Brazen Murder

Leftist leadership murdered

The junta that took over El Salvador's government more than a year ago, ending the repressive reign of Dictator Carlos Humberto Romero, has proved powerless against the wave of terror loosed by both the left and the right. In what amounts to an undeclared civil war, 8,400 people have been killed in terrorist attacks so far this year. Last week brought one of the most barbaric acts yet. In broad daylight, as the six men who led the country's left conferred in the Jesuit San Jose high school on a busy street in San Salvador, rightists burst in, brazenly seized them, dragged them off and executed them. Hours later, their bullet-ridden bodies were found outside the city. The most prominent among them: millionaire Rancher Enrique Alvarez Cordova, a rightist turned leftist who headed the Democratic Revolutionary Front (FDR), a coalition of 48 leftist groups.

When the six were first abducted, the junta held true to its tepid style: it issued a perfunctory communique urging the terrorists to respect human rights, and did little else. After the bodies were found, the FDR reacted more angrily. From a haven in Mexico City it accused the junta of backing the killings as part of a "genocide policy." The murders seemed certain to provoke even more bloodletting as leftists exacted retribution. Said a U.S. diplomat in San Salvador: "I can't think of anything that could make this situation worse." The extermination of the left's leadership, in fact, was also a severe blow to any possible peacemaking, simply because there was now no one on the left with whom to discuss a possible end to the bloodshed.

Most Salvadore ans believe that the latest killings were somehow connected with an antileftist climate engendered by the Republican landslide in the U.S.

Reagan's election has in fact set the tone for a more vigorous anti-Communist thrust to ward off a revolution like the Sandinista takeover in neighboring Nicaragua, but it has not given rightists a license to hunt leftists, or to try to overthrow the junta.

In a meeting with a group of Reagan's aides last week, a delegation of middle-of-the-road Salvadoreans received assurances of increased U.S. military aid for counterinsurgency operations, but the Reagan team issued an accompanying warning against any notions about mounting a right-wing coup against the junta.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.