Ready for Peace Pact, El Salvador Says
The Salvadoran government is ready to bring to a swift halt the decade-old war with leftist rebels, the chief government negotiator in peace talks said Friday in opening a fourth round of talks.
“The government of President (Alfredo) Cristiani is interested in conciliation in matters regarding the reorganization of the armed forces that would allow a pact to end armed hostilities,” said Oscar Santamaria, leader of the government delegation and Salvadoran justice minister.
Santamaria arrived in San Antonio de Belen, a tourist resort 12 miles northwest of San Jose, on Thursday to begin a new six-day round of talks with rebels of the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front, known as the FMLN.
The major issue in the United Nations-mediated talks is reform and reductions in the Salvadoran armed forces, a subject the two sides failed to agree on during the second round of talks in Mexico and the third round last month at San Antonio de Belen.
The Defense Ministry said it was ready to talk about handing over control of two of El Salvador’s three highly militarized police forces to civilian ministries and disband the rural civil defense forces, but rebel sources said the concessions do not go far enough to prompt the FMLN to re-enter El Salvador’s political arena.
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