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- WORLD, Page 59World NotesEL SALVADORAnother Stab At Peace
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- Talks between the Marxist rebels and the centrist
- government of former President Jose Napoleon Duarte went
- nowhere, largely because El Salvador's powerful conservatives
- and their military allies acted as a brake. But now that the
- right-wing government of Alfredo Cristiani is firmly in power,
- leaders of the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front
- (F.M.L.N.) seem to believe they can negotiate a settlement of
- the civil war that will stick. Dropping a list of preconditions,
- the F.M.L.N. agreed to resume talks this week in Mexico. The
- nine-year war has claimed some 70,000 lives, and the guerrillas
- long ago concluded they could not defeat the Salvadoran army and
- its U.S. backers.
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- What the F.M.L.N. wants is participation with security
- guarantees in future elections. The government will probably
- counter with an offer of amnesty for those who lay down their
- arms.
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- Whether this gap can be bridged is uncertain. To improve
- the atmosphere, the F.M.L.N. announced that it was suspending
- its use of land mines and economic sabotage.
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