US aid for El Salvador may face July deadline
Washington
American aid to El Salvador could face a congressional cutoff unless President Reagan certifies by July 28 that US-supported land reform there is progressing.
The latest challenge to the aid came Wednesday, when Rep. Clement J. Zablocki (D) of Wisconsin said he might ask that the House eliminate Salvadoran support if the land reform program is reversed or halted. Last Thursday the Senate Foreign Relations Committee slashed $100 million in US military aid to El Salvador.
El Salvador's new rightist-led Constituent Assembly recently froze the third phase of the three-stage land reform begun in 1979, under which tenant farmers would receive control of lands they work.
The Reagan administration has said the Salvadoran action should not be seen as a reversal of the land reform progress.