Edition: U.S. / Global


By JAMES LeMOYNE, Special to the New York Times
Published: December 11, 1987

In what Government officials are treating as a political assassination, unidentified gunmen killed a leading member of El Salvador's official Human Rights Office last night, officials said.

The victim, Rene Joaquin Cardenas, 32 years old, was shot in the head by one of three men who followed him in a white Toyota truck after he left his office in the eastern city of San Miguel, according to officials.

His death comes at a time of considerable political tension here involving rightist elements and leftist guerrillas, and diplomatic observers have predicted that politically motivated assassinations will increase.

Mr. Cardenas's death also appears likely to strengthen doubts about the possibility of peaceful political change in El Salvador while such killings continue. Political assassinations have declined drastically from the thousands reported in the early 1980's, but the strong memory of past repression means even a few killings have a major impact on public thinking. 'A Cowardly Act'


The shooting Wednesday follows the still-unsolved killing in October of Herbert Anaya, who was the head of a non-Government human rights group critical of the Government and sympathetic to leftist rebels.

Benjamin Cestoni, the head of the Government's Human Rights Office, issued a statement today condemning the killing of Mr. Cardenas as ''a cowardly and criminal act.''

Government officials refused to speculate publicly on who had carried out the assassination. But they said it could either have been leftist guerrillas seeking to revenge the killing of Mr. Anaya, or rightists seeking to retaliate against a Government effort to prosecute a rightist leader, Roberto d'Aubuisson, for the 1980 assassination of the Roman Catholic Archbishop here.

According to Mr. Cestoni, Mr. Cardenas had not received death threats or other warnings before he was killed. He was married and had two young children.

El Salvador has many human rights groups, most with a particular political slant. The office Mr. Cardenas worked for specialized in publicizing abuses by the guerrillas. It has not pressed for prosecution in well-known cases of human rights abuses by the army.