Salvador Cleric Sees Death Squad Threat

The Roman Catholic archbishop of San Salvador said Sunday he is worried about a resumption of activities by right-wing death squads and has asked President Jose Napoleon Duarte to intervene.

In a homily at the Metropolitan Cathedral, Archbishop Arturo Rivera y Damas said “there are a series of circumstances that leads us to presume” that in at least one death, “members of the Tresury Police are implicated. . . .”

Rivera said he was referring to the killing Friday night of Miguel Angel del Transito Ortiz, a watchman at the House of God Convent in the town of Soyapango.

He also quoted the church’s Legal Aid Office as reporting that five other people were slain recently and said “this leads us to believe the death squads are returning.”