El Salvador’s Bid for Cease-Fire Fails

Government and rebel negotiators from El Salvador ended three days of negotiations here Wednesday without narrowing the huge gap between their rival proposals for ending 10 years of civil war.

In a final communique aimed more at clarifying two conflicting definitions of peace, the two sides agreed to meet Nov. 20-21 in Caracas, Venezuela, for a third round of talks in three months.

Msgr. Gregorio Rosa Chavez, the auxiliary Roman Catholic bishop of San Salvador, who mediated the talks, called the outcome “not very spectacular” but said the exchange of proposals was “very important for the peace process.”

The right-wing government proposed an immediate cease-fire, which the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front rejected. The guerrillas said any halt in the fighting must be accompanied by sweeping changes in the constitution, the justice system and the armed forces to combat human rights abuses.

“The most urgent priority right now is to stop the violence, because this is what the Salvadoran people demand,” said Oscar Alfredo Santamaria, the Salvadoran justice minister.