Honduras plans to follow Spain’s lead and withdraw 370 troops from a Spanish-led humanitarian and peacekeeping brigade in June, Defense Secretary Federico Breve said Tuesday. The decision marked an about-face from the day before, when President Ricardo Maduro said he would not pull his soldiers from Iraq. Tuesday’s announcement "coincides with the decision of the prime minister-elect of the Spanish government," Breve said.
Honduras, El Salvador and Nicaragua all have sent soldiers to the Spanish-led Plus Ultra Brigade to perform humanitarian and peacekeeping work. Salvadoran Defense Secretary Gen. Juan Martinez said Tuesday that the country would keep its troops in Iraq regardless of what Spain does. "We have to follow through with what our government decided" initially, Martinez told La Prensa Grafica for its Tuesday editions. Martinez said he had not yet received any instructions to the contrary.
Honduras sent its first contingent of 370 soldiers to Iraq in August, and replaced it with a second group of the same size last month. The country had said from the beginning it would only commit its troops for a year. El Salvador sent its first group of 360 soldiers to help the Ultra Plus Brigade last August. A replacement group of 380 soldiers arrived last month, and are scheduled to stay until August of this year. Whether additional troops are sent after that may depend on the outcome of Sunday’s presidential elections, disputed by Tony Saca, of the conservative ruling Nationalist Republican Alliance, and Schafik Handal, of the leftist Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front. Current Salvadoran President Francisco Flores has stressed that the help it sent to Iraq is in thanks for the international community’s backing of 1992 peace accords that ended El Salvador’s 12-year civil war.
Nicaragua sent about 115 soldiers, mostly sappers and medical personnel, to Iraq last September to join the brigade. Those troops have since returned, and the government announced last month that it lacked sufficient funding for a second contingent. All three countries announced Monday that they were tightening security at major ports, airports and several embassies that might be vulnerable to attack. El Salvador police deputy investigations director Douglas Omar Garcia said he did not believe his country represented a "primary target" for terrorists, but he said authorities did not completely rule out possible aggressions given its decision to send troops to Iraq. |