El Salvador: Pray You Are Right, Don Jose'

Duarte exudes confidence, but the guerrillas hang on

El Salvador's civilian-military regime expressed confidence last week that it had succeeded in repelling the vaunted "final offensive" of the country's revolutionary left. José Napoleon Duarte, the shrewd Christian Democratic politician who heads the junta, attributed the left's setback to its failure to win popular support. Duarte offered amnesty to any guerrillas willing to lay down their arms, pledged to move forward on the junta's promises of social reforms and free elections, and toured the provinces like a glad-handing political campaigner.

Embracing a group...