The Rise and Fall of the Center
Our ministers accredited to the five little repub- lics.., have been advisers whose advice has been accepted virtually as law... We do control the destinies of Central America and we do so for the...
...Power struggles within the military--reflecting larger struggles within the bourgeoisie-had paralyzed all reforms...
...At the end of 30 days, the junta had accomplished very little...
...government embraced the new junta as the answer to its prayers for a centrist solution...
...and the intransigent oligarchy, with its private and public armies, intent on eliminating the left...
...When the junta announced a platform of reforms--originally proposed by the Popular Forum* in the final days of Romero's regime- sectors of the left adopted different attitudes toward the new government...
...Events in El Salvador quickly pushed the left toward a unified position...
...They admired Hitler and Mussolini, read Mein Kampf and specialized in repression...
...5. Cynthia Arnson and Delia Miller, "Background Information on El Salvador and U.S...
...But now it was obvious that the military could not rule alone...
...We shall paint a different portrait...
...The pro-Pentagon faction was content to link the country's development to the United States...
...The mass organizations used civil disobedience-occupying churches, ministries and markets-to press their demands for higher wages, lower rents, agrarian reform and an end to repression...
...embassy nor the colonels thought to inform Ungo or Mayorga of the delegation's visit.s In case the reforms didn't work against the left, the United States resumed military aid to El Salvador to carry out what officials privately referred to as "clean counter-insurgency...
...In November, tear gas, gas masks and bulletproof vests were sent along with a six-man Mobile Training Team to teach "riot control" to Salvadorean troops...
...FORMULA The U.S...
...The center had 10JulylAugust 1980 collapsed...
...ORDEN, the para-military forces used to spy upon and control the opposition, was abolished by decree...
...anti-communists but not fanatics...
...To forestall a popular victory in El Salvador, the U.S...
...The party was caught off guard by the coup...
...As for the so-called center, the United States distrusted the civilian members of the junta--except for Andino...
...The last chance for peaceful change had been lost...
...The civilian presence was gone...
...another by forces close to the U.S...
...The young officers flirted with the opposition parties, dominated by the tiny middle class...
...The CP notion of a "national bourgeoisie" had long been rejected by the FPL, which saw this sector as too compromised by its ties to U.S...
...maneuver to put the "enlightened" bourgeoisie in power and eliminate the popular organizations...
...It included members of the Christian Democratic Party, the MNR, the Communist Party, the LP-28 and a FAPU-related labor federation...
...Three separate coups had been in the works within the Army...
...government has tried a number of options since the fall of 1979...
...Its civilian members were well educated, honest and committed to reforms...
...So behind the smokescreen of even-handedness, the United States threw its weight to the colonels...
...FAPU and the BPR maintained a position of staunch opposition to what they viewed as a U.S...
...Their response to the October coup was immediate and negative...
...The proPentagon faction of the military was in clear control of the junta, the fascist sectors were operating with impunity through the paramilitary bands, and' the bourgeoisie was financing the death squads and controlling the economic program of the junta...
...State Department memorandum, 1927' 6JulylAugust 1980 The State Department still holds to these assumptions, more tenaciously than ever since the Sandinistas proved them wrong...
...The young officers won the race by a nose and chose Majano as their candidate...
...Unity march, January 22, 1980...
...2. NACLA interview with Guillermo Manuel Ungo, New York City, July 28, 1980...
...Years of repression and fraud had depleted the ranks of electoral parties, leaving the field open to the more militant and radical left: BPR, FAPU, LP-28...
...The new government was impressive...
...The junta's remnants and the U.S...
...The cabinet included representatives of the opposition parties, independents 8JulylAugust 1980 and the "enlightened" bourgeoisie...
...The FPL had argued consistently- against the CP, FAPU and others-that alliances with the petty bourgeoisie had to be contingent upon the ability of the working class, allied with the peasantry, to lead a broader front...
...government announced its support for the new junta: Colonels Adolfo Majano and Jaime Abdul Gutierrez...
...Its civilian members did not represent a significant social base...
...And too many of their militants had been killed to believe that the armed forces could have a change of heart...
...4 THE U.S...
...Of the mass organizations, only the BPR did not join...
...officials continued to insist that the left was to blame...
...A new generation of leaders was trying to make the party more responsive to the political climate created by the mass organizations...
...Bowdler* - then special envoy, now Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs -had been sent a few months earlier to save Nicaragua from the Sandinistas...
...References THE RISE AND FALL OF THE CENTER 1. Under Secretary of State Robert Olds, State Department Memorandum, 1927, quoted in Richard Millet, "Central American Paralysis," Foreign Policy, Summer 1980, p. 101...
...THE CENTER COLLAPSES By December, the autumn lull in the repression had ended...
...3. Tommy Sue Montgomery, "Politica estadounidese y el proceso revolucionario: el caso de El Salvador," Estudios Centroamericanos, Nos...
