News In Brief
| San Salvador
Salvadorean rightists put d'Aubuisson on the ballot
The right-wing National Republican Alliance (ARENA) Sunday named its leader, Roberto d'Aubuisson, as its candidate for the March presidential election. The United States recently refused Major d'Aubuisson entry after US officials linked him with Salvadorean death squads, which are widely held responsible for more than 1,000 deaths this year.
D'Aubuisson told a political rally that ARENA condemned the death squads. He accused leftist guerrillas of responsibility for the assassinations and his main rival in the election, Christian Democrat Jose Napoleon Duarte, of links with the rebels. D'Aubuisson heads the Constituent Assembly, which last week approved the country's new constitution, going into effect today.
The document is based on a combination of the country's previous governing document and the Constitutions of Spain and Peru. Delays to its passage, which lays the groundwork for elections, included a controversial land redistribution program.*
