CIA ROLE SEEN IN GENERAL'S FALL

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90B01390R000500590038-0
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 9, 2011
• Sequence Number: 38
• Publication Date: February 9, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/06/09: CIA-RDP90BO139OR000500590038-0
STAT
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/06/09: CIA-RDP90BO139OR000500590038-0
 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/06/09: CIA-RDP90BO139OR000500590038-0
~..~ WASHINGTON POST
9 February 1986
CIA Role Seen in General's Fall
Agency Said to Back Honduran 's Right. Ong Rivals
By Anne-Marie O'Connor
Rem
TEGUCIGALPA. Honduras, Feb. 8-The
U.S. Central Intelligence Agency played a deci-
sive part in events that led to the removal of
Honduras' armed forces commander in a military
.power struggle last week, according to Hondu-
ran military and foreign diplomatic sources.
Although it was not directly involved in the
departure of Gen. Walter Lopez Reyes, the CIA
backed a group of right-wing officers who pres-
sured him into resigning and sought to isolate a
group of junior officers who wanted Honduras to
take a more independent line from the United
States, they said.
Lopez Reyes said last week he was resigning
for personal reasons from the post of armed
forces commander, considered the most power-
ful position in Honduras.
Military sources said he quit because of a dis-
pute over the U.S.-backed Nicaraguan guerrillas
known as contras, or counterrevolutionaries,
operating from Honduras. They also said his in-
creasingly independent manner of making policy
decisions irritated fellow officers.
Lopez Reyes later said he had changed his
mind and wanted to stay, but the 48-member
Armed Forces Superior Council ignored this and
accepted his resignation Feb. 1. Col. Efrain Gon-
zalez has taken his place for the time being.
U.S. Embassy officials said they were unable
to comment on in a ence matters when ques-
tioned about the a e involvement in t
military upheaval. Embassy spokesman Arthur
Skop said it was an internal affair of the Hon-
duran military in which the United States was:
not involved. T
1 \ UA-spokeswoman in Washington said she:
would not comment "on allegations of agency ac-
tivities."
Honduras' armed forces, which control political:
power from behind the scenes, share Washing-
ton's view that Nicaragua is threatening stability
by trying to spread Marxist revolution in the re-.
gion.
But a younger group of nationalist officers,
ashamed of what they interpreted as Honduras',
blind subservience to U.S. interests, had begun-
to criticize their country's foreign policy, the
sources said.
They wanted Honduras to adopt a more inde
pendent line, restrict the activities of the contras'
and obtain more U.S. aid, the sources said.
The CIA sought to isolate this group of of &
cers, which it feared would disrupt American nol"
f y. Their leaders were purged from command
positions in December following a shake-up in
military ranks that strengthened their right-wing
rivals.
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/06/09: CIA-RDP90BO139OR000500590038-0