Regime rejects FMLN proposals on elections and cease-fire THE TEXT of the FMLN's latest proposal for dialogue is published below. It was made in response to Duarte's proposal of February 28, 1989, which called for postponing the elections to April 30 and for a cease-fire until June 1, 1989. The FMLN's proposal was rejected by the regime, which decided hold the elections as initially scheduled.
The FMLN then called an all-out transport strike starting March 16 to support its appeal for a boycott. Convergencia Democratica maintained its candidates, but was unable to offer a credible alternative. DOCUMENT
| HE Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front considers it positive that Duarte has expressed readiness to call a meeting between the government, our Front and the political parties, and that he has proclaimed himself in favor of such a meeting taking place in the shortest possible time.
That is why we think that our peace proposal should be considered in its entirety, in the same way as was done for the agreement with the parties. This meeting should be held with an open-ended agenda permitting discussion of all the problems that the other party might want to submit.
### Judging the crimes committed by the army
We think, therefore that it is necessary to demand and to stress:
• That the government specify whether there will be a discussion at this meeting of postponing the date for the elections to September 15; and whether holding these elections, with the military remaining confined to barracks, will be accompanied by an end to the repression, an electoral system with a consensus of support, reorganization of the Central Council of Elections, formation of an body to oversee the elections and a proposal for a way that Salvadorans living abroad can vote.
• That an agreement for a definitive cease-fire be negotiated in conformity with our offer, which calls for concrete mechanisms for judging the crimes committed by members of the armed forces, reduction of the army to 12,000 men, dismantling the security bodies and formation of a new civil security body. "We are ready to discuss around any points"
• That the meeting be held in San Salvador. In order to do this, we consider necessary a unilateral cease-fire on each side and the immediate end of the repression, so as to create propitious conditions for the meeting.
If there is a cease-fire, we see no reason why the meeting should be held abroad. The capital is the best place for national agreement on peace among and in front of all Salvadorans. This would facilitate the participation of Duarte himself. Holding this meeting abroad would be a retreat from the gains made by the people in all the previous meetings.
• For our part, we repeat our readiness to discuss all the points that the government may propose.
• We consider that the meeting must have the character of negotiation designed to result in real agreements, and not just an exchange of opinions. Therefore, our delegation will be headed by two members of our General Command.
We consider it necessary for the political parties, the government, the armed forces, the deputies designated by the Legislative Assembly and the FMLN to participate in this meeting in order to follow up on the spirit and content of the meeting in Mexico.
We consider highly positive the mecha-
nism of coordination among the three branches of the state, and we think that if in the past this mechanism made it possible to abolish a constitution and get another adopted, it should today be used to establish peace by eliminating all constitutional obstacles.
An appeal to parties to withdraw candidates
In this respect, it is clear that there are no more obstacles to postponing the elections for the necessary time and that this mechanism must function immediately to make it possible to postpone them until after March 19.
We are issuing an appeal to the parties to withdraw their candidates in order to make possible a solution of the constitutional problem. The Christian Democracy should be the first to set the example.
Our General Command is ready to order a unilateral cease-fire so that the meeting can be held. We propose that it take place on Saturday and Sunday, March 4-5, in the offices of the apostolic nuncio or the archbishop of San Salvador.
We are awaiting a response from Duarte to our proposals.
In this way we are making a positive response to what Duarte proposed. However, we want to express our concern about the fact that the context of some of his proposals does not favor the positive course that events have taken up until now. In this respect, we note:
• His clear intention, also noticed by the parties, to promote an electoral victory by the Christian Democratic Party (PDC). For this, he is counting on the support of the armed forces.
The date of April 30, which was already proposed and unanimously rejected at the meeting in Mexico, is only in the interests of the PDC, since it facilitates the possibilities for electoral fraud ties for electoral fraud.
• The lack of seriousness implicit in the proposal of a unilateral cease-fire until June
1, 1989.
We do not see why, if there were readiness for this, there could not be agreement and the possibility for negotiating a definite cease-fire. So, there remains doubt about whether there is a -eal will to concretize a genuine cease-fire agreed by all of us in front of the people and the entire world.
• Perceptible in Duarte's proposal is his unaltered aim of getting us to surrender. It has already been demonstrated that this is unrealistic, illogical and impossible.
This objective is quite clear in the proposal for a closed agenda that would not take account of our proposals. *
General Command of the FMLN El Salvador, February 27, 1989 Commanders: Salvador Sanchez Ceren, Francisco Jovel, Shafick Jorge Handal, Eduardo Sancho, Joaquin Villalobos