Shuffling the Deck Chairs
It's the old joke. Restructuring the government of El Salvador is like shuffling the deck chairs on the last voyage of the Titanic. The Salvadorean ship of state is in difficult waters. As a...
...Washington Post, May 2, 1982...
...The president of the new government is Alvaro Magafia, 56, a lawyer, economist and for the last 17 years the head of the Salvadorean Mortgage Bank...
...Interview with Duarte campaign manager, December, 1979...
...It is the old tactic of dividing what the State Department calls the "democrats" of the rebel forces from the "Marxist revolutionaries...
...In El Salvador these posts are all oriented toward defending the effects of political and economic decisions, with little power to shape those decisions...
...Divided though they may be on who gets what jobs, the six parties are committed to the war-for the moment...
...Negotiations with the FMLN/FDR are out of the question, but during the calm before the storm a token effort will be made at reconciliation, international grandstanding to create an image of generosity before the bloodbath...
...Printing Office: Washington, D.C., 1981), p. 187...
...Knowing that the rebels will never meet with him, he has said that he is "willing to talk" to the MNR and the UDN, two of the opposition parties of the FDR...
...Over the past two years he has grown close to the Christian Democrats...
...1 The new government appears confident, even smug, about its military position, preparing for a major offensive sometime between June and August...
...Noteworthy by his absence is GeneralJaime Abdul Guti6rrez, who represented the reform-minded young officers in the coup of 1979...
...he says it will be his last...
...But in the showdown over Magafia, the Embassy relied on its old ally, the military, to get its message across...
...So Garcia has survived again, underscoring what has been said of him repeatedly for the past two years: the general, head of all of the armed forces, is the most powerful man in El Salvador...
...D'Aubuisson's triumph strengthens sectors in the armed forces whose defeat was the explicit purpose of the young officers' coup of October 1979...
...Govt...
...GeneralJaime Guti~rrez is regarded as a leader of that camp...
...6. Ibid...
...May free men everywhere, as well as enemies of the democratic process, take note...
...When he returned from exile in 1979, he thought he could tame the political cyclone...
...He has three...
...He is a compromise candidate, strongly supported by the military...
...But the danger remains...
...New York Times, April 6, 1982...
...And ARENA's leader and probable presidential candidate in the future elections, Roberto D'Aubuisson, is the assembly's president...
...This is not fighting-it is destroying your people...
...Soldiers in the San Carlos garrison, one of the most important in the country, have already revolted once, seeking a negotiated end to the war...
...the economy is in shambles...
...The U.S...
...the sixth, the Popular Orientation Party of General Medrano, won no seats but has entered into the rightist alliance against the Christian Democrats...
...He defines his presidential role as an "administrator" and "advisor...
...After a month of bitter wrangling among the six political parties that participated in the elections, the Salvadorean armed forces, and the U.S...
...policymakers have tried to urge the Salvadorean government and military leaders to control...
...New York Times, April 13, 1982...
...D'Aubuisson's supporters circulated leaflets calling Magafia, who is Roman Catholic, a "little Jew" and communist...
...And now Garcia is alone...
...the reformist veneer of its government is seriously scratched...
...Each of the parties has carved out its set of fiefdoms...
...18Mar/Apr 1982 President Alvaro Magana...
...Secret meetings have gone on between dissident officers and the FMLN/FDR...
...A fox," as a former co-worker called him, the new president has a task that would frighten supremely experienced politicians...
...That post went to the National Concilation Party, which filled it with its best known and most savvy politician, Francisco ("Chachi") Guerrero...
...3. Thomas A. Sancton, "The Making of a President," Time, May 10, 1982, p. 37...
...2 But what went on during the first month after the elections is only the curtain raiser...
...You deceive yourselves, saying you are fighting for the people," the ads say...
...It has been a disgrace...
...10 How long the government will sit is even a subject of debate...
...21 SHUFFLING THE DECK CHAIRS 1. Washington Post, April 30, 1982...
...There is no Duarte to field the tough questions, to make things look good-or not quite so bad...
...While president of the bank, Magafia won favor with the armed forces by making loans to them at below-market interest rates...
...Approaching 60, Duarte seems headed for the peculiar oblivion of Latin American politicians who rise on the tide of populism but finally cannot bring about the changes they promise...
...After Magafia's election Hinton declared triumphantly, and prematurely: "Democracy is at work...
...9 He is close to the National Conciliation Party and rumored repeatedly to be their candidate in the eventual presidential elections...
...Duarte's departure has occasioned little public mourning, especially at the U.S...
...Then, over a photo of aMar/Apr 1982 long line of people waiting to vote: "On the contrary, the people you say you are fighting for rejected you...
...The Christian Democrats want the elections in one year, as the U.S...
...Not only Magafia and his vice-presidents, but all of the cabinet and subcabinet appointments, require the assembly's approval...
...Among its first steps, the new government has announced amnesty for guerrillas and begun an advertising campaign to get members of the FMLN/FDR to surrender...
...Congress withheld $100 million in economic aid, pending sufficient Christian Democrats in the new interim government...
...Ambassador Robert White, Garcia also has political ambitions outside the world of the armed forces...
