U.S. Envoy to Honduras Dismissed by Reagan

President Reagan has abruptly fired his ambassador to Honduras, John A. Ferch, after less than a year in the job, officials said Monday.

Administration officials said Secretary of State George P. Shultz and other Reagan aides decided that Ferch, a career Foreign Service officer, was not the right “field commander” to take charge of the U.S. role in the widening rebel war against Nicaragua, which will be administered largely from the embassy in Tegucigalpa.

“The Hondurans didn’t like him, and the contras didn’t like him,” a State Department official said. No successor has been named.

A State Department spokeswoman, Sondra McCarty, confirmed that Ferch was being “reassigned” but said she did not know whether a new job has been found for him.

Bilateral Ties Unaffected

“The change does not reflect political differences, for there are none, nor any disruption of our close bilateral relationship with Honduras, which continues to be excellent,” she said.

McCarty said Ferch would leave Tegucigalpa some time this summer.

The House approved $100 million last week in U.S. aid to the contras, as the rebels are known. The Senate had given its approval earlier but must vote again on the measure because of changes made by the House. The money is to pay for weapons, supplies and training for the rebels, most of whom are based in Honduras near Nicaragua’s northern border.

In addition, officials said, the CIA is planning to expand its operations in support of the rebels, now that Congress has dropped most restrictions on such involvement.

Embassy’s Role

The U.S. Embassy in Tegucigalpa has played a key role in winning cooperation from Honduran officials for the guerrilla war, but Ferch, who became ambassador last July 19, has found that job difficult, officials said.

One reason, they said, is that some Honduran officials and a few officers in the armed forces are still reluctant to commit their country entirely to supporting the war against Nicaragua’s leftist Sandinista regime.

As a result, the Hondurans have insisted on keeping their involvement in the war officially secret, even though officials have acknowledged that Honduras is the major rebel base.

Last October, the government of then-president Roberto Suazo Cordova blocked all shipments of U.S. aid to the contras, because Suazo hoped to pressure the United States into supporting him for reelection and other officials hoped that the pressure would lead to more aid for Honduras.

In the end, Suazo did not run. But the Administration agreed to increase its aid, and the new government of President Jose Azcona Hoyo lifted the ban.