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Between November 29 and March 29 there were four elections in Central America-in Honduras, Costa Rica, Guatemala and El Salvador. The timing was not coin- cidental; while Costa Rica and Guatemala had merely followed their electoral schedule, Honduras and El Salvador were under in- tense pressure from the United States to place a democratically elected government on line for in- creased U.
Alan Benjamin
A newly-formed death squad with clear links to the Colombian military claimed responsibility for the recent death of a prominent Bogota lawyer and issued a "hit list" that included 12 other impor- tant figures such as noted writer Gabriel Garcia Marquez. The terrorist group, known as "Death to Kidnappers" (MAS), shot and killed Jorge Enrique Cipagauta Galvis on March 9.
"We want to note that voting has begun on a massive scale throughout the country. The people are going to the polls and there have been no incidents to deplore.
The elections of March 1982 were "la fiesta civica," as one journalist pointed out.' The ballyhoo and the festivities were a welcome relief to the war-torn country, particularly in the urban centers.
Judith Matloff
Mexico's Institutional Revolu- tionary Party (PRI) is fighting to maintain its 53-year-old hold on Mexican politics in its hardest cam- paign ever. Although the official party will win easily as it has in the last eight presidential elections, the worst economic crisis in five years and a host of opposition can- didates promise to cast a shadow on its victory.
CENTRAL AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN Jenny Pearce, Under the Eagle: U.S.
Calling All Volunteers! While we can always use more hands and minds in our burgeoning library, our fulfillment department, on magazine production (typing, proofing), etc., we are never in more dire need than during the summer.
It's the old joke. Restructuring the government of El Salvador is like shuffling the deck chairs on the last voyage of the Titanic.
"In reality we made important military advances in recent weeks, but we created such ex- pectations through propaganda that it looked as if we failed." -guerrilla leader in the New York Times' In the weeks before March 28 it was the rare report that did not refer to rebel statements that they would disrupt the elections.