The Honduran newspaper El Tiempo reported yesterday that four people were killed and another four injured in the municipality of Ahuas (Gracias a Dios) during a attack on a boat navigating along the Patuca River on Friday near a place called Paplaya. The deceased victims included two young men, Emerson Martínez and Chalo Brock Wood, and two women, Candelaria Tratt Nelson and Juana Banegas -- both of whom were pregnant. According to Congressman Wood Grawell Maylo of the department of Gracias a Dios and the Mayor of Ahuas, Lucio Baquedano, the attack was carried out in the early morning by a helicopter unit consisting of Honduran police and members of the United Stated Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). They said that the unit mistook the targeted boat for another boat that was being used by drug traffickers.

El Tiempo reported that the two boats had passed each other in the early morning at about the time that the motorboat with the drug traffickers was being pursued by the helicopter. Mr. Baquedano said, "The boat with the narcos did not have a light, while the one with the passengers did have a light... which made it a visible target for the agents who were firing from the helicopter." He said that the drug traffickers abandoned their boat and escaped up the coast in the direction of El Patuca.

Referring to the helicopter unit, Mr. Baquedano emphasized, "These operatives acted in an irresponsible manner. You assume that the people who participated are specialists who are going to take action against the narcotraffickers and not against innocent persons." (...)

U.S. government officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because their statements had not been authorized, said Honduran law enforcement did not initiate the shooting, but rather returned fire after being attacked. The officials said the DEA agents did not fire.

When asked about the shooting, U.S. Embassy official Matthias Mitman in Tegucigalpa provided a written statement saying that “the U.S. assisted Honduran forces with logistical support in this operation” as part of efforts to fight narcotics trafficking.

The shooting took place on the Patuca River in northeastern Honduras in a region known as Gracias a Dios. National newspapers in Honduras quoted local officials as saying the victims were diving for lobster and shellfish.

The State Department says 79 percent of all cocaine smuggling flights leaving South America first land in Honduras, and the U.S .has been working with the Honduran military to stop the drug dealers.

...Initially, a Honduran official told reporters that two traffickers were believed to have been killed in the gunbattle. But local leaders offered a conflicting account, saying that the helicopter had pursued a boat with traffickers but mistakenly opened fire on a different boat carrying people who were out fishing. They said four people were killed, including two pregnant women.

The US official briefed on the matter expressed doubts that villagers would be out fishing in the middle of the night, near where helicopters carrying armed police had landed nearly an hour earlier. The large number of people unloading the plane in the video, the official said, was evidence that many members of the impoverished community of Ahuas were involved in lucrative narcotics trafficking.

“There is nothing in the local village that was unknown, a surprise, or a mystery about this,’’ the official said. “What happened was that, for the first time in the history of Ahuas, Honduran law enforcement interfered with narcotics smuggling.’’

But that explanation is unlikely to calm angry villagers in the region. Leaders of the Masta, Diunat, Rayaka, Batiasta, and Bamiasta ethnic groups said in a statement that “the people in that canoe were fishermen, not drug traffickers.’’

“For centuries we have been a peaceful people who live in harmony with nature, but today we declared these Americans to be persona non grata in our territory,’’ the statement continued....

...The commandos who came off the helicopter handcuffed him, Celin said, and put a gun to his head. Some spoke to him in English, which he also speaks.

"If you don't talk we'll kill you," the boy said he was told. "Where is El Renco? Where is the merchandise?"

He said they made him walk along the river bank with them to find the boat with the bundles. Then they left him, handcuffed. He found a neighbor who broke the plastic handcuffs with a machete and saved them to prove to authorities that he had been detained by commandos....