Source Confirms Massacre Report In El Salvador

A French press correspondent in Quito. Ecuador yesterday confirmed reports that the El Salvadoran military killed 1500 El Salvadoran for trying to flee into Honduras at the border town of Morazon. The correspondent cited a Latin American human rights group as his source.

Donald Mathis, a spokesman for the U.S. State Department's Central American bureau, voiced skepticism about the report yesterday. "We won't say it didn't happen, but we need more information. In the past, there's been a lot of misinformation and disinformation and it sounds like the report is coming from people who want to embarrass the regime."

Mathis said the El Salvadoran government is investigating the report, but that U.S. government representatives were not involved in the investigation. "We did too many reports and have too few personnel to deal with them," he said.