| Add them to the ReaganBush body count!
http://news.excite.com/news/ap/010831/13/int-honduras-us-bodies More Bodies Found at Contra Base TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (AP) - After days of intense digging, forensic researchers have uncovered the remains of 15 people in a former U.S. base used to train the Nicaraguan Contras in the 1980s. Working under the watchful eye of human rights groups and local prosecutors, the researchers began their search at El Aguacate air base on Monday and will continue digging for a total of 20 days, then will conduct laboratory analyses until the end of September. The federal prosecutor's office expects to find the remains of as many as 80 of 185 leftists who disappeared between 1979 and 1990. Human rights groups say some of the disappeared were tortured and buried at the base. The United States built El Aguacate in 1984 as a training center for the Contras, who were fighting the leftist Sandinista regime in neighboring Nicaragua during the 1980s. The base is located near the border of the two countries, about 80 miles east of Tegucigalpa. It was turned over to the Honduran military before being abandoned in 1994. Thus far, investigators have identified only one set of remains: those of Francisco Guzman, a member of the Contras who died when his plane was forced down by Sandinistas, according to his brother Dennis Manuel. Human rights groups have been urging officials to investigate at the site since 1994. They uncovered three bodies in 1999, but were forced to curtail their work after the government diverted money to Hurricane Mitch recovery efforts. Digging resumed Monday. The list of missing people includes 105 Hondurans, 39 Nicaraguans, 28 Salvadorans, five Costa Ricans, four Guatemalans, two U.S. citizens, an Ecuadorean and a Venezuelan. |
