§ Lord Brockwayasked Her Majesty's Government:
104WA"Whether they have decided to send observers to report on conditions in the forthcoming election in El Salvador; whether, if so, this does not in effect endorse an election repudiated by Catholics, social democrats and many Christian democrats in addition to Marxists as necessarily unrepresentative in circumstances of a civil war: and whether they support the alternative of a negotiated settlement between the opposing forces.
§ The Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs (Lord Carrington)The noble Lord may have seen from my reply to the noble Lord, Lord Windlesham, on 17th February (Official Report, col. 640) that Her Majesty's Government have decided to send observers to the forthcoming election in El Salvador. It will be for the observers to say how far the elections are representative.
We do not rule out the possibility of a negotiated settlement, nor do we consider it to be excluded by the decision to hold elections. However, the El Salvador Government and opposition elements have not so far reached a mutually acceptable basis for negotiations.