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CENTRAL AMERICA |
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El Salvador
Gets 1st Cuban Ambassador Since 1960's
SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador - The first
Cuban ambassador to El Salvador since the
early 1960s has presented his credentials,
the government of leftist President Mauricio
Funes said Sunday.
Funes re-established diplomatic relations
with the island after taking office in June,
almost a half-century after ties were broken
at the height of the Cold War.
The Salvadoran Foreign Relations Ministry
said Sunday that Ambassador Pedro Pablo
Prada Quintero presented his accreditation
to Foreign Minister Hugo Martinez.
In another sign of changing times, the Roman
Catholic Archbishop of San Salvador, Msgr.
Jose Luis Escobar Alas, said Sunday that he
does not object to the government's decision
to use the army to combat what he called
"out-of-control" violent crime.
"We don't dislike it, rather the opposite,
we think it could certainly help," Escobar
Alas said of the military's involvement.
"We believe the situation is truly serious,
out of control, worrisome," he told a news
conference.
Relations between the Church and the army
had long been strained by the 1980
assassination of Archbishop Oscar Arnulfo
Romero by gunmen with links to the armed
forces.
Romero had criticized military human rights
abuses during the country's 12-year civil
war, in which at least 75,000 people died.
The government and leftist guerrillas
reached a peace treaty in 1992.
Funes won this year's presidential elections
on the ticket of the political party of the
former guerrillas, the leftist Farabundo
Marti National Liberation Front.
About 1,760 army troops are currently
patrolling the most dangerous areas of the
country, and Funes' administration is
reportedly weighing plans to use several
thousand more troops to support police.
The National Civilian Police were
established following the peace accords as
the country's main law enforcement body, but
so far this year there have been about 3,430
killings in this nation of 6.6 million. |
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