The expansion of a Mexican-style militarized drug war creeping into Honduras over the last couple of years has led to a number of scary news stories.
The rough outline is thus; as the pressure has increased on the Mexican cartels, they have moved into Honduras, where their activities have led to the Honduran murder rate becoming the highest in the world, a tragedy so alarming that the DEA, US Army and the State Department are all busy lending a helping hand to their counterparts in Honduras.
What's wrong with that scenario? Well, cocaine still travels roughly the same routes that it always has; from the producer countries in South America to the market countries in North America and Europe. And Honduras remains where it's always been, in the middle of those routes.
The argument that the US needs to take the War on Drugs into Honduras makes no sense. Insofar as the goal is to keep the drugs out of the US, that can be done as effectively at the Mexican border.
Are there other reasons why the US military and the State Department might have an interest in Honduras?
Since the coup that deposed the democratically elected Manuel Zelaya in 2009, violence against peasant farmers, union organizers, journalists, and social activists of all stripes has sky-rocketed.
If you google Miguel Facusse today you'll read that the billionaire Facusse is fighting a vicious war against the small farmers who were promised land under Zelaya's proposed reforms. And he's not the only one afraid of the landless peasants. American conglomerates like Chiquita Brands and Dole have the same concerns.
That's the real story behind this so-called escalation of the drugs war in Honduras.
If you have any doubts, google Miguel Facusse Wikileaks. You'll see that the oligarch Facusse has been implicated in the cocaine trade for years by the very American diplomats who are now cheerleading this imaginary war on the cartels.
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