Fuerza Armadas de Honduras

[COLOR=#000000][FONT=Arial][B]No More Drug Flights Through Honduras: Military[/B]

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[COLOR=#999999][FONT=Arial]Written by Arron DaughertyFriday, 30 January 2015[/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=Arial][URL="http://www.insightcrime.org/honduras-organized-crime-news"]Honduras[/URL][/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=Arial][IMG]http://www.insightcrime.org/images/2015/January-2015/15-01-30-honduras-radar.jpeg[/IMG][/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=Arial]Armed forces say they've halted drug flights through [URL="http://www.insightcrime.org/component/tags/tag/66-honduras"]Honduras[/URL], prompting cautious optimism about progress in a nation with a dire public security record.
Security forces say they've reduced the number of aircraft transporting drugs through [URL="http://www.insightcrime.org/component/tags/tag/66-honduras"]Honduras[/URL] to nearly zero in 2014, compared to an estimated 12 each month the previous year, [URL="http://www.laprensa.hn/honduras/790212-417/narcovuelos-frenan-su-tr%C3%A1nsito-por-honduras"]local media reported[/URL], citing sources in the military.
Honduras was reportedly able to do so thanks to three mobile radar towers purchased from Israel for $30 million, as well as a new law passed last year, which allows for the shooting down of suspicious aircraft that do not comply with the military's instructions. Complemented by a flotilla of US gunboats off [URL="http://www.insightcrime.org/component/tags/tag/66-honduras"]Honduras[/URL]' Atlantic coast, this air shield has forced criminal groups to transport drugs through other countries, the Honduran military was quoted as saying.
[B]InSight Crime Analysis[/B]

While [URL="http://www.insightcrime.org/component/tags/tag/66-honduras"]Honduras[/URL]' air shield is undoubtedly good for security and follows a string of similarly positive developments, there are reasons to temper an optimistic outlook for the Central American country.
Notably, US ambassador to [URL="http://www.insightcrime.org/component/tags/tag/66-honduras"]Honduras[/URL] James Nealon [URL="http://www.laprensa.hn/honduras/789662-410/embajador-de-eua-resalta-avance-contra-el-narcotr%C3%A1fico"]recently said[/URL] that the flow of drugs through [URL="http://www.insightcrime.org/component/tags/tag/66-honduras"]Honduras[/URL] has been reduced "significantly" due to bilateral cooperation. While this may be the case, assessing the amount of illicit drugs passing through a country is never an exact science due to the trade's clandestine nature. Traffickers could very well be avoiding [URL="http://www.insightcrime.org/component/tags/tag/66-honduras"]Honduras[/URL], or else they may simply be using new routes and methods which have yet to be discovered.
Assuming the flow of drugs through [URL="http://www.insightcrime.org/component/tags/tag/66-honduras"]Honduras[/URL] has in fact been reduced, it's also worth questioning how much the military's air shield would have contributed to such a phenomenon. [URL="http://www.insightcrime.org/component/tags/tag/66-honduras"]Honduras[/URL]' first radar [URL="http://www.proceso.hn/component/k2/item/6254.html"]became operational in March 2014[/URL], and [URL="http://www.insightcrime.org/news-briefs/honduras-approves-drug-plane-shoot-down-law-bolivia-set-to-follow"]the country approved the shoot-down law[/URL] two months prior to that -- and yet the military is claiming that within that amount of time, they have virtually eradicated drug flights. 
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[COLOR=#000000][FONT=Arial]Even if the air shield has dramatically impacted transnational drug trafficking in[/FONT][/COLOR][URL="http://www.insightcrime.org/component/tags/tag/66-honduras"]Honduras[/URL][COLOR=#000000][FONT=Arial], the country still needs to face up to its public security problems, which arguably affect the everyday lives of its citizens more. This is, after all, a nation which registered the world's highest murder rate in 2014, [/FONT][/COLOR][URL="http://www.hrw.org/world-report/2015"]according to Human Rights Watch[/URL][COLOR=#000000][FONT=Arial]. [/FONT][/COLOR]