Why is Honduras threatening to expel US troops?

Honduras has threatened to expel United States troops, retaliating against incoming President Donald Trump’s plans to carry out mass deportations of refugees and asylum seekers entering the US from Central America.

Trump’s plan could affect hundreds of thousands of people from Honduras, a country which hosts a significant US military base.

Here’s what’s at the heart of the dispute between the world’s biggest superpower and its smaller neighbour, why it matters and what this means for ties between the countries.

In her New Year’s message, Honduras’s President Xiomara Castro threatened to reconsider the country’s military cooperation with the US if President-elect Donald Trump follows through on mass deportations of undocumented immigrants.

Castro stated that US military facilities in Honduras, particularly Soto Cano Airbase, would “lose all reason to exist” if these deportations occurred. But she also used the opportunity to criticise the longstanding US military presence on Honduras soil more broadly.

“In the face of a hostile attitude of mass expulsion of our brothers, we would have to consider a change in our cooperation policies with the United States, especially in the military field, where for decades, without paying a cent, they maintain military bases on our territory, which in this case would lose all reason to exist in Honduras,” she said in a Spanish statement broadcast on national television.

The US military presence in Honduras, while focused on Soto Cano Airbase, is part of broader operations in Central America that include smaller bases in El Salvador.

Soto Cano, which became operational in the 1980s to combat perceived communist threats in the region, hosts more than 1,000 US military and civilian personnel. It is also one of the few locations capable of landing large planes between the US and Colombia, apart from Guantanamo.

The base serves as a key launching point for the rapid deployment of US forces in the region, including for providing disaster relief and administering aid, and for counter-narcotics operations.