A bit of background on the Palmerola civilian international airport / US military base

As Nikolas Kozloff described in the wake of the 2009 coup:

Prior to the recent military coup d’etat President Manuel Zelaya declared that he would turn the base into a civilian airport, a move opposed by the former U.S. ambassador. What’s more Zelaya intended to carry out his project with Venezuelan financing.

…A couple weeks after Zelaya announced that the armed forces would proceed with construction at Palmerola the military rebelled. Led by Romeo Vásquez, the army overthrew Zelaya and deported him out of the country.

So now the coup-legacy government is going to proceed with the construction with funding from the rightwing Spanish government and continuing US military control. This (Soto Cano) is the same base, you might recall, that was used to fly the democratically elected Honduran president out of the country after he was kidnapped from his residence in his pajamas.