WORLD IN BRIEF : WASHINGTON, D.C. : Salvadorans Blamed for Blocking Inquiry

The leaders of El Salvador’s armed forces are “engaged in a conspiracy to obstruct justice” in the investigation of last year’s slayings of six Jesuit priests, their housekeeper and her daughter, the head of a House task force on the case said. But Rep. Joe Moakley (D-Mass.) said that task force investigators who visited El Salvador last week also found that members of the armed forces not involved in the killings are upset that the killings may lead to a cut in U.S. military aid. “As a result,” Moakley said, “the armed forces are increasingly divided, and pressure is growing for an end to the conspiracy of silence and lies that--from Day 1--has characterized the military’s attitude toward this case.”