Salvador Military Bracing for New Attacks by Rebels

Leftist guerrillas are preparing assaults on major military targets following the government’s rejection of their offer to participate in elections, according to official sources.

“We are preparing for a very strong military reaction,” a high-ranking Salvadoran army officer said Saturday. He added that military intelligence believes the rebels, in the next two weeks, will hit at least one important strategic target, probably in the capital.

Last Monday, the Marxist-led Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front offered to take part in this year’s presidential balloting under certain conditions, but the Salvadoran government rejected the plan.

Meanwhile, rebel commander Ana Guadalupe Martinez, in interviews taped in Mexico City and broadcast in El Salvador, said: “We have made a proposal. To the degree that the other side does not respond positively, the masses see that the struggle must continue. . . . The tendency toward violence is increasing.”

Martinez indicated the rebels had little hope their proposal would be accepted by the incumbent Christian Democrats or the rightist Nationalist Republican Alliance, which controls the legislature and leads in the presidential polls.