Honduras names new police chief

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras – A presidential spokesman says Honduras' police chief has been replaced after little more than six months on the job.

Assistant Communications Minister Mario Mejia Alas says Ricardo Ramirez del Cid was replaced late Monday. The new chief is Juan Carlos Bonilla Valladares, known as "El Tigre" or "The Tiger."

Ramirez was appointed in November during a scandal over possible National Police involvement in the killing of the son of the head of Honduras' National Autonomous University. He was dismissed amid another controversy over possible police involvement in the killing of one of Honduras best-known journalists, Alfredo Villatoro.

Villatoro was an adviser to President Porfirio Lobo and was abducted May 9. He showed up dead six days later.

Mejia Alas said Tuesday he did not know the reason for the change.