Honduran Military Chief Withdraws Resignation Announcement

The chief of Honduras’ armed forces, Gen. Walter Lopez Reyes, on Friday withdrew his announcement of a day earlier that he intended to resign soon for personal reasons.

An official communique said that Lopez, 43, decided to reconsider “for the good of the country and the tranquility of the people.”

Lopez’s original announcement said that he was “extremely tired” and that he made the decision to resign “without pressures and without coercion of any kind.”

But after a meeting with newly inaugurated President Jose Azcona Hoyo and the 48-member armed forces Superior Council, he said, “I will continue in the job because that is my obligation, and because I have the support of my brothers-in-arms.”

He added: “Really, I am tired, but my tiredness is not physical, but mental. Despite that, I will continue in the job.”

Dispute Reported

Reuters news agency, citing unnamed senior military officials, had reported that Lopez’s real reason for announcing his intention to resign was a dispute with fellow officers of the Superior Council over aid to U.S.-backed Nicaraguan guerrillas operating from Honduras.

The aid is part of a $27-million U.S. package of non-lethal assistance to the guerrillas, known as contras, who are fighting to oust the leftist Sandinista government in Managua.

Last year, the former Honduran administration, pressing for more generous U.S. aid for itself, said it would no longer allow assistance for the contras to be routed through Honduras. But Lopez, Reuters quoted senior sources as saying, assured U.S. officials recently that the shipments would be resumed.

The sources, according to Reuters, said Lopez’s decision to quit was precipitated by complaints that he gave those assurances to the United States without first consulting the rest of the Superior Council.

“It was not exactly that they (the officers) were against him helping the contras,” Reuters quoted one officer as saying. “It’s that he took the decision without consulting the rest of the officers.”

Lopez, who took command of the armed forces April 4, 1984, said Friday that he will remain on the job until his term expires Jan. 27, 1987.