El Salvador President’s Choices for Cabinet Reflect Elements New and Old

El Salvador’s second postwar president took office this week with an inaugural address designed to bury the ghosts of this nation’s bloody 12-year conflict--and a Cabinet that brought some of them back to life.

Francisco Flores, the enigmatic philosopher who firmly defeated opponents in a first-round victory this spring, again left analysts wondering about his intentions with a Cabinet that mixes highly educated technicians and stalwarts of his extreme right-wing Nationalist Republican Alliance, known as Arena.

With an average age of 43, the Cabinet fits the 39-year-old president’s image of youth and energy. “This is a generation that did not play a central role in our war,” said political analyst Roberto Turcios. During the civil war, which ended in 1992, many leftist guerrilla commanders were in that age group, but the right’s leaders were older.

“There are some traditional party elements present, such as Interior Minister [Mario Acosta Oertel, considered a hard-liner], but in general this breaks away from the mold of past Arena Cabinets,” Turcios said.

In his inaugural address, Flores broke another party tradition by never uttering the name of the late Maj. Roberto D’Aubuisson, the founder of both the party and the notorious death squads that killed union leaders, students and members of the political opposition during the civil war, Turcios said.

Instead, Flores emphasized his commitment to making El Salvador a safe place to live.

Crime is the public’s top concern, according to a nationwide poll that the University of Central America here released a week before Tuesday’s inauguration. Pollsters found that 44% of the 1,266 people questioned said combating crime should be Flores’ top priority.

With a murder rate of 128 per 100,000--compared with a U.S. murder rate of 6.8 per 100,000 in 1997--peacetime El Salvador is among the most dangerous countries in Latin America.

But the two men whom Flores named to bring law and order were his most controversial appointments, in part because neither has law enforcement experience.

Francisco Bertrand, a lawyer who had been the nation’s top bank regulator, was put in charge of the newly merged Justice and Security Ministry.

The national police commissioner is Mauricio Sandoval, who had been director of the national intelligence agency and during the war ran a pro-government national radio network.

“That network, Radio Cuscatlan, instigated the murders [of six Jesuit priests, their cook and her daughter] on Nov. 11, 1989,” charged Rodolfo Cardenal, vice rector of the University of Central America, where the priests taught. “You cannot have a person who has incited murder in charge of the National Civilian Police.”

Further, Cardenal said that Sandoval does not meet the minimum legal requirements for the job because he lacks a college degree.

“He has an honorary degree from the Central Police University in [Taiwan],” said Benjamin Cuellar, director of UCA’s human rights office. “That is a joke.”

Luis Lopez Portillo, coordinator of the Cabinet transition team, responded: “These are weak criticisms that judge his past and not his capabilities. Besides, let’s see what he can do.”

Both Bertrand and Sandoval have promised to step down if public safety does not improve, and sources close to them said Flores has given them a six-month deadline to get results.

Like other Cabinet members, Lopez Portillo said, Sandoval and Bertrand were chosen based on their technical ability.

Flores said in his address that the police lack intelligence-gathering skills, which Sandoval can help provide.

The economic Cabinet, analysts said, represents a continuation of the previous administration’s free-market policies, which have given the country Central America’s most stable currency and fastest-growing economy.

“This is a Cabinet that has left the Cold War behind it,” Turcios said. “There is a break with the past. Now we will see if it is as much of a break as El Salvador needs today.”

Alex Renderos in The Times’ San Salvador Bureau contributed to this report.