HUMAN RIGHTS FOR PEASANTS?
Moran, Ed
HUMAN RIGHTS FOR PEASANTS? ED MORAN f The roots of violence in El Scdvador In the count~side one can literally /eel the /ear, anguish and desperation which fills the lives ot the peasants. We...
...Even if we take into account the left=wing guerrilla groups, the victims of left-wing terror are in a ratio of one to the ten who are killed and or disappear from government and right-wing repression...
...human rights policy does not seem to respond to an ongoing pattern of elimination of peasant leadership by killing and "disappearances...
...Since the first weeks of 1977 there has been a fierce 13 October 1978:660 campaign against such priests...
...Organizations representing landholders and business imerests in general (some of them formed ad hoc) unleashed a shrill propaganda campaign, especially through paid newspaper ads, and eventually forced the government to take the teeth out of the "Agrarian Transformation...
...there were nine strikes last October...
...We heard at least 40 separate stories ol the murders, the disappearances or the jailing o/ husbands or sons against whom no charge was brought.--Rep...
...Until it can be made evident that peasants' lives are as valuable as the lives of priests, lawyers, or journalists, there will be no convincing reply to those who are cynical about the intent of U.S...
...The two groups are peasant organizations but some of :the leaders.hip has come from outside, particularly from teachers...
...Certainly these issues are basically matters for Salvadoreans to decide...
...Troops were even used to block people from entering a memorial Mass for victims of the February 1977 massacre...
...This tiny Central American country (4.2 million people, about the size of Massachusetts) normally receives scant attention in the news: it 'has few resources besides its land and little touristic glamour...
...Are the human rights improvements in El Salvador significant...
...Opposition groups in El Salvador either are convinced that the Carter administration human rights policy has been nothing but propaganda, or they conclude that the Salvadorean government has learned to treat the whole thing as a matter of image with simple ground rules: don't kill priests, don't commit verifiable atrocities...
...Not political rhetoric but deteriorating conditions have given impetus to these groups...
...human rights policy regarding E1 Salvador: there have been real improvements...
...Evidently their attitude is, "Not now and not starting with me...
...The cost of living has risen 263 percent since 1972 while the minimum wage in agriculture has risen only 173 percem (187 percent during cotton picking and 250 percent during coffee harvest...
...it is impossible to know about violence in the countryside since there are always several versions of every incident...
...Since that moment in October 1976 there has been a continuing public conflict between the upper classes Commonweal: 659 and the government, which is now in their hands, and various opposition forces: political parties, peasant organizations, labor unions, the Catholic Church and some armed groups...
...There was an emphasis on identification with the people and their problems, small group discussion, "conscientization" in Paulo Freire's sense, and leadership training...
...human, rights practice to date, The upper classes and the government seek to capsulize the situation of their country under .the rubric of terrorism...
...To begin with political parties: some observers would attribute the increasing radicalization of the opposition precisely to the government's nullification of party politics as a vehicle for change...
...on human rights considerations...
...Since the basic conflict is in the countryside, industrial labor unions have not been in the forefront...
...They have claimed responsibility for several kidnappings and "executions," most notably the kidnapping of Mauricio Borgonovo, the foreign minister, in May 1977, with a demand that 37 political prisoners be released...
...But inflation has fueled union militancy...
...They refused to participate in this year's local election, mistrusting the government's promise of fair elections...
...Such an approach tended to take a "political" turn when peasants joined or formed groups such as FECCAS--to them a logical consequence of the ".liberating" force of the Gospel...
...We were told .that the government actually compelled ad agencies during this period to send representatives to an ad hoc committee precisely to work on the country's image...
...Catholic Church sources reported a very different story: Some FECCAS leaders had been abducted...
...These peasant groups are non-violent in practice rather ,than principle...
...The conflict between the government and the Catholic Church has become central to the situation in E1 Salvador...
...A "Law of Public Order and Security," deCommonweal: 661 bated and passed by the Assembly in one day in November, has a number of sweeping provisions which seem designed to achieve the effect of a state of siege with no need to declare it...
...reaction to the situation in El Salvador has been curious--and perhaps revealing...
...U.S.A.LD...
...El Salvador has been ruled by the military since the 1930s and by the PCN (National Conciliation Party) since 1961...
...They have also organized some peaceful land invasions, and offered the land to poor peasants to grow loop...
...Mid-1977 seems to have been a pivotal time for U.S.-Salvadorean relations...
...During Holy Week violence broke out in the region of San Pedro Peruiapan in 'El Salvador...
...More remarkable is the fact that the archbishop and the clergy have refused to narrow the conflict to issues of clerical concern but have consistently pointed out that the underlying cause of the conflict is the desperate situation of the peasantry and the violence directed against it...
...human rigl~ts policy or skeptical about the political will behind it...
...Even E1 Salvador's human rights violations are upstaged by .those of Sonth Africa, Argentina and Iran...
...Belief m the electoral process was already eroding, partly due to the PCN's defrauding the UNO (National Opposition Union) coalition in the 1972 elections...
