El Salvador: A Setback for Moderation

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Walters presented the same case to the military leaders, stressing that a failure to include moderate elements in the new government could lead to a cutoff of U.S. military aid. Apparently impressed, the generals reportedly put pressure on the politicians to elect Alvaro Alfredo Magaña, 56, a moderate banker with close ties to the army, President of the provisional government that is expected to be named this week.

By the time the assembly met for its first full working session, the capital was abuzz with rumors that the Christian Democrats and part of the P.C.N. had agreed to name Magaña provisional President. The right, it was assumed, would also agree to give the Christian Democrats some role in the assembly leadership. But when headlines proclaiming Magana's imminent election appeared in the afternoon paper, D'Aubuisson reportedly became furious and rearranged the list of candidates for the nine-man assembly directorate to exclude all Christian Democrats. When the vote took place, D'Aubuisson and his fellow rightists easily swept all the assembly posts. Said ARENA Leader Mario Redaelli defiantly: "We did this today to show the United States embassy that they are not going to tell us what to do."

Despite ARENA'S opposition, Magana may still be elected provisional President. In any event, the choice could have more symbolic than real meaning. The provisional President may have little power to resist the assembly, which is expected to have the authority to approve all legislation as well as the new constitution. By controlling the assembly, D'Aubuisson might in effect end up running the country.

D'Aubuisson's success does not bode well for the improvement of human rights in El Salvador. He has often been accused of being involved with rightist death squads, and he campaigned on a promise to eradicate the leftists. Though he has lately tried to moderate his image, some Salvadorans seem to be taking his tough talk at face value. Workers who regularly count the bodies dumped along the roadsides report that political murders have increased some 20% since the elections. And in the tiny mud-hut hamlet of Barrios last week, survivors of an alleged Sunday-morning massacre told reporters that 48 fellow villagers, more than half of them less than twelve years old, had been killed by Salvadoran soldiers in search of guerrillas .

—By Thomas A. Sancton. Reported by Timothy Loughran/San Salvador and Johanna McGeary /Washington