The base is Honduran. Spanish Wikipedia lists it as a military-only base of the Fuerza Aérea Hondureña opened in 1981, where the Academia Militar de Aviación trains pilots on Embraer Tucanos and formerly on CASA C-101 Aviojets and Hughes TH-55 helicopters; English Wikipedia confirms the academy moved here from Toncontín, the capital’s cramped airport. Its name honours Colonel José Enrique Soto Cano, and many Hondurans still call it Palmerola, after the area.

The dates of its origin differ by source, and they are given here side by side: English Wikipedia’s base article says it became operational in 1940, Spanish Wikipedia says 1981, and the article on Palmerola International Airport says the United States built the air base in 1984–1985. The likeliest reading is an older airfield rebuilt in the 1980s, but no source checked says so directly.

Its single runway, 17/35, is about 2,440 metres long, at 628 metres above sea level, in a broad valley with easier approaches than Tegucigalpa’s Toncontín. The base covers roughly 3.2 by 9.7 kilometres, according to English Wikipedia.

Among the FAH’s four main bases it is the odd one out. Toncontín in Tegucigalpa, Ramón Villeda Morales at San Pedro Sula and Golosón at La Ceiba are all civil airports with a military side, while Spanish Wikipedia lists Soto Cano as the only military-only base — a status that changed in 2021, when a civil terminal opened on its runway. The FAH’s fighters, the four refurbished F-5s, are not here but at La Ceiba, according to Infodefensa.

According to English Wikipedia, the US Congress authorised a joint task force at Palmerola in 1983. First called Joint Task Force-11 and briefly Joint Task Force Alpha, it became Joint Task Force-Bravo under US Southern Command. Its early mission, the article says, was to counter Soviet influence in Central America, including training and advisory support for Honduran and Guatemalan forces and some indirect support for the Nicaraguan Contras. By 1987 it had more than 1,000 personnel.

As the regional wars ended its focus shifted to counter-narcotics and humanitarian work. English Wikipedia credits it with search and rescue and recovery after Hurricane Mitch in 1998, responses to Hurricanes Stan, Beta, Gamma, Dean and Felix in 2005–2007, relief teams for the 2007 Peru earthquake and rescue work after Hurricanes Eta and Iota in 2020. Today it comprises the 612th Air Base Squadron, an Army Forces battalion, Joint Security Forces, a Medical Element and the 1st Battalion, 228th Aviation Regiment.

The legal footing is unusual. English Wikipedia describes a handshake agreement, an annex to a 1954 military assistance agreement, that can be ended at short notice, because the Honduran constitution prohibits a permanent foreign military presence; the US Defense Department funds about 96 per cent of base operations. Estimates of US personnel range from 1,200–1,500 in the base article to about 1,800 in the airport article.

The base has repeatedly been part of Honduran politics. In 2008 President Manuel Zelaya announced plans to open it to commercial flights; English Wikipedia’s base article says the initiative was cancelled after his removal in June 2009, which the UN, the OAS and the EU condemned as a coup and which the Supreme Court said the armed forces had carried out to defend the rule of law. Plans stayed under evaluation for years.

They were realised in October 2021, when Palmerola International Airport opened on the base as the country’s new international gateway. English Wikipedia gives its cost as about US$163 million, financed by a private investor (US$87 million), Spain (US$53 million) and Honduras (US$23 million); by 15 December 2021 all international carriers had moved here from Toncontín.

Around the turn of 2025, according to English Wikipedia, President Xiomara Castro’s government threatened to expel US troops if the incoming Trump administration carried out mass deportations of Central Americans. The same source says the government of President Nasry Asfura, in office in 2026, has maintained a very close relationship with the United States. Neither government’s formal statement was checked directly.