Arson Attack Destroys Paper in El Salvador

Arsonists on Saturday destroyed the only Salvadoran newspaper that covered the rebel side of the civil war, and the director of the paper blamed the military and the right-wing government.

Neighbors said that a government helicopter circled the area before the fire began at the offices of Diario Latino.

President Alfredo Cristiani’s civilian government issued a statement promising an investigaton and calling the accusations “irresponsible speculation.” Military spokesman Col. Mauricio Vargas said the accusations were unfounded, and he condemned the arson.

Fire officials said someone doused a storage area with gasoline and kerosene before dawn and set it ablaze.

Employees who gathered outside the smoldering plant later Saturday said it appeared the paper’s files had been searched. They said documents and photographs were taken.

Francisco Valencia, director of the 101-year-old newspaper, blamed the armed forces and the government for the blaze that destroyed presses, computers and office equipment.

Right-wing death squads linked to the military are blamed for killing nearly half the 73,000 people who have died in El Salvador’s civil war, including six Jesuit priest-professors slain in November, 1989.

Diario Latino’s employees took over the newspaper in July, 1989, after the owners went broke. The paper then began covering both sides of the war.

The staff turned it into an opposition paper presenting many points of view, including that of the leftist Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front rebels.

Valencia said the paper had been getting anonymous threats. Editor Jorge Contreras said the fire was an attempt to silence the newspaper in advance of elections in March.