Salvador balances on a high wire of hope

The election of Jose Napolean Duarte to the Presidency of El Salvador provides a positive opportunity for this war-ravaged country. Peter Stanford reports.
ARCHBI-4-61 P Arturo Rivera y Damas of San Salvador has appealed to the Salvadoran people to accept the newlyelected president, Jose Napoleon Duarte, and to abandon "hatred and rancour".
The Archbishop, speaking in his Sunday homily on May 13, said that the result of the election on May 6 reflected the voice of the people.
Senor Duarte, the Christian Democrat candidate, received 53.4 per cent of the vote, and Major Roberto d'Aubuisson of the right-wing ARENA party 46.6 per cent.
The Archbishop called on the new president to honour his promise to prosecute the members of the death squads, which last year threatened the life of Archbishop Rivera himself.
A report released in London this week by Amnesty International has stated that many of the estimated 40,000 people killed in political violence in El Salvador in the past five years have been murdered by the government forces.
Amnesty described the "blatant failure" of the authorities to investigate the killings and bring those responsible to justice. They suggested that one factor in this failure was that "it is the authorities themselves who lie behind the wholesale extrajudical execution of people from all sections of Salvadoran society".
Major d'Aubuisson has Challenged the result of the election, and has accused the United States of fraudulent intervention. His accusations have been backed up this week after the disclosure by an unnamed White House official that the Central Intelligence Agency has spent $1.4 million on the Salvadoran election campaign in an attempt to discredit Major d'Aubuisson.
Officially the Reagan administration has refused to take sides in the election.
Senor Duarte was elected president of El Salvador on one previous occasion — in 1972 His election was follwed by an army takeover, and he remained in exile until 109 when he returned after a coup by some junior army officers to head the military junta.
It has been suggested in San Salvador that this association with the army will make it difficult for the new president to carry out his promise to prosecute the death squads.
However it is clear that the United States will suport him in this move.
Senor Duarte has been in Washington this week for talks with President Reagan and Pentagon officials.
Archbishop Rivera also mentioned the release of the under-secretary for defence, Col. Francisco Adolfo Castillo, who had been a prisoner of guerrillas for two years.
"This gesture, achieved through the mediation of the .
Catholic Church, stands as a sign of hope in the midst of very sad times", the Archbishop told his congregation, "and seems to be a positive 'omen of the possibility of achieving peace through peaceful means".
Senor Castillo was released in exchange for eight political prisoners held by the government.
The Catholic Church in El Salvador has welcomed Senor Duarte's positive attitude towards negotiations with the guerrillas. The Church has
continual), Msisted that only a negotiated settlement will bring lasting peace to the country.
However Senor Duarte has said that he will talk with the guerrillas only about terms for their future participation in elections, while the Church favours more wide-ranging talks.
Interviewed during a visit to America in March, the president of the Salvadoran bishops conference, Bishop Marco Revelo of Santa Ana put the views of the bishops that the elections were just a step on the road to peace.