U.S. maintained military relations with Honduras despite no-contact policy

Evidence

After the 2009 military coup removed President Zelaya from power, the Obama administration declared an official policy of no contact with the Honduran military. Nevertheless, U.S. and Honduran military officials maintained close relations. As U.S. embassy personnel in Honduras told me, high-ranking U.S. and Honduran officers still had one another’s cell phone numbers and crossed paths in malls and other public places in Honduras. Contact continued at Soto Cano—where the Honduran military technically hosts the U.S. presence—and in other places where the two militaries interacted regularly. There was a brief dip in aid after the coup, but soon U.S. assistance to Honduran security forces began to rise again. In 2012, for example, Congress appropriated $56 million in U.S. military and police aid for Honduras. — David Vine, Base Nation_ How U.S. Military Bases…, 299

Categorization

• XREF: Official policy versus actual practice gap echoes the Pentagon’s claims-versus-reality pattern documented throughout the book — that official assurances about bases do not match on-the-ground behavior.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — David Vine, Base Nation_ How U.S. Military Bases…, 299