Charges Traded in Salvadoran Prober’s Death

SAN SALVADOR — Rival politicians in El Salvador traded accusations Monday over a weekend shootout that ended in the deaths of Pedro Rene Yanes, the government’s chief corruption investigator, and four other victims.

President Jose Napoleon Duarte, a Christian Democrat, said at first that the killing of Yanes “obviously had political character,” but after Yanes’ funeral Monday, the president said, “The violence could have been prompted by a drink of alcohol.”

Duarte thus seemed to discount reports that Yanes, the presidential commissioner of ethics, was killed because he was investigating corruption cases of past rightist governments.

Other Christian Democrats asserted that Yanes was the target of an assassination plot of the rightist Arena party.

“The murderers were drunk,” party official Jorge Ariaza said. “But we can’t eliminate the possibility that they drank to gain courage to carry out a conspiracy.”

Accused of Firing First

An Arena party spokesman asserted that Yanes fired the first shot, killing Reinaldo Osorto, an Arena party candidate for municipal office, setting off the melee that then killed Yanes and three others.

“We demand an investigation,” the Arena spokesman said. “This shows the excesses of the Christian Democrats in power.”

Duarte, who headed the Christian Democratic ticket that defeated Arena in last year’s presidential elections, termed Arena’s version a “lie.”

Ten men are being held in connection with the shootings, and the investigation is being conducted by the country’s National Police.

The killings occurred during a party in Concepcion de Oriente, a tiny town near El Salvador’s eastern boundary with Honduras.