...There have been no demonstrations since .the Inter-American Human Rights Commission left in January...
...Violence against peasant leaders continues unabated...
...Those who seek to define the problem in El Salvador as "terrorism" can do so only by obscuring .two basic points...
...peasants would pay off their lands over a number of years...
...In September, during the Panama Canal gala in Washington, President Romero invited the Inter-American Commission on H.uman Rights to visit ,El Salvador in January of 1978...
...voted in November for the project many concluded that human rights policy was much more carrot than stick...
...Nevertheless, the UNO, composed of Christian Democrat, social democrat and leftist parties, fielded a slate of candidates for the February 1976 elections...
...The official election results gave Romero almost a 2 to 1 victory margin...
...Because many peasants must compete for scarce jobs, rural unemployment and underemploymerit are high--one study concluded that the average peasant can count on only 141 working days a year...
...In November of last year one group occupied the Labor Ministry and held government officials captive for three days, but there were no assassinations...
...Thus a strike in a sugar mill and one in a cement tube factory were immediately ended by troops in February...
...U.S...
...There were numerous stories of bodies being carried away in army trucks and blood being hosed off the streets...
...These "improvements" effected by Romero were apparently enough for .the United States...
...E1 Salvador had already negotiated European finanoing for the project, and when the U.S...
...Another American told me: "Everyone here, even the oligarchy, deep down, knows that some day there has to be land reform...
...13 October 1978:662...
...ambassador just before the 1976 presiden.tial elections...
...Romero should be supported since he faces strong pressure from groups on the right who want even stronger action against leftist provocation...
...There is an alarming increase in .the number of landless peasants: 30,000 in 1960--166,000 in 1975...
...He became a nuisance to the Salvadorean government which tried ,to pretend he spoke only for himself and not the State Department...
...Unfortunately, until now the Salvadorean government has been getting a message that the problem is one essentially Of image...
...One American said he knew of growers making $4 million extra because of high coffee prices...
...The upper classes, however, did not take such a long-range view...
...A high-level fact-finding committee appointed by Archbishop Romero has apparently been unable to do its work because of governmen~ harassment...
...The newspaper diatribes penned by the scribes of the landholders organizations could be anthologized into a book...
...and l~e plan would take decades to reach the whole country, at least at its original pace...
...large landholders produce coffee, sugar, cotton and beef if they have land or can rent it...
...U.S...
...Opposition forces, including the Catholic Church, see .the problem :as a systematic repression of forces proposing basic change...
...Some years ago a number of priests were trying newer approaches to evangelization in rural areas...
...a shoestring opposition newspaper was allowed to resume publication...
...When there is a word of a demonstration, troops occupy the plazas preventively (prompting someone to quip: "When we call for a civilian demonstration we get a military demonstration...
...There is a "systematic attempt to divide the church by alleging that Christian leaders who want change in the social order are subversives or Communists...
...The UNO claimed fraud and as part of its evidence adduced a taped radio message which seemed to be instructing local electoral authorities on how to doctor the vote (e.g...
...Government and military figures tend to see priests using these approaches as the "agitators'" or "brains ''~ for the peasant groups (thereby revealing their own assumption that the peasants by themselves are incapable...
...He compared a secret eucharist he attended in the cane fields to avoid detection by security forces to the catacomb meetings of early Christians...
...The government revived a party to the right of the PCN to give a semblance of opposition...
...But to call .them terrorist in any sense is to stretch the meaning of the term...
...Two left wing guerrilla groups have been active in recent years, the ERP (People's Revolutionary Army) and the FPL (.Popular Liberation Forces...
...Some observers believe that President Romero was actualty in charge during Molina's final, brutal months in office...
...With the power of opposition political parties nuUifled, the press in the service of the upper class, and peasant organizations persecuted, the church by default has come to function as a center for expression of opposition...
...The government of lameduck president Molina had .taken a hard line in refusing to negotiate with the FPL when it kidnapped the foreign minister Borgonovo, and a state of siege had been declared...
...Those who remained claim that they are unable .to organize because their leaders in towns and villages are persecuted...
...Strikes and demonstrations are made illegal...
...investments are modest a~beit significanr when seen from the Salvadorean side...
...Lozaao returned to private life ~ust .before President Romero took office on July I, but the Carter administration did delay the appointment of a successor, a wrist sl~p to the government...
...The press gave the government version: two peasant organizations, FECCAS (Christian Federation of Salvadorean Peasants) and UTC (Farmworkers Union) had attacked villagers to force them into joining their organization, killing 29 people and forcing 2000 to flee...
...and some peasant demonstrations were tolerated for a few months...
...In fact this bizarre threat served to put El Salvador on the map of human rights violators...
...Archbishop Oscar Romero has vigorously defended these priests against charges of Communism or meddling in politics...
...In 1976 the government proposed a non-radical "Agrarian Transformation" plan: large landholdings would be cut down to 50 acres and owners would be compensated in cash and bonds, with incen.tives to reinvest in industry...
