The US suspended radar information cooperation with Honduras in 2014 after the Honduran Congress passed a law that authorised its air force to shoot down aircraft suspected of transporting drugs.

Honduras shot down two suspected drug-running planes in 2012, and in response, the US suspended cooperation, arguing it violated a bilateral agreement prohibiting attacks on civilian aircraft.

The head of the joint chiefs of staff of the Honduran Armed Forces, vice-admiral Jose Fortin, posted on Twitter a letter from the US embassy in Honduras indicating that the State Department had lifted restrictions to “allow the US government to resume the exchange of real-time air tracking data with Honduras.”

“Honduras has demonstrated that it can employ adequate security procedures,” the embassy said in the letter, addressed to defence minister Jose Manuel Zelaya.

The embassy did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Zelaya said in a post on Twitter that the policy change was a “clear sign of President Xiomara Castro’s commitment in the fight against drug trafficking and in the security of the region.”

Honduran lawmakers passed reforms in 2020 preventing aircraft from being shot down if there are indications that people who are not participating in illicit drug trafficking are on board.

Honduras, an important leg in the smuggling of cocaine from South America to the US, seized 7,134kg of cocaine in 2022 after seizing 17,832kg in 2021, according to information from military authorities.