El Salvador Conversations with Two Foes

In an exclusive pair of interviews, El Salvador's President and a rebel leader explain why peace may now be possible

After ten years of a bloody civil war that has claimed some 70,000 lives, there are no eternal optimists left in El Salvador. Blind hope went out of fashion after then President Jose Napoleon Duarte met with failure in three meetings with the leftist guerrillas of the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front. Since the last talks in 1987, the two sides have dug in with renewed determination. Now, four months after Alfredo Cristiani, 41, succeeded Duarte as President, there is new talk of reconciliation. Representatives of the government and the F.M.L.N. met two weeks ago in Mexico City to develop a...

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