Salvadoran Peace Negotiators Agree on Some Reforms
Salvadoran officials and rebel leaders agreed Saturday on reforms in the government and military but did not reach a cease-fire in the 11-year-old civil war, a U.N. mediator said.
The accord, reached after more than three weeks of talks in Mexico City, addresses changes in the nation’s military, legislature and judiciary. A cease-fire and other issues were dropped from the agenda after the talks began.
U.N. mediator Alvaro de Soto said the pact also calls for a U.N.-appointed commission to investigate human rights violations in El Salvador since 1980.
No other details of the agreement were immediately available.
Rebel leader Schafik Handal said the agreements “bring us closer to unification,” but he said fighting will continue until a truce is finalized.
Another round of talks between the government and leftist guerrillas is tentatively planned for May.
The negotiators for the rebels and President Alfredo Cristiani’s conservative government have been meeting since April 4. Sources on both sides said the results fell short of what they had sought, but they indicated it opened the way for constitutional reform needed to make further progress.
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