...The United States would continue to insist that a middle ground existed, and would find willing accomplices to this farce in the Christian Democratic Party--waiting in the wings to fill the seats on the junta left empty by men of conscience...
...Many of them, generally associated with the party's left wing, accepted posts in the new cabinet...
...New equipment would be channelled to the Army, while the National Guard and Police would be trained to use less barbaric methods...
...The question of divisions within the bourgeoisie--and the possibility of alliances with the "enlightened" sector-was settled by the bourgeoisie itself, as it closed ranks against reform and financed the growing terror...
...The UDN, legal arm of the Communist Party, accepted several cabinet positions...
...Colonel Adolfo Majano, reform-minded member of the junta...
...The BPR gave the junta 30 days to prove its sincerity, and called a moratorium on all occupations...
...A key planner in the operation which captured and murdered Che Guevara, Bowdler was rewarded, in 1968, with the ambassadorship to El Salvador and then, in 1971, to Guatemala...
...Then, to everyone's astonishment, during the first three days of January, virtually the entire cabinet resigned in protest...
...and the Marxist left, irrational and desperate, provoking martyrdom to win sympathy from the masses...
...They were modernizers...
...The death toll in the first two weeks of the junta exceeded the rate of deaths for the first 91 months of the year under Romero.s One demonstration on October 29th left 21 dead at the hands of the National Guard and led the LP-28 to join in condemning the junta...
...Its leadership was in a period of transition...
...But in the eyes of Guillermo Ungo, it was much more: "It was the crisis of a model imposed by the U.S...
...9NACLA Report ers-and discovered clandestine cemeteries that solved the mystery of the "disappeared...
...One was led by the young officers, committed to structural reform...
...All could agree that repression was the only effective response to the growing strength of the left...
...It was the last possibility for peaceful change...
...military schools...
...Pentagon...
...They couldn't be sold to the bourgeoisie, since the reforms they envisioned were more than cosmetic...
...Day by day, the civilians on the junta could feel their influence waning...
...2 THE POPULAR RESPONSE The new junta had another, more fatal flaw...
...They held public meetings in movie theaters...
...Until now Central America has always understood that governments which we recognize and support stay in power, while those we do not recognize and support fall...
...The civilians in the government allowed the demonstrations to continue...
...The young officers looked to the progressive faculty at the Central American University, while the Pentagon faction looked to their patrons among business sectors with ties to U.S...
...Ungo and Mayorga resigned from the junta...
...In the process, it has abandoned all pretense of concern for human rights when the stakes involve what it perceives as "the national interest...
...Each faction of the military had its own allies and patrons, and the power struggle among them consumed the energies of the first junta...
...The three civilians chosen to fill out the five-man junta were Guillermo Ungo, leader of the small social democratic party (MNR...
...Other questions remained to be settled...
...4. NACLA interview, Ungo...
...ORDEN, reconstituted as the Broad National Front (FAN), began to terrorize the countryside and eliminate key leaders of the popular organizations...
...And they were supported by the "enlightened" bourgeoisie and, of course, the United States...
...And still there were no reforms...
...The old guard-- Napoleon Duarte, Morales Erlich and others-were still in exile or were out of touch with active party life...
...In December, Carter re-programmed $300,000 to El Salvador, to purchase training for Salvadorean troops in U.S...
...the mass organizations were filling that space and moving beyond its bounds...
...The country was unquestionably polarized into two camps: the popular and politicalmilitary organizations, now attracting the support of moderate sectors after the first junta's failure to implement reforms...
...And the fine line between the "enlightened" sector and the old agrarian interests began to fade...
...The military quivered: pointing a finger at one of them would tangle hundreds in a web of murder and corruption...
...Institute for Policy Studies, resource paper, June, 1980, p. 7. Also, NACLA interview with Guillermo Manuel Ungo, July 30, 1980...
...They set up a commission to investigate the fate of prison*The Popular Forum was a broad-based coalition formed in September, 1979 to formulate and press for a program of reforms...
...U.S...
...6 The rationale for U.S...
...official explained...
...And in the middle, a team of military officers and civilians who single-handedly would change the course of Salvadorean history...
...You just gas 'em...
...So while the left had to be cowed into submission, it had to be done with finesse...
...As the terror intensified, U.S...
...Military Assistance to Central America...
...A CIVILIAN PRESENCE Except for two brief periods, in 1960 and 1961, no civilian had occupied the highest office since 1931...
...from 1961 to 1964...
...The bourgeoisie was outraged at the junta's "permissiveness" toward agitation in the streets...
...And after long negociations in early November to end an occupation of the Ministry of Labor, the junta promised the BPR to end the repression and to implement reforms...
...capital...
...8 As the junta disintegrated, the left began to coalesce...
...The fascists, temporarily on the sidelines, enjoyed the powerful backing of the agrarian bourgeoisie...
