Return of the Right

Ever since a junta of young army officers and civilians took over the government of El Salvador last October, the U.S. State Department has been worried about a drift to the Communist left in the smallest of Central America's tiny republics. Last week El Salvador's top military commanders showed that they were considerably more upset, and ready to do something about it. In a predawn coup, a band of tough, no-back-talk colonels, supported by wealthy coffee and banking families, booted out the question-mark junta.

The colonels had evidence to support their concern. During its short life, the old regime had permitted suspected Reds to worm their way into key positions in schools and courts; a known Communist was appointed attorney general; and more than 300 students had been permitted to fly off to Castro's Communist Cuba on "tours." By noon, a new, right-wing junta composed of two colonels, two conservative lawyers and a doctor had been sworn in. Its boss: Colonel Anibal Portillo, 46, army chief of staff, who once studied in Franco Spain. The group proclaimed itself "eminently anti-Communist," threw 30 Castro sympathizers in jail, asked close ties with the U.S. and promised elections (but fixed no deadline). The U.S. hoped that the new regime would head off Communism not only by firmness but also by pointing El Salvador, where a coffee-plantation hand earns 60-c- a day, in the direction of sorely needed reform.

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