...while the Christian Democrats logged in with the third: Pablo Mauricio Alvergue...
...Washington Post, May 2, 1982...
...three vicepresidents were named, and the cabinet was sliced into pieces of political pie...
...U) 1m Roberto D Aubuisson...
...Undoubtedly, he would like to be the Christian Democrats' candidate for president whenever the next elections take place...
...Now, while he may have a backstage role, he is probably finished politically...
...New York Times, February 16, 1982...
...official said, "It is not intervention...
...Moses has lost touch with his children...
...New York Times, April 30, 1982...
...ARENA did less well than expected, but it did get three key economic-related ministries: agriculture, economy and foreign commerce...
...down deep they know who D'Aubuisson is...
...New York Times, May 13, 1982...
...Embassy...
...rumors circulated that military men were threatening members of the National Conciliation Party (PCN) with physical harm if they did not support the military's candidate for president, Alvaro Magafia...
...In order of succession, the PCN got the first vice-president: its secretary general, Raul Molina Martinez...
...Embassy originally had hoped...
...So bitter was the debate about who would have the most influence in the new government, the vice-presidency had to be divided into three parts...
...New York Times, April 30, 1982...
...Jorge Bustamante, head of the electoral council, said that if ARENA won, "there will be a blood bath, a real civil war...
...Congresspeople visited the contending parties, urging moderation, while their colleagues in Washington held up $100 million in economic aid...
...however, it at once voted itself broad powers to organize the executive branch and define the scope of that power...
...Embassy, a new "government of national unity" finally was agreed upon...
...He was vice-president of the Duarte junta and in recent months a rival to Garcia's power...
...The former "official party," despite strength within the military, otherwise got the lackluster and not terribly powerful ministries of justice and public works (good for graft) and the post of Attorney General...
...military victory is the objective...
...On the day that the newly elected legislators convened their first session, a military helicopter, a machine gun waving out its door, buzzed the National Assembly...
...a deal here, a deal there will take care of it...
...7. New York Times, May 6, 1982...
...Called a "brilliant military politician" by former 19Jose Napoleon Duarte, a I I General Jose Guillermo Garcia...
...San Salvador Domestic Service, 1643GMT, May 2, 1982 as cited in FBIS, May 3, 1982, p. P2...
...4. Washington Post, April 30, 1982...
...Out of government Duarte may be able to refurbish some of his former political luster...
...Perhaps the most telling appointment is that of General Jos6 Guillermo Garcia as Minister of Defense, a post he has held through all of the juntas since October 1979...
...But ARENA, the PCN and the rest think that since the Christian Democrats ruled for two years, they would like to do the same...
...His candidacy was warmly supported by the Christian Democrats and, under pressure from the military, by the National Conciliation Party as well as the small rightist parties-the Salvadorean Popular Party and the Democratic Action Party...
...on an earlier visit he had been greeted by thousands, to whom he announced: "Ha Ilegado su presidente," your president has arrived...
...Burning buses...
...the drama that follows will be increasingly dark and bloody, and one in which the United States will eventually become the central actor...
...it is ,,12 money...
...It was a month of maneuvers, with each player doing a star turn...
...What's worrisome is that the legislature goes on forever with the constitution they're writing...
...7 But it looks more like a carcass picked-clean by political wolves...
...The Dance of Death But words about amnesty and a "willingness to talk" are merely the obligatory dance of death...
...With regard to the edicts of the junta that have so angered the oligarchy and the business community, particularly the agrarian, banking and export reforms, the assembly voted to keep them on the books but promised to "perfect" them, except for the never-implemented Phase II of the agrarian reform, which it repealed...
...As a result of the elections, El Salvador is politically more polarized...
...But the dominance of D'Aubuisson and Garcia in the new government makes such hopes seem naive, if not cynical...
...Guti6rrez is not the only one who waits for him to stumble...
...Then D'Aubuisson agreed that the Christian Democrats could be in the government but their leader, Jos6 Napole6n Duarte, would have to go.' Finally, Magafia was elected president by the Constituent Assembly over ARENA's vehement opposition...
...s The political mess that Magafia has won the *Only five parties are represented in the Constituent Assembly...
...New York Times, March 2, 1982...
...1 Even D'Aubuisson sees the wisdom of that tactic...
...Early speculation in El Salvador had suggested that the ministries of planning and interior would go to ARENA, but two independents filled those jobs...
...The Treasury Police, headed by Colonel Francisco Moran, is the most notorious example of these forces...
...the most brutal elements of the Salvadorean armed forces have been strengthened and historic rifts within the military have worsened...
...Dynamiting bridges...
...Denying intervention in El Salvador's internal affairs, a U.S...
...There is a new breed, full of passionate intensity, striding the halls of the Casa Presidencial and the National Palace...
...The Christian Democrats kept foreign relations, labor, the treasury, education and the post of Advocate General of the Poor...
...and the armed forces threatened a coup d'etat...
...2 0 Two and a half years later, war has ravaged the land...
...Here is the new cast of characters and some of the potential conflicts...
...Eventually there will be more rifts among the military...
