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In 1981, President Reagan sent Negroponte to Honduras, the "banana republic" Washington commandeered as a base for covert military operations against the leftist Sandinistas who controlled neighboring Nicaragua.

On several occasions Jack Binns, Negroponte's predecessor in Honduras, warned the State Department that violence against political opponents of the puppet Honduran government had been on the rise. He first got the cold-shoulder treatment then was summoned to Washington and reprimanded by Assistant Secretary of State



Thomas Enders for reporting human rights abuses through official channels.

"He [Enders] was afraid it would leak and make it more difficult for us to continue our economic and security assistance to the contras," said Binns, now retired. Binn's stint at ambassador lasted only a year, ending shortly after protesting the violence in Honduras.

At Negroponte's behest, U.S. military aid to Honduras ballooned from $4 million to $77.4 million. He also helped orchestrate a cabal now known as the "



Iran-Contra Affair," during which arms were funneled through Honduras to help the contras overthrown the constitutionally elected Sandinista regime in Nicaragua.

Negroponte looked the other way when atrocities were committed in Central America. In light of recent revelations of prisoner abuse at the hands of U.S. military in Iraq, one wonders what kind of message the Bush administration is sending about human rights by posting Negroponte to represent the U.S in Baghdad. Worse, what kind of message does Mr. Bush send about his own moral values?

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