Talking Peace for Salvador

The latest effort to end the decade-long war that has torn El Salvador apart begins Wednesday in Mexico City. And while there is no indication that the latest round of talks will bring peace any closer, hope is to be found in the fact that this time the participants represent the two most extreme factions in that country.

The last time the leftist Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front met with officials of the government they are trying to topple, the president of El Salvador was a moderate Christian Democrat, Jose Napoleon Duarte. And the talks got nowhere because of resistance Duarte faced from hard-liners in the Salvadoran military and in the right-wing opposition party commonly known as Arena. Now the government is in Arena’s hands.

Despite Arena’s pledge to defeat the FMLN, El Salvador’s new President Alfredo Cristiani agreed to send envoys to begin a “preliminary dialogue” with the rebels. He first expressed a willingness to negotiate during his inaugural address last June, but nothing was done to follow up on his opening until the FMLN made a dramatic offer last week that prompted Cristiani’s government to respond with a proposal to start the dialogue.

What broke the ice was an announcement by guerrilla leaders that they were willing to suspend two of their most effective tactics, the use of land mines and sabotage of El Salvador’s electric and telephone system, for the duration of peace talks.

But the same thing that frustrated Duarte could prevent Cristiani from taking advantage of this opportunity. Some members of Cristiani’s party so distrust the FMLN that they have even resisted a guerrilla request that the Roman Catholic Church mediate the peace talks. They consider the church too sympathetic to the FMLN.

And the Salvadoran military is still reluctant to negotiate. There is not a single active military officer on the team of envoys Cristiani sent to Mexico City because the Salvadoran high command still believes it can win the war despite years of stalemate on the battlefield. The generals are unlikely to budge unless the United States, which pays most of the bills and provides most of the hardware for their side in the war, prods them. Bush Administration officials must do so. No matter who sits at the peace table, the support of the United States will be needed if El Salvador’s peace talks are ever to succeed.