The World : Duarte Denies Amnesty to 3

Salvadoran President Jose Napoleon Duarte revoked a court order granting amnesty to three leftist rebels accused of killing 13 people, including four U.S. Marines and two American businessmen, in 1985, officials said. The decision followed pressure from U.S. officials, including threats to withhold $18.5 million in aid to El Salvador. The three rebels--William Celio Rivas Bolanos, Juan Miguel Garcia Melendez and Jose Abraham Dimas Aguilar--are awaiting trial for firing on an open-air cafe in San Salvador on June 19, 1985. In January, a lower court ordered the three freed under the Central American peace accord signed last August, which called for the release of all political prisoners. A Salvadoran military court upheld that decision but had asked for Duarte’s ruling.