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Honduras is reviving its longstanding military relationship with Israel after a period of strained political ties during the assault on Gaza. Tegucigalpa is seeking to modernise its air and naval capabilities and strengthen surveillance of its borders, coastlines and routes used by drug traffickers and organised crime groups.
Those needs align with an Israeli push to expand markets for its military industries and repair political ties damaged in parts of Latin America since October 2023.
Honduran Defence Minister Enrique Rodríguez Burchard and his Israeli counterpart, Israel Katz, signed a long-term memorandum of understanding on 16 August 2026 during a visit by a delegation that also included the Honduran security minister and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The memorandum provides for exchanges of expertise and defence and industrial cooperation, following briefings for the delegation on what the Israeli military establishment calls “operational lessons” from the war on multiple fronts.
The new agreement brings together three longstanding priorities: Honduras’s need to modernise its ageing military and security systems, and the Israeli government’s search for both a market and a political partner in Central America.
Israeli military industries have a long history in Central America, beginning with aircraft, rifles and training during the civil wars and counterinsurgency campaigns. Their reach has since expanded to drones, radars, communications, surveillance and cybersecurity.
What do both sides want from closer relations?
The military agreement followed a rapid political shift in Tegucigalpa. On 3 November 2023, the government of former President Xiomara Castro recalled its ambassador, Roberto Martínez, for consultations over the humanitarian situation in Gaza. Throughout 2024, it continued to call for a ceasefire.
Diplomatic relations remained intact, but political trust declined. Tensions continued into 2025, when the Honduran foreign ministry protested against Israeli Ambassador Nadav Goren’s participation in a local evangelical event, considering it interference in internal affairs.
The relationship changed course immediately after Nasry Asfura was elected. Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar spoke to him on the day of his victory. Asfura then visited occupied Jerusalem on 18 January 2026, before taking office, and met Israeli President Isaac Herzog and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Herzog praised Honduras for keeping its embassy in Jerusalem, while Netanyahu spoke of restoring the relationship to what he called its “traditional lines of friendship.”
After his inauguration on 27 January, Asfura made receiving the Israeli ambassador’s credentials his first official act. He met Herzog again in May, and Honduras’s new ambassador, José Luis Núñez Bennett, presented his credentials on 3 August, less than two weeks before the defence memorandum was signed.
The Honduran embassy in occupied Jerusalem has particular political value for the Israeli government, which has consistently celebrated the transfer of diplomatic missions to the city as part of its effort to secure recognition of its claim to Jerusalem as its capital.
International law places the issue in a different context. In August 1980, the UN Security Council decided not to recognise Israeli measures aimed at changing Jerusalem’s character and status, and called on countries with diplomatic missions there to withdraw them. The International Court of Justice also addressed East Jerusalem in its advisory opinion of 19 July 2024, considering it part of the occupied Palestinian territory.
Honduras’s military priorities reflect the extent of its maritime domain and the need to monitor borders and smuggling routes. Defence Minister Rodríguez Burchard said in July 2026 that his country was required to monitor about 270,000 square kilometres of maritime space, more than twice its land area. He proposed drones as one of the lower-cost ways to monitor those waters and combat drug trafficking.
The defence ministry’s 2025 plan included restoring military communications systems, purchasing a digital radio system, strengthening coastal surveillance, maintaining equipment on a maritime patrol vessel and acquiring drones for reconnaissance over territorial waters and coastlines.
Israel already has a basis for meeting these needs. In 2016, the two sides concluded a 10-year agreement worth about $209.1 million, including nearly $160.2 million for the armed forces and $49 million for a security and cyber programme.
An investigation published by the Honduran newspaper El Heraldo on 9 May 2022, based on defence ministry documents, revealed that implementation had focused on a maritime patrol vessel, drones and a command and communications system. Other elements stalled, including upgrades to F-5 and A-37 fighter jets, because of issues involving US permits and components.
Israeli companies therefore already have equipment and networks in place within the Honduran forces. Israel Shipyards, which specialises in building military and commercial vessels, delivered an OPV-62 patrol vessel, while communications equipment and drones from Elbit Systems entered service.
Honduras also uses radars from Elta Systems, a subsidiary of Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI), which operates in aviation, missiles, radars and military systems.
For Israel, the agreement brings economic and political gains. Israeli arms and military systems exports totalled about $19.2 billion in 2025, the highest figure on record and an increase of nearly 30 per cent in a year. Direct government-to-government deals approached $10 billion, according to a report by the Israeli defence ministry.
The ministry says expanding these exports is part of a strategy to open new markets, support military industries, provide additional resources to strengthen the Israeli army and serve foreign policy goals.
The ministry itself links this surge to the war. It says military industries have been operating around the clock since 7 October 2023 to supply the army while fulfilling contracts for foreign clients. It also links rising demand to what it described as “operational achievements” and the performance of Israeli systems that are “battle-tested.”
There is also a diplomatic gain: the Israeli defence ministry described Honduras as an important partner in Central America with a history of supporting Israel in international institutions.
Some of these positions shifted during Castro’s tenure, including Honduras’s vote on 18 September 2024 in favour of the UN General Assembly resolution on ending the illegal Israeli presence in the occupied Palestinian territory. It is still too early to judge Honduras’s voting pattern under Asfura, given how recently he took office.
How did Israeli arms spread across Central America?
Israeli weapons made significant inroads into Central America during the 1970s and 1980s, a period marked by civil wars and military campaigns against insurgent and opposition movements, as well as US restrictions on some governments over human rights.
US State Department documents show that Jimmy Carter’s administration made human rights records a factor in aid and arms sales, and that restrictions and tensions with some regimes created openings for other suppliers, with Israel among the most prominent.
