The Entire Honduran Government

From 1978-1982 the dictatorial regime was headed by yet another School of Americas grad, Policarpo Paz Garcia, who intensified repression by Battalion 3-16, one of the most feared death squads in the Americas. General Humberto Regalado Hernandez, who was inducted into the School Of Americas' Hall of Fame, was a four-time graduate.  As head of the armed forces, he refused to take action against soldiers involved in the Battalion 3-16 death squad. In 1981 the DEA set up its first office in Tegucigalpa, the Honduran capital, and assigned Thomas Zepeda as the resident agent. Zepeda rapidly came to the accurate conclusion that the entire Honduran government was deeply involved in the drug trade. His attempts to investigate top Honduran officials whom he believed were on Matta's drug payroll were thwarted by the CIA. We know this because Zepeda was quoted as saying as much in a good story in the Los Angeles Times on February 13, 1988. In May 1983, Zepeda opened an investigation into SETCO. A month later the probe was cut off, Zepeda was pulled out of Honduras, and the DEA's Honduran station was shut down. The man responsible for this retreat was Ed Heath, the DEA's head of Latin American operations, resident in Mexico City and suspected by many DEA agents of being too cozy with the CIA. Former DEA agent Michael Levine described Heath as being "a man so mistrusted by the street agents working for him in Mexico that they conducted enforcement operations without informing him." In 1985, the GAO was requested to explore the reasons why the DEA shut down the Honduran office. This investigation was also quashed by the NSC and CIA.