Honduras Calls for U.N. Force to Remove Contras, Leftist Rebels
Honduras, which has been a key U.S. ally in Central America, asked the United Nations on Tuesday to set up an international force to evacuate U.S.-backed Nicaraguan and leftist Salvadoran rebels from Honduran territory.
In a speech to the General Assembly, Foreign Minister Carlos Lopez Contreras recommended that Secretary General Javier Perez de Cuellar oversee creation of a peace force composed of troops from Canada, Spain and West Germany. Its duties would include relocating U.S.-backed Contras and leftist Salvadoran rebels to Costa Rica and Guatemala initially, then resettling them elsewhere.
Such a unit, Lopez said, should be authorized to use force, if necessary, to carry out its mandate of guaranteeing “the non-use” of Honduran territory by foreign armed insurgencies.
Lopez underscored his apparent disassociation from U.S. policy by describing the United States, along with the Soviet Union, as a “hegemonistic power”--one with a policy of aggressively expanding its influence over other countries.
His proposal represents an updated version of a plan Honduras unveiled last November.
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