Backyard Base

Temistocles Ramirez de Arellano, 53, a wealthy U.S. citizen, cattle rancher and landowner in Honduras, thought he was doing the patriotic thing. In return for "fair compensation," he agreed on June 4 to turn over up to 2,000 acres of his 14,000-acre ranch, near Puerto Castilla, Honduras, to Honduran military officials so that U.S. military advisers could set up a base for training Salvadoran troops. Later that day, the U.S. embassy informed him that the agreement was not valid. On June 6, bulldozers showed up anyway.

Since then, Ramirez says, the U.S. military has taken over an additional 5,400 acres of his ranch without paying him anything. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and construction crews from Litton Industries have built an ammunition dump, a mortar range for test firing and a 1,000-man tent camp on his land for the Salvadorans. Ramirez says U.S. Army personnel have twice opened valves to his water lines, causing his meat-packing plant to remain idle for two days because of inadequate water pressure. Green Berets visiting the ammunition dump have left open the cattle gate, allowing the animals to roam onto a main road. He claims the presence of more than 1,000 armed soldiers has disrupted work at the ranch and intimidated employees and their families, some 1,500 people in all. Most worrisome of all, he says, the appropriation of his property "makes me and my family potential targets for retaliation by anti-American groups."

Ramirez filed suit on July 13 in federal district court in Washington against Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger, Secretary of State George Shultz and the chief of engineers of the Army Corps of Engineers, charging all three with illegally seizing much of his sprawling ranch. Ramirez wants all military activity restricted to the agreed-upon 2,000 acres. Says the beleaguered landowner: "The takeover of my land has already put my future business projects in jeopardy. I cannot go forward without some binding assurance that my entire property will not be taken over by the United States military."

At the core of the dispute is a question of jurisdiction. Ramirez says the U.S. is responsible because the training center "was proposed. . . . and is financed, directly or indirectly, by the United States." The U.S. argues that Honduras controls the training center, and that Ramirez's claims should be settled in a Honduran court. Said one U.S. attorney: "The regional military training facility is a Honduran facility. We are there by their invitation." Following a two-hour hearing last Tuesday, U.S. District Court Judge Charles R. Richey indicated that he would not make a ruling until this week at the earliest. Says Ramirez: "I just want U.S. officials to have a conscience about this whole thing." This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.