Ex-Detective Slain in El Salvador; 3rd Death of Kidnap Suspect

A former police detective suspected of being a member of a kidnaping ring was killed by unidentified gunmen, Salvadoran officials said Tuesday.

The victim, Edgar Linares, is the third suspect in the widely publicized kidnaping case to die in unusual circumstances.

Officials said Linares was shot Sunday as he drove along a highway in the western province of Santa Ana. An anonymous telephone caller told a local newspaper that Linares was “machine-gunned because he belonged to a band of kidnapers the whole world knows.”

$3 Million in Ransom

Later, officials confirmed that the victim was Linares, who had been at large since the alleged ring was exposed last month.

The kidnaping ring, which is said to have included several military officers, abducted at least five wealthy Salvadorans for ransom totaling more than $3 million. The case has attracted attention throughout the country because, by tradition, the military has been immune from punishment in criminal cases.

One of the suspects in the case, Ramon Erasmo Oporto, was found hanged in his jail cell. Another suspect, Moises Lopez Arriola, was shot to death, allegedly by a night watchman who thought he was a burglar.

Links Are Unclear

A spokesman at the U.S. Embassy said U.S. officials do not have enough information to know whether the three deaths were linked or if they will hamper prosecution of other suspects in custody.

“The United States Embassy is disappointed that three figures who were suspects have met with violent deaths since the first arrests in the kidnaping case,” the spokesman said. “We feel they might very well have had valuable information that could have shed more light on the case. It is unfortunate that at least some information may be lost permanently.”

In Oporto’s case, police called the hanging a suicide, but several sources close to the investigation raised the possibility that Oporto “had some help.” They said he could have been an important witness because he allegedly guarded one of the houses where kidnap victims were held.

Kin of Lopez-Sibrian

Oporto was a brother-in-law of Lt. Rodolfo Lopez Sibrian, a National Guard intelligence officer who has been charged in the case. Lopez Sibrian was implicated in the 1981 slaying of two American labor advisers and a Salvadoran agrarian reform official. He has not been brought to trial despite the efforts of the U.S. Embassy.

Also charged and in custody are Lopez Sibrian’s father-in-law, businessman Orlando Llovera Ballete, and an army officer, Maj. Alfredo Jimenez Moreno.

Two more officers and another businessman suspected in the case fled the country and reportedly are in Brazil. They are Col. Joaquin Eduardo Zacapa, Lt. Carlos Zacapa, and Victor Antonio Cornejo Arango.

Two Others Sought

Police say they are looking for two others involved in the case.

In their testimony before a military court, Llovera and Lopez Sibrian accused Col. Mauricio Staben, commander of the U.S.-trained Arce battalion, of complicity in the ring.

Military officials detained Staben for a month, but he was returned to his post when officials decided there was not enough evidence to hold him. Some civilians close to the case complained that the military did not look hard enough for evidence against Staben.