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- WORLD, Page 31World NotesEL SALVADORAn End to the Bloodletting?
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- A crackle of gunfire from the Guazapa volcano in El
- Salvador's heartland cut through the din of New Year's Eve
- revelry. But the bursts were not the usual barrage of death.
- Instead, rebels of the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front
- were sending up a celebratory salvo on learning that their
- negotiators had at last arrived at a peace accord with the
- conservative government of President Alfredo Cristiani.
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- If all goes according to plan, a Feb. 1 cease-fire will
- end the 12-year civil war that has claimed 75,000 lives and
- made El Salvador a synonym for bloodshed and human-rights
- abuses. Once disarmed, the rebels plan to form a political
- party, while the government will slash its armed forces from
- 56,000 to about 20,000.
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- The document signed at the United Nations is essentially
- an agreement to keep talking to settle the final terms for
- peace. Negotiators must still decide when to implement each step
- of the plan.
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