\n<\/p>\n
Honduras\u2019s president threatened to push the U.S. military out of a base it built decades ago in the Central American country should President-elect Donald J. Trump carry out mass deportations of undocumented immigrants from the United States.<\/p>\n
The response by President Xiomara Castro of Honduras, in an address broadcast on television and radio on Wednesday, was the first concrete pushback by a leader in the region to Mr. Trump\u2019s plan to send back millions of Latin American citizens living in the United States.<\/p>\n
The threat came as Ms. Castro and Mexico\u2019s president, Claudia Sheinbaum, also called a meeting of foreign ministers later this month to address the deportation issue.<\/p>\n
\u201cFaced with a hostile attitude of mass expulsion of our brothers, we would have to consider a change in our policies of cooperation with the United States, especially in the military arena,\u201d Ms. Castro said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\u201cWithout paying a cent for decades,\u201d she added, \u201cthey maintain military bases in our territory, which in this case would lose all reason to exist in Honduras.\u201d<\/p>\n
Honduras\u2019 foreign minister, Enrique Reina, said afterward in a radio interview<\/a> that Honduras\u2019s leader had the power to suspend without the approval of the country\u2019s Congress a decades-old agreement with the United States that allowed it to build the Soto Cano air base and operate America\u2019s largest military task force in Central America from there.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The move would present grave risks for the small country, which depends on the United States as its largest trading partner and a source of humanitarian aid.<\/p>\n Will Freeman, a fellow in Latin America studies at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York, said of the Honduran president\u2019s statement: \u201cI\u2019m surprised a bit by the boldness of it.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n A spokesman for the Trump transition team, Brian Hughes, responding to Ms. Castro\u2019s warning, said in a statement, \u201cThe Trump administration looks forward to engaging our Latin American partners to ensure our southern border is secure and illegal immigrants can be returned to their country of origin.\u201d<\/p>\n Mr. Trump promised to swiftly deport undocumented immigrants when he took office, but his transition team has not shared any concrete plans, leaving Latin American governments guessing even as they try to prepare. Mr. Trump also vowed to slap a 25 percent tariff<\/a> on Mexico and Canada if they did not stop the flow of migrants and fentanyl to the United States.<\/p>\n Most governments in Latin America, including Mexico\u2019s, have worked to stay on a good footing with Mr. Trump, even as they have sought to emphasize the contributions their citizens make to the American economy, whatever their legal status.<\/p>\n This week, Ms. Sheinbaum reiterated: \u201cWe will continue to demonstrate how the Mexican people in the U.S. contribute in a very important way to the U.S. economy. And if Mexican people were not in the U.S., there would be no food on American tables.\u201d<\/p>\n The governments have also sought to reassure their citizens in the United States that they are preparing for any large-scale expulsions. Honduras has said it will establish mobile consulates, and Mexico created an online application for its citizens to alert consulate authorities if they are at imminent risk of being detained.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n On Friday, in an apparent shift from her previous goal<\/a> to reach a deal with Mr. Trump to avoid receiving such migrants, Ms. Sheinbaum also suggested that Mexico might take in deportees from other countries, even as she reiterated that her administration did not agree with mass deportations.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are going to ask the United States that, as far as possible, migrants who are not from Mexico can be taken to their countries of origin. And if not, we can collaborate through different mechanisms,\u201d Ms. Sheinbaum said.<\/p>\n \u201cThere will be a time to talk with the U.S. government if these deportations really occur,\u201d she added. \u201cBut here we are going to receive them; we are going to receive them well, and we have a plan.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Governments in the region rely on remittances from immigrants in the United States. They account for as much as 25 percent of Honduras\u2019s economy. More than half a million undocumented Hondurans<\/a> \u2014 about 5 percent of the Honduran population \u2014 were estimated to be living in the United States in 2022, according to the Pew Research Center.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Since the 1980s, an American task force has operated out of Soto Cano, an air base owned by the Honduran government in Comayagua, a town about 50 miles from the capital, Tegucigalpa. It was originally built by the United States in the 1980s to help contain the communist threat in the region.<\/p>\n Soto Cano currently hosts more than a thousand American military and civilian personnel, a spokeswoman for the task force there, Joint Task Force Bravo, said on Friday.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are guests of the Honduran government on a Honduran base,\u201d said the spokeswoman, Capt. Hillary Gibson.<\/p>\n While the task force has played a role in counternarcotics efforts, Captain Gibson said, it has recently focused on disaster relief and administering humanitarian aid.<\/p>\n The United States Embassy in Honduras did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n The U.S. military maintains a presence at bases in other countries in the region, including in El Salvador, though these have fewer U.S. military troops than Soto Cano.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n While many Hondurans celebrated Ms. Castro\u2019s statements, some elected officials sought to distance themselves from the president. Several members of Congress noted the need for dialogue with the Trump administration and pointed out that pushing out the U.S. military from the base would not stop Mr. Trump from carrying out mass deportations.<\/p>\n Mr. Reina, the foreign minister, said on Thursday that Honduras intended to stay on good terms with the United States. But he stood behind the president\u2019s statements, saying that \u201cif mass deportations that violate the rights of migrants come about,\u201d the country\u2019s leaders had \u201ca right to rethink\u201d its relationship with the United States.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Mr. Freeman, the fellow in Latin America studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, said the government\u2019s posture came as a surprise because while Ms. Castro had recently taken what he described as a publicly confrontational approach to the United States \u2014 including moving to end a longstanding extradition treaty<\/a> \u2014 behind closed doors she had been known to \u201cplay friendly\u201d with the U.S. ambassador, trying to elicit America\u2019s continued support.<\/p>\n He said it was also surprising that Ms. Castro would send such a warning before Mr. Trump assumed office, particularly in light of statements from Mr. Trump\u2019s pick for secretary of state, Marco Rubio, the Republican senator from Florida.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Mr. Rubio had warned that Honduras under Ms. Castro\u2019s government could become \u201cthe next Venezuela,\u201d Mr. Freeman said, where a spiraling crisis under the authoritarian rule of Nicol\u00e1s Maduro has led to mass migration.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u201cI think it will sour the relationship, which would have already been sour, with the Trump administration,\u201d Mr. Freeman said. \u201cAnd I don\u2019t see these northern Central American countries are in a position to leverage much with the U.S. over the shape of migration policy.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cNow Mexico,\u201d he added, \u201cis a totally different story.\u201d<\/p>\n The United States does not have full diplomatic relations with some countries in the region, including Venezuela and Cuba, which have faced harsh U.S. sanctions. As a result, these countries are unlikely to accept large numbers of deportation flights.<\/p>\n After Ms. Castro\u2019s address, Honduras\u2019s foreign minister announced<\/a> on social media the meeting between foreign ministers to discuss mass deportations, which he said had been called by the leaders of Honduras and Mexico. The post was accompanied by a photo of Ms. Castro holding hands with Ms. Sheinbaum.<\/p>\n Emiliano Rodr\u00edguez Mega contributed reporting.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n