National Assemblyman Slain in El Salvador

An El Salvador assemblyman who was a close friend of President Jose Napoleon Duarte was shot to death Friday in what the leader of the country’s ruling party called “a political assassination.”

Three gunmen sprayed Jesus D. Ortiz, 54, with machine-gun fire as he was getting into his car in an eastern suburb of this capital. Passers-by took the him to a hospital where he died in the emergency room.

Ortiz’s driver and another person were wounded in the attack, authorities said. No group or individual immediately claimed responsibility for the assault.

Ortiz was a National Assembly deputy and one of the leaders of Duarte’s Christian Democratic Party.

Assembly President Guillermo Guevara Lacayo said the slaying was politically motivated.

“This was a political crime, a political assassination,” he said. “This crime demonstrates that there are sectors that believe the solution to our problems lies in hatred, blood and violence.” Deputy Interior Minister Dolores Enriquez also condemned the slaying.

Ortiz was the seventh legislator killed since 1983. The other six were members of rightist opposition parties.

Ortiz had been scheduled to travel to Guatemala City this weekend to help plan the establishment of a Central American Parliament, a Christian Democratic spokesman said.