Indigenous leaders in Honduras are worried that the western province of Intibuca is about to become a "second Chiapas" with the arrival of U.S. troops engaged in a "humanitarian mission."
     About 100 indigenous activists, mostly Lencas from Intibuca, gathered in front of the U.S. embassy in Tegucigalpa on January 12 to protest the maneuvers, which got underway January 2 when U.S. soldiers installed base camps in four isolated Intibuca communities.
     "This troop mobilization isn't for the benefit of the people," declared Salvador Zuniga, a Lenca activist and coordinator of the Consejo Civico de Organizaciones Populares e Indigenas (COPIN). "It's preventative counterinsurgency to cause psychological fear and to reconnoiter the terrain."
     The Lencas have become a thorn in the side of the Honduran government in the last two years, carrying out several marches to the capital where they protested in front of the office of President Carlos Roberto Reina. One such demonstration was broken up violently on May 12 by hundreds of riot-equipped soldiers. The Lencas have protested the assassination of several of their leaders, as well as what they consider the systematic theft of their land by non-indigenous landowners.
     U.S. officials in Honduras claim the troops--400 of whom will be in the country at a time--are reservists who will build five clinics, four schools, 10 wells, and one water system.
     Yet COPIN President Gerardo Yanez said the U.S. government was worried "that a second Chiapas could occur here so they come with the pretext of carrying out civic actions like latrines, health centers, and medical attention."
     In a letter the activists delivered to embassy officials, they stated, "We do not believe that a civic and humanitarian action has to take place as part of military war maneuvers, with guns, because guns only bring death, destruction, and violence."