Democracy's verdict can be harsh, even for its friends. Salvadoran President Jose Napoleon Duarte's ruling Christian Democratic Party, which has steered an erratic course between murderous foes on the left and the right, rediscovered that truth last week when it was roundly rejected at the ballot box. Almost 1 million Salvadoran voters braved guerrilla intimidation to oust the Christian Democrats from power and give control of the 60-seat Assembly to the ultraconservative Nationalist Republican Alliance (ARENA), which in the past has been associated with right-wing death squads.
"We thought we would lose," said a Duarte adviser afterward, "but we never thought...
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