Salvador Rebels to Halt Raids on U.S. Targets

Leftist guerrillas, citing what they called a positive U.S. response to their peace proposal, said Wednesday they will suspend attacks against U.S. diplomats and civilian employees.

The communique, read over local media stations, was issued two days before Vice President Dan Quayle visits El Salvador, which has the largest U.S. military and economic commitment in Latin America.

The move responded to “the hope of a change in U.S. policy towards El Salvador,” the communique said.

The U.S. Embassy in San Salvador expressed pleasure with the communique.

“I’ve got to say it’s good news,” an embassy official said.

The Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front on Jan. 23 offered for the first time in nine years of war to take part in elections. However, it said that the presidential vote scheduled for March 19 should be postponed for six months and urged that guarantees be made to ensure the free and fair participation of leftist candidates.

President Jose Napoleon Duarte’s government reacted negatively to the proposal to put off the elections, which it calls unconstitutional. Even so, Duarte said he was reserving final judgment on other aspects of the plan.

The United States welcomed the proposal as “worthy of serious and substantive consideration.”

In recognition of the U.S. move, “the FMLN resolves to suspend military attacks against the diplomatic and civilian personnel and military installations of the United States in our country,” the communique said.

But it said the 55 U.S. advisers and other American military men remain a target in the army bases, in the field or in the air.

The rebels in November had announced they considered all U.S. Embassy personnel as well as employees of the Agency for International Development targets because of their massive role in the counterinsurgency effort.

Grenades and Rockets

In recent weeks, grenades have been thrown at the house of the embassy charge d’affaires and rockets fired at the AID building.

Movement of embassy personnel around the capital is restricted and night spots are off limits at certain times. Even inside the heavily-fortified embassy, the cafeteria patio has been closed in case of a mortar or rocket attack.

In another development, the mayor of Usulutan, El Salvador’s fifth largest city, has quit after receiving a guerrilla death threat.

Mayor Manuel Ilisio Perdomo, of the right-wing Nationalist Republican Alliance, or Arena, said Tuesday night that leftist rebels had threatened to kill him if he did not quit.

The mayors of the small towns of Jayaque, Teotepeque and El Paisnal announced their resignations on Wednesday.