In 1976, Israel sold Honduras French-made Dassault Super Mystère aircraft that had previously served in the Israeli Air Force. Galil rifles also entered service with Honduran forces. Talks over Kfir fighter jets took place in the early 1980s, but the aircraft’s US-made engine made the deal subject to Washington’s approval.
During former Israeli Defence Minister Ariel Sharon’s visit to Honduras in 1982, talks expanded to cover aircraft, training and equipment, cementing a relationship that combined arms supplies with military support and advice.
In Guatemala, Israel’s role was broader. The military relationship deepened during the internal war and included Arava aircraft, Galil rifles, Uzi submachine guns, RBY vehicles, Dvora patrol boats and communications equipment, as well as training and advice in counterinsurgency and intelligence.
The US-based Middle East Research and Information Project documented this presence as part of the close relationship between Guatemala’s military establishment and Israel during that period.
The significance of this role becomes clearer when set against the record of the army that received those weapons and expertise. In its 1999 report, “Guatemala: Memory of Silence,” the Historical Clarification Commission attributed 93 per cent of documented violations to state forces and paramilitary groups linked to them.
It concluded that state forces committed acts of genocide against groups of the Maya people between 1981 and 1983, years in which Israeli weapons and training formed part of the Guatemalan army’s capabilities.
El Salvador’s purchases from Israel during the 1970s included Arava transport aircraft and 18 Dassault Ouragan fighter jets, as well as small arms and training.
Historical studies indicate that Israel became one of the main suppliers as US aid channels faltered. San Salvador received $21 million in Israeli arms credit in 1981.
These studies also documented the presence of Israeli trainers and advisers. The then-commander of the Salvadoran Air Force, Juan Rafael Bustillo, acknowledged the use of napalm, purchased from Israel until 1981, during the civil war and large-scale operations by the army and security forces.
In Nicaragua, Israel became one of the regime’s most important arms suppliers during the final years of Anastasio Somoza’s rule, as other supply channels narrowed. US documents from 1978 and 1979 show that the Carter administration monitored the continued flow of Israeli weapons to the National Guard and discussed pressuring the Israeli government to stop it. The regime was then facing a broad uprising that ended with Somoza’s fall in July 1979.
That history created a network of relationships that endured after the civil wars ended, even as governments’ equipment needs changed. Attack aircraft, rifles and vehicles became less prominent as governments sought radars, drones, border and coastal surveillance, digital communications, command centres and cybersecurity. These have become a core part of Israeli companies’ exports.
What follows the agreement with Honduras?
The August agreement’s real value will become clear when it leads to contracts. Drones are the first obvious test, as Elbit already has a track record in the country through its Skylark 3 systems.
In June 2026, after talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Asfura announced that Honduras was exploring the acquisition of Ukrainian drones to protect its borders and combat organised crime, leaving procurement open to competition among suppliers.
Radars, communications and command-and-control systems also appear to be likely areas for cooperation, alongside publicly announced Honduran plans to develop coastal radar and military communications networks.
An official navy webpage refers to the “future acquisition” of an additional vessel from Israel Shipyards, without specifying a tender, price or timetable. Cybersecurity was part of the 2016 agreement, although the new memorandum did not announce a specific project in that area.
Guatemala offers a clearer picture of how defence cooperation memorandums can pave the way for Israeli companies. In April 2023, Guatemala and Israel signed a 10-year memorandum on industrial and technological cooperation in the military sector.
About two years later, the memorandum served as the basis for direct procurement, according to an investigation published by the Guatemalan platform “EP Investiga” on 16 June 2025. Four purchases totalled about 79.3 million quetzals, or roughly $10.3 million, and were made under government cooperation arrangements with Israel.
Elbit received three contracts covering about 1.376 million rounds of 5.56×45 mm ammunition, 598,500 rounds of 7.62×51 mm ammunition and 50 “XACT nv 36” night-vision scopes, as well as a military communications package that includes devices from the “E-LynX” family.
The Israeli company Marom-Dolphin, which produces tactical equipment and protective gear, received a contract for helmets, vests and other equipment. Guatemala’s defence ministry confirmed that the purchases were made under the government agreement with Israel. This currently makes Guatemala the clearest example of a cooperation memorandum leading to contracts for Israeli arms companies.
Beyond Guatemala and Honduras, evidence of military cooperation appears weaker and more uneven. In May 2026, Herzog visited Panama and Costa Rica. During the tour, he also met Asfura and Guatemalan President Bernardo Arévalo. He later said the region was moving towards deeper relations with Israel.
He agreed with Panama to expand cooperation in cybersecurity, among other areas. Costa Rican President Laura Fernández, meanwhile, expressed her country’s willingness to upgrade its representation in Jerusalem to an embassy. The Israeli government welcomed the proposed step as part of its efforts to bring more diplomatic missions to the city.
Nicaragua severed diplomatic relations with Israel in October 2024. Belize, a small Central American country, took a series of diplomatic measures in November 2023 in protest against the assault on Gaza, including withdrawing its approval of the Israeli ambassador’s accreditation and suspending the activities of honorary consulates between the two countries.
So far, the picture points to an Israeli drive to expand political, security and trade relations in parts of Central America. Direct evidence of military cooperation is concentrated in Guatemala, through executed contracts, and in Honduras, through a new memorandum awaiting implementation agreements.
Latin America remains a relatively small market for Israeli military industries, accounting for just 2 per cent of their exports in 2025. But Honduras’s importance also rests on its political relationship with Israel and the existing base of Israeli equipment on which further cooperation can build.
If Tegucigalpa’s requirements for drones, radars, communications, surveillance and cyber capabilities lead to contracts with Israeli companies, Honduras will become a second example, alongside Guatemala, demonstrating how government agreements can open new markets for these industries in Central America.