...ARENA was the big winner in the assembly, where its dominance seems certain...
...There have been uprisings in the San Miguel barracks as well as clashes between the National Guard and the Army...
...8 The Ministry of the President (which controls access to the president and is considered a plum) also unexpectedly eluded the ARENA grasp...
...Enter The New Breed The savior of El Salvador-"' 'Moses leading the children," as Duarte once called himself-could not resolve within himself the irreconcilable and bloody clash between those who own and rule El Salvador and those who work and are their victims...
...It is Magafia's first experience in politics...
...Alvergue was a member of the Duarte cabinet and the only civilian on the investigating team looking into the December 1980 murders of the four American churchwomen...
...Senate, March 18 and April 9, 1981 (U.S...
...Magafia's cabinet is a similar collage of competing politicians...
...It is ironic that it is Jos6 Napole6n Duarte, who, possibly alone among the candidates, truly respected the elections, has been defeated by them...
...New York Times, March 2, 1982...
...But most dangerous is the unrest in the barracks...
...Both Washington and the new government believe that, after the elections, these forces will give up and return to the old way...
...The principal task of the assembly is supposed to be to draft a new constitution...
...with their decline Guti6rrez' political fortunes have also entered into eclipse...
...But this time, his perennial task of maintaining the unity of the military through fancy political footwork will be even more difficult than in the past...
...Thus the executive branch of the new government seems doomed to paralysis...
...Politics is the name of the game, and it is a hard game...
...For Hinton and the rest, his usefulness is gone...
...Those sectors represent the most ruthless, 21NACLA Report explicitly fascist and corrupt elements of the military, precisely those which U.S...
...Announcing his new team, he called its formation a sign of the government's "continuing to consolidate its efforts for true national unity...
...He is increasingly active politically, speaking about the integrity of the military, the honesty and decency of its members...
...Embassy calls him a moderate and supporter of the reforms of the Christian Democrat/military junta...
...the traditional oligarchy has reinserted itself into the political process...
...Its fourth is public health, filled by a colonel...
...2. Ibid...
...There has been too much blood, too much death...
...right to preside over starts with his vicepresidents...
...As a high official of the armed forces said, "Magafia is transitory...
...They were arrested...
...And the legislature has vested itself with extraordinary power...
...4 "Making things work" is what he says his task will be, which meahs trying to harmonize the desperate and competing interests of the six parties of the government of national unity...
...Then there is the danger that some officer off fighting the war will come to resent Garcia the desk general, and throw him out...
...Form is what counts, and elections have been a success...
...confirmed by Nelson Santana...
...He looked tired and defeated for the first time in his life...
...After the FMLN destroyed half of the Salvadorean Air Force at Ilopango Airport, 2 officers and 41 enlisted men and mechanics were arrested for complicity in the attack's Offering a voice for the dissidents from exile in Mexico is Colonel Adolfo Majano, former junta member and the other representative of the young officers in the coup of 1979, who was kicked out of the junta in December 1980...
...Commenting on the bizarre carryings-on, a member of the ARENA executive committee said, "The guerrillas are out there dying of laughter at all this...
...5. Ibid...
...Magana chose the two independents as well as General Garcia...
...8. Ibid...
...The 1,600 officers and soldiers trained at Forts Benning and Bragg in the United States returned to El Salvador in early May...
...Opposing that tendency are officers who prefer the reform/repression model that Duarte and the Christian Democrats represent...
...the U.S...
...Suggesting a less than dynamic role for himself, Magafia says that his main concern will be to oversee the drafting of the new constitution that the assembly is charged with writing and to prepare for elections "within the next two years...
...When it becomes too bloody, too barbarous, too terrible to endure, the Christian Democrats will start to splinter...
...He is a fixer, the ultimate pragmatist...
...He talks of negotiations with the rebel forces...
...Yet there was something of Duarte's last hurrah to this campaign...
...If politics doesn't work," said a Salvadorean academician, "and [D'Aubuisson] will make sure it won't, then he has a green light for a real war.' " In February, before the elections, Dr...
...9. "The Situation in El Salvador," Hearings Before the Committee ofForeign Relations, U.S...
...It is General Jos6 Guillermo Garcia, always Garcia, who remains dominant...
...Exit Duarte...
...It had become his life's vocation to be elected president...
...Although it holds only 19 of the 60 seats, it is the key actor in the alliance of right parties, which together have 36 seats to the Christian Democrats' 24...
...In the great battles for position, the United State "weighed in heavily" to get what would look like a moderate government, according to Ambassador Deane Hinton...
...with him are Colonel Eugenio Vides Casanova at the National Guard and the head of the national telephone company, Colonel Nicolas Carranza, removed to that position because of his "abuses of power...
...ARENA got the second: Gabriel Mauricio Guti6rrez Castro, a lawyer...
...The military did it-not even the United States Embassy-the military," ARENA's Mario Redaelli whined after Magafia's election.13 And so to the war...
...the Christian Democrats threatened to go into opposition...
...The Right's desire to dominate the new government became clear in the first session of the Constituent Assembly, April 27...
Vol. 16 • March 1982 • No. 2
