El Salvador Government Officials

A right-wing politician who was a former president of the Salvadoran Supreme Court was gunned down in his car at a busy intersection Tuesday. Francisco Jose Guerrero, 64, a leader of the conservative National Conciliation Party, was ambushed at mid-morning and shot in the chest, according to army and hospital officials. He died minutes later at a local hospital.

A Salvadoran congressman who admitted that he shot and wounded a police officer during a drunken rampage will not face criminal charges after fellow legislators voted early Friday to let him keep a privilege that human rights activists say verges on impunity for public officials. Deputy Jose Francisco Merino will retain legislative immunity, which protects him and El Salvador's 83 other lawmakers from criminal prosecution, much the way diplomatic immunity protects foreign envoys.

A Salvadoran congressman who admitted that he shot and wounded a police officer during a drunken rampage will not face criminal charges after fellow legislators voted early Friday to let him keep a privilege that human rights activists say verges on impunity for public officials. Deputy Jose Francisco Merino will retain legislative immunity, which protects him and El Salvador's 83 other lawmakers from criminal prosecution, much the way diplomatic immunity protects foreign envoys.

Under pressure from domestic and international courts, Atty. Gen. Belisario Artiga announced Wednesday that he will investigate a former president and other public officials to determine whether they ordered the 1989 murders of six Jesuit priests, their housekeeper and her daughter. "We are asking [the court] for permission to investigate as masterminds former President Alfredo Cristiani and high-ranking military officers in the murder of the Jesuit priests," Artiga told reporters.

Eight opposition parties withdrew Friday from a panel formed to implement a Central American peace plan, accusing President of "polarizing" the nation. In a letter of withdrawal from the National Reconciliation Commission read by representative Alfred Cristiani at a news conference, the parties said: "We have seen the irresponsible and unilateral way your (Duarte's) government has sought to comply with the agreement.

Armando Calderon Sol, leader of a right-wing political party once associated with death squads, was sworn in as president of El Salvador on Wednesday amid warnings that reforms aimed at preserving this country's fledgling peace are dangerously incomplete. As the first president to take office since the end of a brutal, 12-year civil war, Calderon Sol pledged to rebuild his devastated, still polarized country with free-market economics and attention to long-neglected social programs.

Salvadoran President Alfredo Cristiani, visiting Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass., to watch his son play squash, was met by demonstrators who shouted "death squad president" and "murderer." Secret Service agents and police escorted Cristiani through 75 chanting, sign-carrying protesters in a snowstorm outside the gym where the match between Harvard and Princeton was played. Cristiani's son, Alejendro, is a student at Princeton. Police removed about 15 demonstrators

Leaders of El Salvador's leftist guerrillas opened negotiations in Caracas, Venezuela, with members of the Central American nation's nine political parties to discuss future peace talks with the rightist government. The political leaders are expected to present proposals related to an agreement reached in Caracas last week between the government and the rebels that sets a goal of a cease-fire by mid-September, guerrilla leaders said.

Salvadoran President Alfredo Cristiani arrives in the U.S. capital today amid fresh debate in Congress over military aid to his nation and disappointment about stalled U.N.-sponsored talks aimed at ending its ongoing civil war. Cristiani charges that Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front guerrillas have received new arms from abroad, which would violate a condition set by Congress for freezing $42.5 million in military aid to the government.

Salvadoran President Jose Napoleon Duarte, 62, has a large and probably incurable stomach cancer that has spread to both lobes of his liver, and doctors at Walter Reed Army Medical Center are to decide today whether to perform exploratory abdominal surgery early next week, according to Duarte's personal physician. Dr. Benjamin Interiano said Duarte is aware of the outlook but remains hopeful. "His spirits are unbelievable," the physician said.

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, a 39-year-old philosopher and the new standard-bearer of El Salvador's main right-wing party, Monday was declared the winner of Sunday's presidential election. Election officials reported that with just over 95% of the ballots counted, Flores, of the ruling Nationalist Republican Alliance, or Arena, had received 52% of the vote; his main challenger, Facundo Guardado of the leftist Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front, or FMLN, received 29%.

Rosalinda watched disdainfully as some of her fellow street vendors hung red, white and blue balloons and crepe-paper streamers for Mayor Mario Valiente's visit to this capital's deteriorating downtown. "He's campaigning for reelection, so he'll come down here and hug all the drunks and kiss the sweaty market ladies," said the clothing merchant, who asked that her last name not be used. "But when you need something and go down to City Hall, no one will see you."

Rodrigo Avila, the head of El Salvador's new civilian police department, arrives for a meeting alone and driving his own car. No bodyguards, no assistants. This might not seem unusual except that Avila has survived three assassination attempts in his first six months on the job. "I see it as a matter of fate," the young commander says, shrugging off the peril. "It is more dangerous today in El Salvador to be a run-of-the-mill Salvadoran than to be the police chief."

Armando Calderon Sol, leader of a right-wing political party once associated with death squads, was sworn in as president of El Salvador on Wednesday amid warnings that reforms aimed at preserving this country's fledgling peace are dangerously incomplete. As the first president to take office since the end of a brutal, 12-year civil war, Calderon Sol pledged to rebuild his devastated, still polarized country with free-market economics and attention to long-neglected social programs.

Even while pleading for a climate of forgiveness, the U.N. Truth Commission on El Salvador called Monday for the dismissal of all military officers and government officials cited for human rights violations and proposed that all violators, including rebel officers, be banned from taking part in Salvadoran public and political life for at least 10 years. These provisions, which have already led Defense Minister Gen.

Salvadoran President Jose Napoleon Duarte entered Walter Reed Army Medical Center here Tuesday night for urgent treatment of what he called "a bleeding ulcer . . . in the stomach, of a malignant nature." Duarte, 62, has been rumored to be suffering from cancer, a word he did not use when describing his illness to journalists before leaving San Salvador. Ulcers by themselves are neither malignant nor benign.

Ernesto Arbizu Mata, the man whom the Salvadoran government and guerrillas agreed upon to run a new Civilian National Police force, is widely considered to be an honest lawyer with integrity. But Arbizu may have been selected to fill the highly sensitive post as much for what he is not: He is not a political extremist, not identified with any political party and has no experience in police work.

Salvadoran President Alfredo Cristiani arrives in the U.S. capital today amid fresh debate in Congress over military aid to his nation and disappointment about stalled U.N.-sponsored talks aimed at ending its ongoing civil war. Cristiani charges that Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front guerrillas have received new arms from abroad, which would violate a condition set by Congress for freezing $42.5 million in military aid to the government.