DUARTE SEEN BROADENING CABINET CHOICES

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP91-00901R000700060044-0
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 17, 2005
• Sequence Number: 44
• Publication Date: May 31, 1984
• Content Type: NSPR

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4VVncDzmJ BI a 2005/07/01 CIA-RDP91-009
DN PAGE M WASHINGTON POST
31 .,lay 1984
Duarte Seen .R Broadening ; !Cabinet Choic~s
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By Robert J. McCartney. Duarte's'Cabinet choices were determined in part ? i
Wasbimmn Past FoMgn &nice by the fact that his chances for success depend on best known, as president of the Salvadoran Red
SAN SALVADOR, May 30-President- whether his government can get along with business- Cross, appeals to the private sector because he is a
elect Jose Napoleon Duarte plans to fill men, many of whom supported D'Aubuisson, and. businessman and a political independent.
important Cabinet positions with minis- the armed forces, according _to Salvadoran politi- : One field where D 's appointments may
tars acceptable to the business community craim draw. criticism is agril tune. The expected nom-
and armed forces in a bid for support from Duarte plans to select relatively uncontroversial ination of Carlos Aq i ino, a Christian Democrat
those powerful institutions, political figures for the ministries of defense, foreign -affairs, who currently is minister of education, as agricul-
sources said today. ; planning, economics and' treasury, party sources ture minister "could be controvers?
Chris-
Duarte, who is to be inaugurated Fri- said. He also is planning two partisan appointments: tian Democrat said. one Chris-
day, is reaching outside his Christian Christian Democratic Party Secretary General Julio r Even more likely to be controversial was the
Democratic Party in forming -his new gov- Rey Prendes as minister of the presidency and of
ernmerit to try to broaderr its political Vice President-elect Rodolfo Castillo Claremont as plan to name outspoken peasant union leader
base. While the Cabinet has yet to be an- interior minister. (. Jorge Camacho as assistant secretary of agricul;
nounced, Christian Democratic sources' Duarte already has announced his intention to ture. Camacho's group provided organizational
said Duarte intended to tap two political keep Gen. Carlos Vides Casanova as defense min- support to Duarte during the campaign.
independents and a member of a small, ister, thus avoiding any top-level shakeup in the
pro-business party for the Foreign Min- armed forces. Duarte would have preferred tQ re-
istry and two key economics ministries. place Vides Casanova with the more liberal. Gen.
Duarte was elected May 6, but final de- Jaime Abdul Gutierrez, but it was clear that the
visions about forming a government were Army would not tolerate such an appointment,
put off until after he returned from a trip Christian Democratic sources said.
to Washington a week ago. Gutierrez was one of a group of officers who
To give Duarte some breathing room overthrew a conservative military government in
during this . period, the Reagan adminis- 1979 and he served on a junta with Duarte from
tration dispatched Ambassador at Large 1980 to 1983. '
Vernon Walters on an unpublicized min In one concession to Duarte, the Army agreed
lion here to urge right-wing leader Rober= to allow nomination of Col. Reynaldo Lopez Nuila
to D'Aubuisson to curb his attacks on to the new post of vice minister for security af-
Duarte, reliable sources said. fairs, the newspaper El Mundo reported this af-
D'Aubuisson, who was defeated by ternoon. -
Duarte in the presidential election, had The armed forces also were expected to be sat-
charged in the days after the vote that the lsfied with the planned choice of lawyer Jorge
results were fraudulent because of irreg- Eduardo Tenorio'as foreign minister, the party
arities in the counting and bei,ags_ of co sources said. Tenorio, an independent, has had
u T_
vert CIA assistance to Duarte's campaign. good relations with the military, the sources said.
Since meeting with Walters, however, the. The - business community was expected to be
rightist leader has been quiet. . satisfied with Duarte's planned choices of mod-
"Walters did his job well. D'Aubuisson erates for three important economics ministries.
has barely made a peep ever since,".said- They are.. _ :. _.
one official familiar with the visit who in. ? Fidel Chavez Mena as planning minister. Cur-
sisted on remaining anonymous.
rently foreign minister, Chavez Mena is the most
Walters, a retired general dod former prominent Christian Democrat who is generally
CIA official, flew to San Salvador May 18, liked by the private sector-
and returned to Washington with u a Ricardo Gonzalez Camacho as economicainin-
ie fofo ng r, t inter. A member of the siAau Democratic 'Action
Two years pgo he played a central role : ply; he currently is a deputy in the Legislative
ins fashioning the "agreement in which
DAubuisson>was denied the position of Assembly. The Christian Democrats decided to
provisional president although his party. bring Democratic Action into the government as a
had won the most votes in an election for gesture of good faith toward the private sector.
a constituent assembly. D'Aubuisson instead ac-
cepted the post of president of the assembly after
it was made clear to him that the U.S. Embassy
and Salvadoran Army would not accept him as
provisional president of El Salvador because of his
extreme views and reported links to right-wing
death squads..
Approved For Release 2005/07/01 : CIA-RDP91-00901 R000700060044-0