Salvador rightists form 'hit squad'

Rightist extremists have formed what they term the Secret Anti-Communist Army "to physically eliminate . . . Communists," including members of the moderate governing junta, Monitor Latin America correspondent James Nelson Goodsell reports. This development increases the potential for violence in El Salvador, a country that has been torn apart for years by feuding leftists and rightists. The junta, which came to power last Oct. 15 and has been reconstituted twice since then, has tried to defuse the potentially explosive situation.

It was unclear Thursday whether the new right-wing organizaiton would try to bring about a coup against the five-man junta, which is officially backed by the Untied States. But the communique announcing the establishment of the Army said the new group is preparing "a methodological plan of operations [to] physically eliminate all leaders of the Salvadoran Communist Party, . . . members of the government who backed the Marxist, and all Communists."