Campaign from the Patio

Like most Latin American revolutionary juntas, the team of army majors and lawyers that took charge of El Salvador after last year's uprising promised the country popular elections. Unlike some other rulers (notably Venezuela's and Peru's), the Salvadoran bosses kept their promise. This week, in its first democratic election in almost 20 years, the tiny republic voted for a new President and Congress. Though final results might not be known for a month, short, fat Major Oscar Osorio, 39, was almost certain to win the presidency. Osorio's middle-of-the-road Partido Revolucionario de Unificacion Democratica (PRUD) was likely to gain most of the congressional seats.

Osorio resigned as junta boss last October to run for elective office. Uncomfortable in civilian clothes, he campaigned from the patio of his cream-colored house in San Salvador, let others take the stump. Shrewd Politico Osorio figured there would not be much to argue about anyway, since coffee prices had soared high enough to please every planter, and the junta's friendliness toward unions had sewed up the workers' vote.

The only issue his opponents could dredge up was the old charge that Osorio, whose face resembles the broad, brown Indian features of ex-Dictator Maximiliano Martinez, is in fact Martinez' illegitimate son. In a country where little stigma is attached to bastardy, this campaign flopped dismally. Osorio denied the charge, explained good-humoredly: "All us Indians look alike."

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