Word: salvador
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...wars in Central America have never had much in common except for the angst they give the U.S. And so it was not really surprising that the same week that saw a daunting shift to the right in El Salvador also brought forth the first bipartisan U.S. policy toward Nicaragua this decade. The Bush Administration seems unsure how to manage the collapse of the long U.S. effort to build a strong centrist government in El Salvador. But it has accomplished a sharp break with the Reaganite past in cementing an accord with the Democratic Congress to wind down the futile...
...Salvador, Alfredo Cristiani, candidate of the Nationalist Republican Alliance (ARENA) party, left all rivals for the country's presidency far behind by polling an outright majority, 54% of the estimated 1 million ballots cast. Cristiani's victory, however, was muted by a voter turnout of only about 50%. The high rate of abstentions translated in part to support for the boycotting Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (F.M.L.N.), the Marxist guerrilla force that has battled for power for the past nine years...
...other big loser was the U.S., which has given its public support and $1.5 million a day in aid to Duarte since 1984, when his election inspired hope that the war might end. Washington desperately wanted to build the Christian Democrats into El Salvador's bulwark against the political extremes, both the Communist insurgents and ARENA, the paramilitary organization turned political party that has been closely linked to death squads responsible for thousands of political murders. But the well-intended Duarte failed either to negotiate a peace or restore his country's shattered economy; his government was widely despised...
...Salvador's election, while fairer than some previous exercises, was nonetheless seriously flawed. Election-related violence took the lives of at least 30 civilians, including three journalists, two of them killed by army troops. Guerrilla forces effectively paralyzed public transportation and staged several attacks in outlying towns. The vote was thus held down not only by sympathy with the F.M.L.N. but also by fear...
...past masters of the technique, the Viet Cong had a term for it: Danh va dam, dam va danh -- fighting and talking, talking and fighting. By adopting that pattern of feints and jabs, the P.L.O. in the Middle East, the Sandinistas in Nicaragua and the Marxist guerrillas in El Salvador have managed to keep Washington's foreign policy off-balance and on the defensive. Only now is the Bush Administration beginning to make moves that may allow it to capture some momentum...