Honduras did not experience civil war in the 1980s, but its geography (bordering El Salvador, Guatemala and Nicaragua) made it a key location for US military operations: training Salvadoran soldiers, a base for Nicaraguan contras, military exercises for US troops. The notorious Honduran death squad Battalion 316 was created, funded and trained by the US. The state-sponsored terror resulted in the forced disappearances and extrajudicial killings of approximately 200 people during the 1980s. Many more were abducted and tortured. The 2009 military coup d’etat spawned a resurgence of state repression against the civilian population that continues today. Over the past few decade, RRN members have sent more than a dozen letters to officials in Honduras. They have have denounced an endless series of politically motivated killings and attacks against the Afro-descendant Garífuna people, carried out by wealthy and powerful sectors trying to take over Garífuna lands on the Atlantic coast for agri-business and the global tourist industry. The government of Honduras has been either complicit in the repression, or complicit through its utter lack of political and legal action to hold the powerful accountable for their political crimes.
