Feit is dat na vijf eeuwen blanke heerschappij, volgens de officiele cijfers van de CIA, meer dan de helft van de Hondurezen onder de armoedegrens leeft. Een elite van ongeveer eentiende van de bevolking strijkt bijna de helft van al het landelijk inkomen op en bezit nagenoeg alles. Veel geld ging vooral in de jaren tachtig naar de strijdkrachten die de terreur van de Contra's in Nicaragua steunden, een terreur in het geheim gefinancierd door president Reagan. Militaire en financiele steun die in strijd met de wil van het Congres en in strijd met de veroordeling wegens terrorisme door het Internationaal Gerechtshof in Den Haag net zo lang bleef doorgaan tot de bevolking zich genoodzaakt zag niet langer op de Sandinisten te stemmen. De Amerikaanse politiek-onderzoeker William Blum schrijft in de studie Roque State: 'In Honduras, in exchange for allowing the US to convert the country into a grand military base, the CIA and DEA turned a virutally blind eye to the extensive drug trafficing of Honduran military officers, government officials and others. The CIA itself enlisted Alan Hyde, a leading Honduran trafficker -- the "godfather of all criminal activities," according to US government reports -- to use his boats to transport Contras supplies. In exchange, the Agency discouraged counter-narcotics efforts against Hyde. A CIA cable stated that Hyde's "connection to [CIA] is well documented and could prove difficult in the prosecution stage."'Het zal niemand verbazen dat dit Hondurese leger een van de belangrijkste machtscentra is in Honduras. Het handelt als een mafia, rijk geworden door drugs en steun van de VS. Het bestaat uit mannen die achter de schermen de touwtjes in handen hebben en die een eigen agenda erop nahouden. Via martelingen en moord beschermt deze bende in Honduras zijn positie, met als resultaat dat de Hondurese beul Jose Barrera met gepaste trots tegenover The Baltimore Sun het volgende over zijn slachtoffers wist te vertellen: 'They always asked to be killed. Torture is worse than Death.' Blum: 'The CIA supplied torture equipment, torture manuals, and in both Honduras and the US taught battalion 316 members methods of psychological and physical torture... US support for the battalion continued even after its director, General Gustavo Alvarez Martinez, told the US ambassador that he intended to use the Argentine methods of eliminating subversives. In 1983, the Reagan administration awarded Alvarez the Legion of Merit "for encouraging the succes of democratic process in Honduras." At the same time, the administration was misleading Congress and the American public by denying or minimizing the battalion's atrocities.' In die tijd sprak ik dissidente Latijns-Amerikanen die naar Mexico waren gevlucht en vernam van hen wat er achter de schermen werkelijk gebeurde. Ik vertel dit om de context te geven van de recente staatsgreep in Honduras, en de reactie van Gilbert Moerkerk van The Netherlands Honduras Promotion op een kritisch stuk van mij aangaande deze coup. Meer daarover in een volgend stuk.
The 1983 manual and Battalion 316
In 1983, the Human Resource Exploitation Training Manual - 1983 methods were used by the U.S.-trained Honduran Battalion 316.[7]
On January 24, 1997, KUBARK Counterintelligence Interrogation and Human Resource Exploitation Training Manual - 1983 were declassified in response to a FOIA request filed by the Baltimore Sun in 1994. The Baltimore Sun was investigating the "kidnapping, torture and murder" of the Honduran Battalion 316 death squad. The documents were released only after the Baltimore Sun had threatened to sue the CIA.[17][4]
In the June 11 to 18, 1995 four-part series, the Baltimore Sun printed excerpts of an interview with Florencio Caballero, a former member of Battalion 316. Caballero said CIA instructors taught him to discover what his prisoners loved and what they hated, "If a person did not like cockroaches, then that person might be more cooperative if there were cockroaches running around the room"[4] The methods taught in the 1983 manual and those used by Battalion 316 in the early 1980s show unmistakable similarities. In 1983, Caballero attended a CIA "human resources exploitation or interrogation course," according to declassified testimony by Richard Stolz, who was the deputy director for operations at the time, before the June 1988 Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. The manual advises an interrogator to "manipulate the subject's environment, to create unpleasant or intolerable situations."[citation needed]
The manual gives the suggestion that prisoners be deprived of sleep and food, and made to maintain rigid positions, such as standing at attention for long periods. Ines Consuelo Murillo, who spent 78 days in Battalion 316's secret jails in 1983, said she was given no food or water for days, and one of her captors entered her room every 10 minutes and poured water over her head to keep her from sleeping.[4]
The "Human Resource Exploitation Training Manual -- 1983" gives the suggestion that interrogators show the prisoner letters from home to give the prisoner the impression that the prisoner's relatives are in danger or suffering.[4]
The Baltimore Sun reported that, former Battalion 316 member Jose Barrera said he was taught interrogation methods by U.S. instructors in 1983, used this technique: "The first thing we would say is that we know your mother, your younger brother. And better you cooperate, because if you don't, we're going to bring them in and rape them and torture them and kill them."
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