World Notes El Salvador

A ruthless man of fiery oratory and charismatic good looks, he was the standard bearer for his country's most extreme anti-Communist elements. There were rumors aplenty (but no proof) that he had links to right-wing death squads and that he was involved in the 1980 murder of Archbishop Oscar Arnulfo Romero. Just one year ago, he nearly defeated Christian Democrat Jose Napoleon Duarte in a closely fought presidential election. But last week the political career of Roberto ("Major Bob") D'Aubuisson, 42, was at least temporarily eclipsed, when he resigned as head of the ultra-rightist Nationalist Republican Alliance (ARENA), which he founded four years ago.

The departure of the wiry, chain-smoking D'Aubuisson was announced at the annual party congress in San Salvador. It was engineered, according to one ARENA loyalist, by party leaders anxious to project a "more palatable image." D'Aubuisson was replaced by Alfredo Cristiani, a 37-year-old graduate of Georgetown University's business school who has held prominent posts in El Salvador's coffee and cotton growers' associations.