US embassy cable - 05TEGUCIGALPA1389

S E C R E T TEGUCIGALPA 001389 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR INL/LP, WHA/PPC AND WHA/CEN, S/CT 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/24/2015 
TAGS: ASEC, HO, PGOV, PREL, PTER, SNAR 
SUBJECT: FAREWELL TO ARMS: HONDURAS TO DESTROY 6000+ WEAPONS 
 
 
Classified By: Political Counselor Francisco Palmieri; 
reasons 1.4(b) and (d). 
 
1.  (C) SUMMARY:  On June 13, 2005, Honduran Minister of 
Defense Federico Breve Travieso announced that the Honduran 
Armed Forces (HOAF) will destroy more than 6000 
excess/obsolete weapons currently stored at the Army's 
Logistics Support Center (CALE).  The weapons date as far 
back as World War II and most are in states of severe 
disrepair.  As yet, no date has been set for their 
destruction, nor has a method of destruction been announced. 
END SUMMARY. 
 
2.  (S) Motivation to destroy these weapons is part of the 
aftermath of an April 2005 weapons seizure in Choloma.  An 
ongoing attorney general's investigation of the seizure has 
revealed that some of the confiscated weapons were lost from 
the HOAF inventory.  As part of new, stricter inventory 
controls, military commanders are required to conduct at 
least weekly inventory of all assigned weapons, and all 
military personnel are subject to severe punishments for the 
loss of a weapon.  These stricter inventory procedures should 
help reestablish control over a system that had been 
neglected for a long time.  Brigadier General Romeo Orlando 
Vasquez Velasquez, Chief of the Honduran Armed Forces' (HOAF) 
Joint Staff, supports the decision to destroy the 6000 
weapons since they present a temptation for criminal elements 
and are of no use to the HOAF. 
 
3.  (S) COMMENT: HOAF must overcome disorganized storage 
conditions at CALE and the consequences of an extended lack 
of accountability for weapons inventories.  This 
somewhat-belated decision, however, indicates that the HOAF 
is finally moving forward, slowly, to correct its inventory 
system.  END COMMENT. 
Palmer