding, when the policy of this Administration in aiding the (anti-Sandinista) contras is at an impasse, it seems to me to be absolutely imprudent to supply advanced aircraft to Honduras (where the contras are based),” Rep. Samuel Gejdenson (D-Conn.) said. “We may soon find ourselves with a region as well-armed as the Middle East.”

But California Rep. Robert K. Dornan (R-Garden Grove), a reserve Air Force pilot, said the Super-Mysteres are barely able to fly.

“If we don’t sell the F-5s to the Hondurans, they are going to turn to Israel for Kfirs,” Dornan said, referring to a plane that was rejected by Honduras earlier.

Policy Opposed

In announcing his vote, Solarz said he remains “strongly opposed” to Administration policy in Central America but agrees with Administration officials that the F-5E sale would not require the United States to offer them to El Salvador and Guatemala as well. Nor, he said, would the sale give Nicaragua an excuse to buy MIGs from the Soviet Union, as some have argued.

Solarz emphasized that the F-5Es would only replace the obsolete Super-Mysteres jets, not expand the Honduran air force.

“If we were giving them 24 jets, I’d oppose it,” he said.