Historical Dictionary of Terrorism Third Edition

438 • MORAZANISTSearly 1980s, the success of U.S.-trained Honduran counterinsurgencyforces led many leftist survivors of those groups to conclude that theU.S. presence in Honduras would first have to be driven out beforeany revolution could succeed. Those groups and the FPM also enjoyedCuban support and that of the former Sandinista governmentof Nicaragua. Given this state support and the use of Honduras as astaging area for contra forces fighting the Nicaraguan government,the FPM decided to concentrate on attacking U.S. advisers and militarysupport personnel in Honduras.On 8 August 1987 the FPM bombed a restaurant in Comayagua,north of Tegucigalpa, wounding five U.S. soldiers and six Honduransoldiers. On 17 July 1988 the FPM made a machine-gun andgrenade attack on U.S. soldiers leaving a discothèque in San PedroSula, wounding four of the nine soldiers, who were part of a jointU.S.-Honduran task force stationed at the Honduran air force basein Palmerola. On 19 December 1988 the FPM claimed credit forbombing a Peace Corps office. In 1989 there were three other similarattacks on U.S. servicemen, including a 13 July 1989 bombing attackon nine U.S. Army military policemen outside the Lido Discothèquein the northern coastal city of La Ceiba. On 31 March 1990, threeFPM snipers opened fire with automatic weapons on a U.S. AirForce bus en route from the coastal city of Tela to an inland militarybase, wounding six soldiers. On 23 June 1991 the FPM launchedan antitank rocket at the United Nations Observer Group office inTegucipalga, causing damages. On 4 July 1994 a bombing near aU.S. military installation killed six Hondurans and injured 25 others.While a communiqué originally claimed this was done by the FPM,another FPM message disclaimed responsibility. The last FPM attackwas a bombing on 5 April 1995 of an office housing several foreignpress agencies in which no harm was done. Despite the group’s effectivenessin making so many attacks and wounding so many U.S.and Honduran military personnel, it appeared to be a small group.The FMLH carried out only one terrorist attack on 9 March 1985,a bombing of the Le Volcanique disco in Tegucipalga frequentedby off-duty U.S. soldiers, which injured two people but killed noone. In 1992 the FMLH had began to reorganize itself as a politicalparty, calling itself the Partido Morazanísta de Liberación Nacional(Morazanist National Liberation Party). On 29 September 1992 theMorazanist National Liberation Party merged with three other left-