According to a report which appeared in page 7 of the Central America NewsPak of 18 June-1 July 1990 (attached) originating from a Honduran News Service (SHN) cable published by the Mexican newspaper Excelsior on 21 June 1990, desertion is a punishable crime in Honduras.

In a telephone conversation with the IRBDC on 17 July 1990, the Central America Resource Centre of Austin, Texas (publishers of the Central America NewsPak) stated that according to a recent report whose date was not provided a youth had been accidentally shot by the army during a search for deserters. According to the quoted report, the search apparently had the purpose of arresting the deserters.

The Embassy of Honduras in Ottawa provided in a telephone conversation with the IRBDC on 17 July 1990 the information in the following paragraph. However, the source stated that this information should be considered unofficial as it corresponds to the information immediately available to it at the time of the conversation. The Embassy of Honduras has offered to research its legal holdings and other sources. A written request for an official response on the subject has been submitted to the Embassy and as soon as a response is received by the IRBDC, it will be forwarded to you.

According to the Embassy of Honduras in Ottawa the maximum penalty usually imposed on deserters is detention inside their own military unit for an unspecified period of time. If the deserter has committed other crimes, he will be forwarded to a military tribunal and after his trial, if found guilty, he will be taken to a penitentiary. While under arrest in his military unit, the deserter's reasons for escaping service would be briefly investigated. The Embassy added that deserters are usually released after a short period of time and not expected to continue serving, possibly because they may not be considered very reliable and holding them indefinitely would represent an unnecessary expense.

Additional and/or corroborating information on the requested subject could not be found among the sources currently available to the IRBDC. As stated above, official or other new information on the subject will be forwarded to you upon arrival to the IRBDC.