Ex-Military Chief of Honduras Sentenced
The former chief of staff of the Honduran armed forces was sentenced Wednesday to five years in prison for assisting in a plot to assassinate the former president of Honduras.
Jose Bueso Rosa, 49, had pleaded guilty to two counts of traveling in furtherance of a conspiracy to kill then-President Roberto Suazo Cordova in late 1984.
Two other men have been convicted of racketeering conspiracy and another defendant is awaiting trial. They were accused in a separate indictment of plotting the overthrow and financing it in part with drug-smuggling profits.
Suazo decided not to seek reelection and left office in January.
U.S. District Judge Sidney Aronovitz’s order would allow Bueso to be released at any time by federal parole officials without serving a minimum sentence.
After the plot was exposed and indictments were returned, Bueso surrendered in Miami under an agreement with government attorneys that he would be released on bond.
He was allowed to remain free pending his surrender Sept. 25 at a prison to be designated later.
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