TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras -- (AP) -- The Honduran government announced
 Thursday that it was investigating four generals for allegedly diverting $100 million
 from military budgets during a 14-year period.

 The investigation involves Gens. Humberto Regalado Hernandez, Anulfo Cantarero
 Lopez, Luis Alonso Discua Elvir and Mario Hung Pacheco, each of whom acted
 as commander-in-chief of the armed forces at different times between 1985 and
 1999.

 Honduran Controller General Vera Rubi said in a news conference that the results
 of the investigation should be released soon.

 The annual budget for the Honduran military is about $55 million. Between 1980
 and 1989, however, the armed forces received more than $1 billion from the United
 States to arm and finance the activities of about 14,000 Nicaraguan ``contra''
 rebels and their families who established camps on the Honduran side of the
 border.

 The ``contras'' were demobilized and repatriated in April 1990.

 A preliminary investigation has revealed that about $100 million cannot be
 accounted for during the 14-year period from 1985-99, Rubi said.

 Regalado Hernandez was chief of the armed forces from 1986 to 1990. He was
 replaced by Cantarero Lopez, who was in power for only 11 months before being
 overthrown. Discua Elvir was in charge from 1990 to 1995, when he became an
 alternate ambassador at the United Nations. Pacheco was the last
 commander-in-chief, serving from 1995 to 1999, when control of the army was
 turned over to a civilian president.

 In January 1999, the Honduran government ended decades of military dominance
 by ratifying constitutional reforms that eliminate the position of
 commander-in-chief of the army and disbanded the Superior Council, the top
 military body.

 The current role of the armed forces is to fight drug and arms trafficking, terrorism,
 illiteracy and destruction of the environment.
 

                     Copyright 2000 Miami Herald