El Salvador gets 1st Cuban ambassador since 1960s

The Associated Press    Translate This Article
19 October 2009

SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (AP) - 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.

Copyright © 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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