Wave of Anti-American Sentiment Seen : U.S. Welcome Fades in Honduras

Two U.S. Army Blackhawk helicopters carrying American soldiers were put on standby at a military airport near Tegucigalpa. Their mission, if needed, was to pluck about two dozen Americans holed up in the U.S. Embassy here that was surrounded by an anti-American mob.

The helicopters, which, like the soldiers, are permanently based in Honduras, never took off. Honduran riot police finally arrived to quell Thursday night’s riot, even though they were late by 90 minutes and $4 million in damage.

Despite the eventual arrival of the police, the message was clear, Honduran and foreign observers say. The once-friendly attitude toward the United States by Honduras, a country routinely described as America’s chief ally in Central America, has turned uneasy if not downright hostile. No one, not even the armed forces that Washington spends millions to maintain, can be counted on.

The exercise of U.S. power here, a product of geography and overwhelming economic and military clout, has reached the limits of passive acceptance among Hondurans.

The new atmosphere could have an important impact on U.S. interests in Honduras, which include extensive military cooperation.

“The U.S. will have to move gingerly and think a little more carefully before taking steps that might offend Honduras,” a Western diplomat said.

“We have crossed a bridge,” said Elizabeth Zuniga, a Honduran politician. “The potential of violent reaction must now be taken into account when the Americans act in Honduras.”

Rutilio Moreno, a bricklayer who participated in anti-American violence Friday, said: “The gringos think they can do what they want. But they have touched us close to the heart, and we must let them know we can stand up to them.”

Detonator for Unrest

The unlikely detonator for such sentiments was the arrest and expulsion to the United States of Juan Ramon Matta Ballesteros, identified by American officials as a major drug trafficker.

Matta’s expulsion touched off rioting Thursday at the U.S. Embassy and Friday in downtown Tegucigalpa.

Two Hondurans were confirmed dead in Thursday’s violence, although newspapers here continue to report that four rioters were killed. Honduran witnesses say that the two confirmed dead were probably killed by rioters.

No one died during the Friday rampage downtown, and damage was limited to a few burned-out automobiles.

On Saturday, the streets of Tegucigalpa were quiet. Honduran troops roamed on foot, and tanks stood ready in the hills overlooking the city in case of trouble.

What seems to bother Hondurans is not the specific fate of Matta, although he was something of a folk hero because of the large quantities of money he dispensed among the poor. Rather, it is what Hondurans consider an open display of subservience to the United States despite a constitutional ban against extraditing Hondurans to face charges in other countries.

In a typical comment, fruit vendor Marta Sanchez said: “This government has no guts. The Americans wanted it (Matta’s arrest), and they got it. The constitution is just dead paper.

As a result, Matta’s arrest brought a seething anti-Americanism to the surface.

Soldiers guarding the house of President Jose Azcona Hoyo on Saturday glared at passing American reporters and growled at them, “gringo trash.”

Students who led the two days of rioting have made anti-Americanism their byword. “If they can take Matta, they can take anyone,” was one slogan shouted by the students.

The United States is taking the anti-Americanism seriously, at least in the short term. On Saturday, American consular officials telephoned American citizens to warn them to get out of Honduras unless they have absolutely pressing business.

‘Marriage of Convenience’

However, U.S. officials played down the long-term repercussions of the anti-American feelings. They attributed the sentiments to a “marriage of convenience between anti-U.S. leftists and drug smugglers.”

“It all will pass,” one official predicted.

As for the Honduran constitutional issues, U.S. officials seemed to consider the arrest of Matta a good enough reason to dispense with constitutional niceties. “Drugs are more of a threat to Honduran democracy than the United States is,” an American official said.

The Reagan Administration has tried to get Honduras to extradite Matta for the past two years. Matta’s freedom in Honduras was galling to Washington, in part because Matta is suspected of participating in the 1985 torture-murder of Enrique S. Camarena, a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agent based in Mexico.

“Sure, we brought up the issue to the Hondurans every chance we had,” said a U.S. diplomat here.

The arrest and expulsion of Matta by the Hondurans took place in collaboration with U.S. marshals, who picked up the suspected drug king in the Dominican Republic. It is not clear who flew Matta to the Dominican Republic.

There are few places in the world where the United States has more direct influence than in Honduras. The United States has poured hundreds of millions of dollars in military and economic aid into Honduras over the past seven years.

The aid has been designed to make Honduras a bastion against its heavily militarized neighbor to the south, Marxist-led Nicaragua. The United States operates two air bases jointly with the Honduran military, as well as numerous smaller airfields and intelligence listening posts.

Honduras has been a key participant in Reagan Administration efforts to overthrow the Sandinista government in Nicaragua. Honduras is a rear base for the U.S.-backed Contras fighting to overthrow the Sandinistas.

While trying to bend Honduras to its will, Washington has occasionally placed pressures on the military and government here that have created conflicts.

The sensitivity of the Matta case within the Honduran military is especially disturbing to U.S. observers. First, it confirms long-held suspicions that drug dealers have been able to win some friends in the armed forces.

More indirectly, the tardy arrival of police at the U.S. Embassy on Thursday revealed how anti-U.S. feeling inside and outside the military could easily endanger U.S. facilities in Honduras.

American officials say the delay occurred on purpose, an act of omission by a single high-ranking Honduran army officer.

Officer Identified

Informed sources identified the officer as Col. Leonel Riera, who heads the Honduran police, which is a branch of the military.

Some sources say Riera delayed the dispatch of police to the riot scene to embarrass Riera’s boss, Gen. Humberto Regalado, who had ordered troops to arrest Matta.

Others say that Regalado himself ordered Riera to delay the police in order to make the United States “pay” for the unpopular decision to take Matta away. In this version, Regalado was said to have been letting the United States know that the Honduran military could not be expected to take actions that might provoke a harsh public reaction.