The rebel coalition:
C., J. & C., J.
THE REBEL COALITION REVOLUTION, TOO HAS ITS POLITICS IT IS VERY difficult to predict the behavior of guerrilla movements once they take power. Few thought Castro would establish a Communist Cuba;...
...Cayetano Carpio, former secretary general of the party, disgusted by the party's support for the Honduran war and its failure to consider revolutionary struggle, founded the FPL (Popular Liberation Forces) in 1970...
...that probably most of the country is under their control, which was not true even a year ago...
...A combination of the PCS organization with the ERP army would be a formidable combination...
...In consultation with Fidel Castro, the FAL, FARN, and FPL joined in coalition, It appears that the FPL at this point was already working toward coalition, but the Cubans provided important help...
...The ERP later founded its "mass organization," LP-28 (Popular Leagues of the 28th of February), to commemorate the date...
...This strategy, although it reveals little about what the guerrillas would actually do in power, vastly increases their chances of victory, J.C & J.C.ctory, J.C & J.C...
...no one thought that Pol Pot would kill half the Cambodian population...
...With the addition of a small new group, the PRTC (Central American Revolutionary Workers Party), it was possible to form the present FMLN (Farabundo Marti Front for National Liberation) in October, Meanwhile, the political side of the revolutionary coalition was developing...
...These groups are far more violent than the Sandinistas were or are, and have a record, unlike the Sandinistas, of killing each other and carrying out violence against civilians as well as exposing civilians to violence...
...The elections were followed by a massacre of protesting students on January...
...The FDR has importance because of its international connections, and its respectability in the cities...
...While the beliefs of these three groups about the nature of their own societies were fantasies, a similar point of view about El Salvador was, unfortunately, closer to reality...
...28, 1977...
...Within two months of the coup, however, a shift of crucial importance took place...
...The FPL was closely associated with the BPR (Popular Revolutionary Bloc) and the FARN with FAPU (Front of Unified Popular Action...
...the most notorious incident was the May 1975 split in the ERP which led to the murder of writer Roque Dalton and the development of a group of Dalton supporters, the FARN (Armed Forces of National Resistance...
...The development of these groups resulted from events particular to El Salvador as well...
...The Communists lack the military strength even of the FARN, but because of their better bureaucratic organization and their international connections, as well as (heir continued adhesion to a "moderate" popular-front strategy, have gained steadily in strength in the FMLN since its founding...
...On January 3, 1980, the Minister of Education in the first post-coup government, Salvador Samayoa, resigned and joined the FPL...
...In any negotiated settlement it would play a key role, although the U.S., despite loud comments about its desire to "split" the political guerrillas from the military ones, has done its best to discredit the FDR and the forces represented in it...
...But the "soccer war" wife Honduras ended the good times...
...and that their political line has changed from that of a small vanguard in the hills to a broad popular-front coalition...
...Villabolos may see the opportunity to be the Fidel Castro of this revolution...
...Just as U.S...
...that, through sometimes ruthless measures, their unity is increasing...
...The first Salvadoran groups to take to military struggle in the early 1970s were part of a world-wide tendency for ultra-leftists, inspired by what they took to be the lessons of Vietnam and Cuba, and by the heroic death of Che Gluevara, to break from the dull safety of orthodox Communism into armed resistance...
...This leaves long-time " moderate" and recent FPL recruit, Salvador Samayoa as the leading FPL figure, as well as removing the two FPL representatives on the DRU...
...The ERP is politically the most inconsistent of the organizations...
...After the mysterious death of its leader, Ernesto Jovel, FARN rejoined...
...The theft of the 1977 elections was far more blatant than that of 1972, reflecting the diminishing ability of the oligarchy to mobilize peasant votes...
...Thousands of Salvadoran refugees returned from Honduras...
...Every sign suggests that the military capacity of the guerrillas is rising...
...The ERP joined the original three groups in May to form the DRU (Unified Revolutionary Directorate), but within a few months the FARN withdrew...
...There was some tendency for geographical division between the groups, with FPL strongest in the center of the country and ERP in the east...
...It now seems to have the most military power...
...The same sources report that Carpio had abandoned his long-standing opposition to a negotiated settlement, something for which we have no independent evidence...
...During this period, these groups were torn by complicated ideological struggles...
...The Communists (PCS) finally abandoned the "political'' road to power and created its own small military force, PAL (Armed Forces of Liberation...
...The politics of the hard core of the revolutionary forces in El Salvador don't offer much hope for those who expect a humane, pluralist society to emerge from a guerrilla victory...
...The seven-member political-diplomatic commission which coordinates FDR-FMLN political activities consists of representatives of the MNR (Guillermo Ungo), the PCS, two small Christian Democratic splinters, FAPU, LP-28, and FPL (Samayoa...
...The FPL, always the largest of the guerrilla groups, has suffered badly in recent months...
...The Communist party of Salvador (PCS) was the oldest political party in the country, and, after the matanza of 1932, it had stuck resolutely to a "political" road...
...action has retarded but not changed the drift of the government, so Cuba's presence has sped up but not changed the evolution of the insurgency...
...According to the Nicara-guan government, a member of the FPL murdered its second-in-command, Ana Maria, and when Carpio learned of this he committed suicide...
...All three groups responded uncertainly to the October 1979 coup, but on balance felt that it was an attempt by the military to defuse popular resistance...
...It began with a coalition of the "mass" political wings of the armed groups, FAPU, BPR, LP-28, and UDN, in January 1980, and expanded on April I with the addition of the social-democratic MNR (National Revolutionary Movement), dissident Christian Democrats, and most of the labor unions of the country into the FDR (Democratic Revolutionary Front...
...In the next year the ERP (People's Revolutionary Army) developed from the left wing of the Christian Democrats and from other Communist breakaways...
...Of the different rebel groups, the FPL was the largest, most "orthodox" (in its opposition to the "revisionist bureaucracies" of Communism), and best-organized, while its ally, the BPR, was easily the most important of the "'mass organizations...
...As for the FMLN, the three most important groups are the FPL, the ERP, and the FAL (PCS...
...In many respects, their political stance was almost indistinguishable from the positions of the Red Brigades, the Weathermen, or the Baader-Meinhof Gang...
...The Communists reacted by clinging ever more tightly to their "reformist" strategy, helping to organize the coalition that was to back Duarte for president in .1972...
...The DRU, the governing body of the FMLN, consists of the leader of each of the five military groups, plus extra representatives from the FPL (formerly, Ana Maria) and the PCS and the eight comandantes...
...The governing coalition was able to sweep the 1970 elections for the Assembly by running "heroes of the war...
...The FARN was the richest military group, thanks to a series of kidnappings of prominent businessmen from major corporations...
...By 1969 this road seemed to be offering promise: an opposition alliance actually gained control of the National Assembly...
...Its leaders, Joaquin Villabolos, was the killer of Roque Dal-ton...
...Its line has varied wildly over time, although it has consistently been the most violent of the groups...
...In the following two years the resisting forces began for the first time to take on the quality of mass movements...
...There is some evidence that he has accepted a "moderate" strategy and long-term alliance with the PCS...
...The ERP had the most purely militarist approach and a reputation for being the most efficient fighters...
...These forces began to gain recruits after the theft of the 1972 election, but remained relatively unimportant until they began to organize their own mass popular organizations in 1974-75...
...The important Honduran market was lost...
...The first 14 months of the new coalition were noticeably u'neasy...
Vol. 110 • June 1983 • No. 11
