Straight talk for Cristiani.

Straight Talk for Cristiani

THE UNITED STATES demanded that El Salvador find and bring to justice the murderers of six Jesuits and two women during the FMLN attack on San Salvador. President Alfredo Cristiani assured the United States that his government would do so. Last week Mr. Cristiani reported that eight of the nine military men suspected of the murders (a lieutenant colonel, three lieutenants, and four enlisted men) were under arrest and would be brought lto justice. Did that satisfy Cristiani's critics on the Hill and in the media? No. They ask: But will these men actually be brought to trial? Will any court in El Salvador dare convict them? And even if one can be found that will, won't the higher-ups who presumably gave the orders go untoched? Doesn't Cristiani risk a military coup if he actually goes after those who planned the killings?

What it comes down to is that nothing President Cristiani does will satisfy his leftist critics because he is a conservative, the leader of the Arena party, one of whose former leaders, Roberto D'Aubuisson, is widely believed to have been involved in death-squad activities. ("Death-squad killings," by the rules of liberal lexography, are beyond the pale, whereas guerrilla murders are part and parcel of wars of liberation and, while deplorable, should be expected.) The same people who criticize the United States for interfering in the affairs of Panama (a dictatorship) insist we interfere in the affairs of El Salvador (a democracy), and support a hands-off attitude toward Nicaragua (a Communist dictatorship), all the while proclaiming themselves democrats.