Posted at 8:47 a.m. EDT Friday, April 16, 1999

Salvadoran president to ask Castro for clemency for convicted bombers

SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador -- (AP) -- The president of El Salvador says he will ask Cuban leader Fidel Castro to spare the lives of two Salvadorans sentenced to death for terrorism in Cuba.

Salvadoran President Armando Calderon Sol and Castro are attending this weekend's Association of Caribbean States meeting in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.

``We hope to have the opportunity to speak with (Castro) and ask him clemency for our countrymen who have been judged on the island,'' Calderon Sol said at a news conference Thursday.

Otto Rene Rodriguez Llerena and Ernesto Cruz Leon were convicted in March of terrorism charges and sentenced to death. Rodriguez Llerena was convicted of planting a bomb in a hotel and attempting to import explosives. Cruz Leon was found guilty of planting bombs that killed one tourist and wounded 11 others.