Honduras will not participate in Panamax military exercises

There was a bit of a stir yesterday when Telesur reported that Honduras had been invited to participate in the Panamax 2009 military exercises beginning today. Panamax is the largest annual multi-national military exercise in the hemisphere. This year, 4,500 personnel from 20 countries are participating or observing the exercises, which focus on a variety of missions involving the Panama Canal and surrounding areas. As every country participating in the exercise including the US does not recognize the de facto regime in Honduras, participation by the Honduran military would have been a serious political issue.

Fortunately, they are not participating. I spoke with LTC Heidi Lenzini at Southcom public affairs this morning who informed me that Honduras would not be involved in the exercise and the initial media reports were incorrect.

As she explained, Honduras was among the countries invited "about a year ago" to participate in these exercises, which are planned well in advance. The plan for this year's exercises also originally involved the use of Honduras' Soto Cano air force base, where the US maintains a military presence. Following the coup, "about a month ago," the US canceled the involvement of Soto Cano from the exercises. At that point, the Honduran military withdrew from the exercises due to the ongoing political differences between the de facto government and the other governments involved.

So, in short, Honduras will not participate in the Panamax military exercises, which will include participation of every other Central American nation.

Update: A Southcom article on today's Panamax opening ceremonies says Honduras withdrew on August 10.