Ex-Army Chief Arrested in Plot to Kill President of Honduras

The former chief of staff of the Honduran Army was arrested Wednesday on charges he hired a hit squad to assassinate the Central American country’s president in an attempt to overthrow the government, the FBI said.

Gen. Jose A. Bueso Rosa was arrested as he arrived at Miami International Airport from Santiago, Chile, FBI spokesman Paul Miller said.

Bueso, 48, was indicted by a federal grand jury in Miami on charges of racketeering, murder-for-hire and conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire in an unsuccessful plot to assassinate Honduran President Roberto Suazo Cordoba.

Three Others Charged

Three men arrested in Miami in November, 1984, also have been charged with plotting to assassinate Suazo. One of the men has pleaded guilty to racketeering and conspiracy, and the trials of the other two are pending.

According to federal agents, the men hired a team of people, including a man who turned out to be an undercover FBI agent, to carry out the assassination. They had allegedly agreed to pay the hit man $300,000 and give him 10 kilos of cocaine.

The plot was to have been financed with proceeds from the sale of about 345 kilos of cocaine, which had been shipped to Florida, authorities have said.

Bueso, who was serving as a military attache in the Honduran Embassy in Chile when the Florida arrests were made in November, faces up to 15 years in prison and a $20,000 fine if convicted.

He will be arraigned Friday in U.S. District Court here, Miller said.