Salvadoran Army Ignores Cease-Fire, Goes to Rebel Areas

SAN ANTONIO, El Salvador — Hundreds of government troops deployed Friday in traditional rebel strongholds around Guazapa Mountain in an open dismissal of the guerrillas’ announcement of a unilateral truce, which was supposed to take effect today.

“Our institution cannot trust in their false promises,” said Lt. Col. Baltazar Lopez Hernandez of the Armed Forces Press Committee.

War-zone residents and diplomats said the army activity could scuttle a rebel initiative designed to hasten an end to more than 11 years of civil war. When the guerrillas announced the truce Thursday, President Alfredo Cristiani praised it as a “signal of goodwill.”

International observers of the arduous 19-month-old U.N.-sponsored peace process criticized the army deployment.

But the guerrillas who normally roam freely in this region north of San Salvador had withdrawn Friday to camps higher on Guazapa’s slopes, apparently to avoid combat.

The Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front had announced an indefinite halt to all offensive activity, including sabotage, and said its soldiers would fight only if provoked.