Editing Gustavo Álvarez Martínez (section)

===Battalion 3-16===
Álvarez Martínez is credited with creating the 3-16 Battalion, a branch of the army accused of serving as a [[death squad]], in order to combat the spread of communism in Central America and anti-government rebel forces. , including the FSLN (Sandinista National Liberation Front) of Nicaragua and the FMLN (Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front) in El Salvador and Guatemala, who helped in one way or another the minority Honduran guerrillas, including the López Zelaya Popular Revolutionary Front and the Francisco Morazán Revolutionary Movement, mostly made up of peasants and students.

When the recruitment of Battalion 3-16 began, 25 Honduran recruits were chosen, who received covert intelligence training in an unidentified location in the southwestern United States of America. There they received instruction in interrogation techniques and supervision, given by American instructors. These men returned to Honduras to work in the 3-16 Battalion, and continued their training with the advice of Argentine and North American instructors. [[Battalion 316|Battalion 3-16]] used a ''modus operandi'' that resembled the tactics of the death squads in Argentina. The Honduran officers who participated in Battalion 3-16 not only received extensive US military training, they were also hard-line officers who shared the US geopolitical vision. Honduran country was integrated into a hemispheric military apparatus controlled by the United States.