Fidel Chavez Mena

A schism in the governing Christian Democratic Party widened Wednesday when a second faction nominated its own presidential candidate for next year's election. Fidel Chavez Mena, a 48-year-old lawyer and former minister of the presidency and communications under current President Jose Napoleon Duarte, was proclaimed unanimously by 180 national delegates gathered at party headquarters in downtown San Salvador.

A schism in the governing Christian Democratic Party widened Wednesday when a second faction nominated its own presidential candidate for next year's election. Fidel Chavez Mena, a 48-year-old lawyer and former minister of the presidency and communications under current President Jose Napoleon Duarte, was proclaimed unanimously by 180 national delegates gathered at party headquarters in downtown San Salvador.

Salvadoran rebels launched two unsuccessful attacks on military targets, apparently serving notice that they intend to keep up pressure after Sunday's elections, which was won by Alfredo Cristiani of the far-right Republican Nationalist Alliance. Final results gave Cristiani 53.83% of the 939,078 votes cast compared to 36.03% for Fidel Chavez Mena, candidate of the incumbent Christian Democrats.

Leftist rebels frightened two city mayors and several election officials into quitting their posts, but a guerrilla commander said Friday that the rebels will not attack polling places or people who vote in Sunday's presidential election. The rebels have proclaimed a traffic ban before Sunday's vote, threatening to attack vehicles on the nation's roads. No commercial traffic moved on rural highways Friday, and rebel sabotage kept much of El Salvador without electric power.

A bomb exploded beneath a police truck in the capital's central market Saturday, injuring seven civilians on the eve of El Salvador's presidential elections. Witnesses and Red Cross officials said the seven, one of them a boy of 11, were hit by shrapnel after leftist guerrillas put the bomb under the pickup truck while its occupants were in the market buying vegetables. The attack was the most serious since Wednesday, when a rebel ban on public transportation went into effect.

In a major reversal, El Salvador's Marxist guerrilla movement said Monday that it will urge its followers to participate in presidential elections and accept the outcome of the vote if the government and military follow several conditions. Until now, the guerrillas of the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN) had refused to recognize the legitimacy of the presidential election set for March 19.

Salvadoran government officials and leftist guerrilla leaders talked into the night Monday, holding the longest round of peace negotiations in nearly eight years of civil war. It was not clear whether the prolonged, two-day session indicated progress or a deadlock between President Jose Napoleon Duarte and commanders of the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front.

Vice President Dan Quayle said Friday that he was delivering "a very emphatic, very strong" message that the United States expects El Salvador's armed forces to eliminate violations of human rights or face "consequences." Speaking to reporters just before he entered the Salvadoran military headquarters for meetings with Defense Minister Carlos Vides Casanova and ranking field commanders, the vice president said: "And when I emerge . . .

The government of El Salvador and Marxist-led Salvadoran rebels agreed to reopen long-stalled peace talks Sept. 19 in the remote eastern Salvadoran town of Sesori, government officials and guerrilla representatives announced here Saturday. The agreement was reached during three days of private talks in Mexico City. Another round of private discussions sometime in early September will precede the Sesori talks.

For the first time in nearly three years, President Jose Napoleon Duarte and leftist guerrillas fighting to oust his U.S.-backed government will meet today for peace talks, a meeting brought about by the Central American peace accord. Neither side was optimistic in advance, both saying that they do not expect any quick agreement on a cease-fire, which is supposed to be in effect by Nov. 7 under the regional peace plan.

After nearly two years' interruption, the Salvadoran insurgents and the government of President Napoleon Duarte agreed in Mexico City last week to hold their third round of talks in the small El Salvador village of Cesori on Sept. 19. This comes as good news to the people of that beleaguered country, but the bad news is that the discussions will probably advance no further than the previous ones.