...And most of all, they were unconvinced that the oligarchy would stand by and allow their interests to be touched...
...Prepare to end that race...
...He hoped for better luck in El Salvador...
...But on January 10, the FPL, the RN and the Communist Party announced the formation of a coordinating council of the politicalmilitary organizations.* One day later, the BPR, FAPU, LP-28 and the UDN established the Coordinating Council of the Masses (CRM...
...The Salvadorean Army, with 30 years of U.S...
...The People's Revolutonary Army (ERP) did not par- ticipate in the Political-Military Coordinating Council because of unresolved differences, esecially with the RN...
...They wanted to believe in the young officers, yet doubted their ability to withstand the pressures of the pro-Pentagon and fascist sectors...
...With lightning and almost embarrassing speed, the U.S...
...But it grossly underestimated the loyalty of the masses to their own organizations and goals, and therefore the desperate belligerenGy of the right...
...241-252...
...The idea is that if a guy is standing with a protest sign, you don't have to cut him down with a machine gun," a U.S...
...Guillermo Ungo and Roman Mayorga, two civilians on the junta, recognized that they were being used as window-dressing for international consumption -and nothing more...
...lists and slogans: "El Salvador is the tomb of the Communists...
...Long-standing debates over strategy and tactics were being decided by the test of practice, and certain common conclusions were being reached...
...Demonstrators were fired upon by the National Guard...
...The LP-28, which had called for an insurrection immediately after the coup, now said that it would give the junta time...
...In November, when Carter sent a Defense Survey Team to El Salvador to assess the situation, neither the U.S...
...this in turn sets the human rights organizations--so influential in Romero's downfall--into motion...
...On off-duty hours, they staffed the para-military gangs and composed death *Bowdler, active in counterinsurgency operations in LA since 1956 was in charge of the Cuba desk at the State Dept...
...government has painted a portrait for the American people of a struggle between equally noxious extremes: the rightwing oligarchy of El Salvador, opposed to any mention of reform, embarrassing in its penchant for terror...
...The new junta looked for respectable civilians to share the seat of power...
...Ten years of slow but steady organizing, under the most difficult and brutal conditions, were bearing fruit: the junta had opened a small democratic space for the first time in 50 years...
...government that had failed and would continue to fail...
...Transferred to the National Security Council, in 1965 supervised the invasion of the Dominican Republic...
...They denounced the coup as a maneuver from Washington to isolate the left and preempt the creation of a truly popular regime...
...approval, they enlisted the proPentagon faction in their conspiracy...
...electoral struggle- which had divided the Communist Party from all the mass organizations--was settled by the fall of the first junta...
...But to secure support, meaning U.S...
...Daily, the mass organizations filled the streets with demonstrators, demanding a full accounting of the whereabouts of the "disappeared" and political prisoners of the Romero regime, demanding that the torturers be punished...
...They argued it was wishful thinking to believe that change would be passively accepted by the bourgeoisie...
...The question of alliances with reformist sectors was settled by the preponderant strength of the popular organizations...
...377-378, March-April 1980, pp...
...The BPR strategy was to press the new government to keep its promises--knowing that it was powerless to do so...
...military aid went something like this: the growing strength of the left provokes harsh repression from the right...
...A people's army was taking shape...
...In 1975, as part of the efforts to defeat the MPLA in Angola, Bowdler was sent as ambassador to South Africa...
...The U.S...
...ByJanuary 1980, proletarian hegemony was a fact...
...These popular organizations, with memberships in the tens of thousands, were not represented in the newly formed government...
...The United States was confident that a small dose of reform could woo the masses away from the left...
...and a third by the fascists...
...and Mario Andino, manager of the local subsidiary of the Phelps-Dodge Corporation...
...training behind it, was said to be more "professional" than the security forcesmeaning less prone to "excess" in controlling the opposition...
...On October 15, 1979, Romero was overthrown in a coup d'etat that surprised no one...
...We do control the destinies of Central America and we do so for the simple reason that the national interest absolutely dictates such a course...
...The question of armed vs...
...the CP admitted its errors and began military preparations...
...capital and to the old agrarian forces...
...They were simply too despised...
...The absence of Christian Democrats on the junta was striking...
...government tried to downplay these events as a "cabinet crisis...
...7NACLA Report In September 1979, William Bowdler flew to El Salvador to urge President Romero to resign for the good of his country...
...Roman Mayorga, rector of the Central American University...
...Ambassador Frank Devine met privately with the business sector, urging them to cooperate, to sacrifice a part in order to preserve the whole...
...Guillermo Ungo expressed these doubts in a recent NACLA interview: "The first junta was a risk--but we had to take it...
...Gutierrez would hold the key to the junta's future course...
...But they also harbored serious doubts as to the viability of the government they had agreed to join...
Vol. 14 • July 1980 • No. 4
