It seems the president of Honduras,  Xiomara Castro, had a 'Happy New Year's' message for President-elect Trump.

While it wasn't exactly the kind of sentiments you'd normally expect under the circumstances, considering what's been coming out of the female presidents of our Latin American neighbors, I'd say it was about par for the course.

What the televised message to Trump boiled down to was, 'Don't be dumping those illegal Hondurans back in our lap, or we'll shut your bases down.'

I'll give you - it does sound a ton smoother in Spanish.

Honduran President Xiomara Castro gives her New Year’s address and threatens to close down US military bases in Honduras if Trump persists in deporting Hondurans.

Translation attached below. 👇🏻 pic.twitter.com/dpFTDneSQB

— JKash 🍊MAGA Queen (@JKash000) January 2, 2025

Yeesh. What happened to 'Auld acquaintance'?

"I want to say that we hope that the new US administration of President Donald J. Trump will be open to dialogue, constructive, friendly, and that it will not take unnecessary reprisals against our migrants, who make a great contribution to the US economy. 

Faced with a hostile attitude towards our brothers, we would have to consider a change in our policies of cooperation with the United States, especially in the military field, where without paying a cent for decades, they maintain military bases in our territory, and in this case they would lose all reason for existing in Honduras."

First, 'faced with a hostile attitude towards our brothers' seems to be an unnecessary poetic license since they're illegals in our country.

It's also interesting how the Honduran president says the US hasn't paid 'a cent for decades,' implying that our country runs roughshod over their little fiefdom like, oh, colonizers or something.

The agreement between the US and Honduras for military cooperation just celebrated its 70th birthday - the US suddenly didn't drop troops in during the Sandinista days. We've had a presence there for decades and built infrastructure while providing local jobs and businesses with income much as we do anywhere.

 It was on this day 70 years ago — May 20, 1954, that the United States and Honduras signed a bilateral military assistance agreement at Tegucigalpa, Honduras.

The treaty begins, “Conscious of their pledges under the Inter-American Treaty of Reciprocal Assistance and other international instruments to assist any American State subjected to an armed attack and to act together for the common defense and for the maintenance of the peace and security of the Western Hemisphere.”

For the past 70 years, the U.S. and Honduras partnership has done just that.  

...On May 6, 1982, the two governments added an Annex to the agreement to improve constructed facilities at aerial ports to be used for military aircraft.

One such aerial port identified was Palmerola in the valley of Comayagua. This aerial port was agreed upon to be used by both Honduras and U.S. militaries for fuel, maintenance, and equipment for aircraft and to accommodate personnel.

The base at Soto Cano, while I can't find any dollar figure for 'rent,' finished unloading tens of thousands of pounds of donated supplies for the locals last May. It wasn't an emergency relief effort - it's a regular US-sponsored humanitarian mission to countries 'in need.'

A KC-46A Pegasus from the 931st Air Refueling Wing, McConnell Air Force Base, Kansas, delivered 12 pallets of cargo for the Denton Program at Soto Cano Air Base, May 8.

The Denton Program is a Department of Defense humanitarian assistance transportation program that moves humanitarian cargo, donated by United States-based non-governmental organizations to countries in need.

...With the help of Airmen from the 612th Air Base Squadron, Joint Task Force-Bravo, almost 26,000 pounds of freight was offloaded and stored for pickup by local nonprofits.

...This shipment included educational material, medical equipment, hygiene supplies, household items, clothing, fabrics, footwear and sewing supplies.

The next day, three Honduran nonprofits assembled the donations into trucks at the Soto Cano Air Base Passenger Terminal Cargo Yard for distribution to regions of necessity.

I'm sure locals won't mind the president jonesing that program when she shuts the base down. It's delivered something like 6M pounds of goods since it started in 1999.

President 'Not a Cent for Decades' Castro obviously wasn't including the *check notes* $785M the Biden administration has sent Honduras in foreign aid, thanks to the Regional Conference on Migration and their Root Causes Strategy (RCS) (we all know who was czar of that *snicker*). I'm not sure how all that money slipped her mind when she was doing that back-of-the-envelope figuring, but these things happen.

...Through the RCS, the U.S. government aims to enhance prosperity, democratic governance, justice, and security in Honduras, encouraging citizens, especially youth, to invest in their future within the country. This assistance is coordinated among various U.S. agencies, including USAID, the Department of State, the Department of Defense, and the Department of Agriculture.  From FY 2020 to 2023, the Department of State and USAID provided $785.05 million in bilateral, regional, centrally managed, and humanitarian assistance to Honduras.

Not to mention, there was an additional $42.5M split three ways between Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala in February of last year.

I'm no accountant - I only play one here at HotAir - but it sure seems to me like we're paying for something in Honduras.

And who is she kidding - she needs the US military in those hills to keep her own skin safe.

Cynic that I am, this sort of ugly bluster right out of the box for a teensy country already awash in United States cha-ching (don't forget those troops and their families spend money, too) might just be a nervy play to try to pressure for more handouts to take their problem children back.

That's always a possibility.

It's also possible that President Castro is yet another authoritarian sweating her hold on the throne. 

Interestingly enough, her husband was once president of Honduras and was overthrown in a coup d'etat in 2009. Her fear of that reportedly was the reason behind her annulling a long-standing extradition treaty with the US in August that was due to be renewed next month. 

There's more self-interest behind her threats, too. The number of "her brother" Hondurans illegally in the United States is simply staggering. 

And the ones who have jobs and send remittances home (also why she slickly emphasized their 'significant contributions' to the US economy)?

They are a huge part of Honduras's GDP, as in TWENTY-FIVE PERCENT.

AY DIOS MIO

The country would crash if Trump boots them back home.

...According to Honduran Deputy Foreign Minister Tony García, approximately 250,000 Hondurans face deportation from the United States by 2025, a situation for which Honduras is ill-prepared. Many migrants from Mexico and other nations are in similar predicaments, García and other sources have noted.

Nearly two million Hondurans currently reside in the United States, most of whom are undocumented. Their remittances constitute over 25% of Honduras’ Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

And Ms Castro would be out of a gig.

That would be a pity.

So what this boils down to is the rulers of these tiny little Central American countries, living large off US dollars coming and going while sending all their problem children north.

 I can't wait to see what Trump does with this.

Personally, besides deporting them, what I'd like to see is a tax on remittances going out of the country. That cash handed over at Western Union Offices and into mail orders every two weeks at the post office doesn't do anything for us here. Not a cent of it helps pay for the food stamps and public services of the people buying them to send back to Mexico, Honduras, or points beyond.

Tax foreign remittances. Claw some of that back.

No one's saying these folks who earn that aren't hard working, but the Americans who pay for the services they use are hardworking, too, and we come first.

Just a thought.

Like I said, I can't wait to see what Trump, Homan, and the team does with all of this.

At least we know something's finally going to get done.