Civil Strife Returns To San Salvador; Bombings and Protests Recall Early '80s
Civil strife burst back into the capital city over the past week in a rapid succession of rebel sabotage actions, anti-American protests and mysterious attacks on leftist groups.</br></br>To many residents herethe violence in the last seven days stirred frightening memories of the early 1980s when street fighting and death-squad murders brought this small nation to the brink of revolution.</br></br>Although angry frustration with the three-year-old, U.S.-backed Christian Democratic government of President Jose Napoleon Duarte is widespread, he faces no danger of an urban revolt. After seven years of war, many Salvadorans feel the political alternatives to Duarte on the left and right are just as discredited, residents and political analysts said.</br></br>The events began May 28 when a noontime bomb blew off part of the roof of the offices of a left-wing committee of relatives of disappeared persons. Two employes at the committee, known as Comadres, were slightly injured.</br></br>The same day, two dozen refugees from another leftist group were occupying the city cathedral, demanding government permission to return to live in their home villages.