The World - News from Oct. 26, 1988

Right-wing death squads have abducted, tortured and executed hundreds of Salvadorans in the last 18 months in an escalation of their clandestine activity, Amnesty International said in a report. The London-based human rights organization said the killings were carried out by plainclothes gunmen and by uniformed police and military units with the apparent acquiescence of the state. The Amnesty International report was based on testimony from families of victims, witnesses, former death squad members and a few survivors left for dead. In the first three months of 1988, there were roughly as many murders and “disappearances” reported as in all of 1987, according to the report.