Official confirms US resumes sharing radar information with Honduras.

The United States has resumed providing Honduras with radar information used for the surveillance and pursuit of aircraft suspected of transporting drugs, according to a Honduran military chief.

In 2014, the United States suspended radar information cooperation with Honduras after the Honduran Congress passed a law that authorized its air force to shoot down aircraft suspected of transporting drugs.

This decision came after Honduras shot down two suspected drug-running planes in 2012, leading the U.S. to suspend cooperation due to violation of a bilateral agreement prohibiting attacks on civilian aircraft.

Vice Admiral Jose Fortin, the head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the Honduran Armed Forces, shared a letter on Twitter from the U.S. embassy in Honduras, announcing that the State Department had lifted restrictions to “allow the U.S. government to resume the exchange of real-time air tracking data with Honduras.”

The embassy stated in the letter, addressed to Defense Minister Jose Manuel Zelaya, that “Honduras has demonstrated that it can employ adequate security procedures.”

However, the embassy did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Defense Minister Zelaya expressed on Twitter that this policy change is a “clear sign of President Xiomara Castro’s commitment in the fight against drug trafficking and in the security of the region.”

In 2020, Honduran lawmakers passed reforms that prevent aircraft from being shot down if there are indications that non-participants in illicit drug trafficking are on board.

Honduras, a crucial transit point for cocaine smuggling from South America to the United States, seized 7,134 kg of cocaine in 2022, following a seizure of 17,832 kg in 2021, according to military authorities.

Reporting by Gustavo Palencia; editing by Robert Birsel