...A week-long UNO vigil after the election was ended by forze and an untold amount of bloodshed...
...Early last year a number of priests were deported, others who .had left the country were not allowed to return, two were assassinated, and still others left after repeated death threats...
...after a fact-finding trip .to El Salvador, January 1978...
...The ~itle of one advertisement was: "The Gospel According to Saint Marx...
...Top UNO leaders went into exile...
...Tourism was way down and the general business climate was bad...
...You frequently hear the remark: "It's better to die of a bullet than die of hunger...
...when the decapitated body of one was found some peasants captured those considered responsible (.members of ORDEN, a government-directed paramilitary group) and forced them to dig a grave and beg forgiveness of the murdered peasant leader...
...Several arguments have been employed in defense of U.S...
...Robert Drinan (D-Mass...
...When he officially became Presidem, however, he took some steps to improve the government's image...
...General Humberto Romero, the PCN candidate, who had openly sided with the landholders during the "Agrarian Transformation" controversy, could count on using .the state apparatus and on substantial funding...
...Their actions are essentially non-violent, such as large demonstrations of peasants marching in San Salvador wit.h economic demands such as a raise in the minimum wage...
...that most of the opposition is fundamentally non-violent and that the majority of victims of violence are peasants killed or "disappeared" by security forces or ORDEN, in other words, by the government itself...
...Frank Devine was named ambassador and, while 'he has been cautious" in public statements, he has created the impression within E1 Salvador that tensions over human rights violations have diminished...
...was in on the planning and ready to help with financing...
...However, the story deserves attention both for itself and for what it says of U.S...
...The next day the National Guard arrived, arresting FECCAS leaders...
...Since another provision of the law makes illegal giving out "false or tendentious news or information," people who supplied material for this report could get two years or more in prison, although to my knowledge this provision has not been applied yet...
...Since ore of the propaganda techniques has been to lump all opposition together as "terrorist" it is important to look at each of these forces in itself...
...A few of their members carry arms, so that they can return fire, and some of them have taken responsibility for the bombing of property, the cutting of telephone wires, etc...
...The church radio station gives alternative versions of inoidents of violence in the countryside...
...To date the signals sent by the Carter administration seem to reflect the "terrorisrn" reading: Inquiry about the roots of violence inevitably leads to land tenure...
...During early 1977 the vote on a $90 million hydroelectric project to be financed by the InterAmerican Development Bank had been delayed, apparently by the U.S...
...A California newspaper owner, Ignacio Lozano, was appointed U.S...
...Rep...
...A White warriors Union was threatening to assassinate all Jesuits...
...In fact priests are usually not in leadership roles: in some cases they draw a fairly sharp line between their "evangel~ation" and its organizational spinoffs while in others .they seek to "accompany" their people even after they have made such a political option...
...put in more sugar than coffee...
...Drinan recognized that no priests have been killed since Romero took office but saw a more subtle kind of repression: "We heard countless persons report to us that they are afraid to have the Catholic Bible in the house, .that they are afraid to listen to the Mass on the Catholic radio station...
...Government spokesmen called the plan "an insurance policy for our grandchildren...
...Church sources also report thst on March 17 a group of FECCAS-UTC peasants were returning from a fruitless demonstration seeking better conditions for land rental when they were ambushed by troops and shot at from helicopters...
...Yet the peasants must supplement their own farm incomes by working for about $2.20 a day during harvest time...
...For some years many peasants have channeled their political energies into mass organizations, the BPR (Revolutionary People's ,Bloc), which includes FECCAS and UTC, and FAPU (United Popular Action Front...
...Apparently because he was not a career diplomat, Lozano felt free to take the Carter human rights rhetoric seriously...
...our leverage is really limited...
...Massive fraud was facilitated since the PCN already controlled all seats in the Assembly and all mayoralties in the country and could call on members of the paramilitary group ORDEN, who are present even in .the tiniest village...
...However, the United States is willy-nilly involved, particularly at a time when it proclaims human rights to be integral to its foreign policy...
...Many say that poliitical parties have been reduced to impotence...
...Church human rights groups seek to gather documentation on killings and disappearances perpetrated by security forces or ORDEN...
...These incidents--,and contradictory versions of them --exemplify the ongoing strife and polarization in E1 Salvador...
...He was shot ~after the government refused to negotiate...
...In all between 20 and 25 priests (about 10 percent of the Catholic clergy) have been put out of commission...
...This year El Salvador will export $650 million in coffee...
...Nine were killed, 42 were wounded and several "disappeared...
...Statistically, 2 percent of landholders have 60 percent of the arable land while 92 percent of the farmers must divvy up 27 percent of the land...
...These groups have frequently set off bombs and or commandeered radio stations...
...In May the government unleashed a military operation, with .tanks, planes and troops, against the region of Agnilares, which was considered a hotbed of peasant activity (and was the parish of Rutilio Grande, a highly respected Jesuit priest who had been murdered...
Vol. 105 • October 1978 • No. 20
