EL SALVADOR The New and Old War
Shenk, Janet
El Salvador no longer dominates the headlines from Central America. The foreign press corps has dwindled to a handful of reporters. Most cover the entire region and spend the bulk of their time...
...From there, the army takes them to already overflowing camps for displaced persons-part of the process of emptying the sea to Soldier in Usulutin catch the fish...
...We worked tirelessly to elect Napoleon Duarte,'' he says...
...Still No Justice Adrian Esquino, a short, round man with a fierce pride in preserving his Indian heritage, is a leading spokesperson for what the U.S...
...Moreover, the Right's tremendous leverage over the economy is a powerful bargaining chip with Duarte, as is its influence over hard-line sectors of the military...
...The neighboring landowners used to graze their cattle on that land...
...But, as always in El Salvador, the deck has been reshuffled...
...and 10 U.S...
...It doesn't do any good...
...Esquino tries to prod her into talking, but she says she's told the story 100 times-to reporters, to congressmen and senators, and visiting delegations like our own...
...And for that, at least, people are grateful...
...There is concern within Duarte's own party that he will continue to negotiate more with the Right than with the Left...
...The results of the recent elections stunned even the victors...
...Already there are signs of regrouping, with the partial eclipse of Roberto D'Aubuisson and the rise of a "respectable" new right-wing par- ty, Patria Libre (Free Fatherland), headed by former ARENA deputy, Hugo Harrera...
...You must tell it a hundred times a day if need be," says Esquino, "and never lose hope...
...The guerrillas are less visible than they were a year ago, operating in smaller units, ambushing army patrols and inflicting heavy damage on the country's economic infrastructure...
...hut she says she's told the story 100 times-to reporters, to congressmen and senators, and visiting delegations like our own...
...The widows sitting on the porch of a wooden shack exude a bitterness that is exceedingly rare in El Salvador, even among those who have experienced unspeakable suffering...
...Even the recent elections did not draw a crowd...
...Duarte is no longer blocked by the Right majority in the Assembly...
...He is president of the National Association of Salvadorean Indians (ANIS), representing 15,000 members nationwide, and a member of the executive committee of El Salvador's largest labor coalition, The Popular Democratic Union (UPD...
...Who will work the land now...
...But countervailing pressures are mounting, as trade unions, Christian base communities, and other groups of the Left and center begin to cautiously stretch the new political space created by the Assembly elections...
...Over the last year, there has been an increase in guerrilla activity, particularly to the north of Sonsonate in Santa Ana province...
...Now, however, they expect results...
...President Magafia promised 100,000 colones (about $25,000) for the families, but we've never seen a penny of it...
...Americans have to stop dwelling on the sins of this country's past...
...This is Day One in El Salvador, a new beginning...
...The community was meeting to discuss the water problem: fetching water now means walking three kilometers each way, up and down steep, dusty paths...
...He did so at the expense of his supporters within the trade union movement and the peasantry, who, lacking alternatives, nonetheless supported the Christian Democrats in the Assembly elections...
...The mass organizations that galvanized El Salvador's popular movement in the 1970s made little headway in the west...
...The country is in transition, and how power will be redistributed is still to be determined...
...Today, there is little hope in Las Hojas that justice will be served...
...Both the army and the FMLN claim high casualties on the other side, but the military conflict has become a slow war of attrition, a stalemate that takes a regular quota of lives each week with no end in sight...
...It's terrible what happened--but that was two years ago...
...ANIS had purchased the abandoned hacienda in 1978...
...But real power in El Salvador has never been determined at the ballot box...
...Even the recent elections did not draw a crowd...
...At daybreak on February 22, three truckloads of soldiers from the Sonsonate garrison arrived in Las Hojas, accompanied by 10 masked menmembers of the local civil defense patrol-who proceeded to identify people whose names were on a list of alleged "subversives...
...Peasants wanted to be left alone...
...But the legacy of 1932 has made people more resistant to political organizing, more determined to avoid involvement in any cause...
...Low-intensity conflict," the term now in vogue to describe El Salvador's war, just does not keep the TV cameras rolling...
...Today, the older generation still speaks Ndhuatl as well as Spanish, and women in the outlying villages wear the long, wrap-around skirts of cloth hand-woven in Panchimalco...
...We risked our lives to do it, and when he was elected [in May 1984], people thought everything would change...
...But the meeting was broken up by soldiers, who said they'd been informed that "subversives" were stirring up trouble...
...It was also the epicenter of the peasant uprising that shook El Salvador in 1932 and ended in the massacre of 30,000 people...
...Back in the city of Sonsonate, two members of ANtS are waiting for Esquino outside his office...
...the captain who led the unit was given a desk job in charge of intelligence...
...On April 9, they made headlines, however, by attacking the village of Santa Cruz Loma, 35 miles southeast of the capital, and killing both armed members of the local civil defense unit and unarmed civilians, including several children...
...A new wing is being added to the ANJS headquarters in the provincial capital of Sonsonate, with monies donated by the AFL-CIO, and the new jeep parked outside is on loan from the American Institute for Free Labor Development (AIFLD...
...Could Adrian please call around to the garrisons to see what has become of them...
...There is no debate in Congress on the issue...
...advisers stationed in Sonsonate were quietly withdrawn...
...Las Hojas: No hope for justice The stories of continual harassment do not end at Las Hojas...
...But we never expected trouble...
...It was an act of hate...
...The results of the recent elections stunned even the victors...
...and 10 U.S...
...Who will work the land now...
...Several months after taking office, Duarte created a special commission to investigate the massacre and four other "symbolic" cases that he said would serve as a litmus test of his presidency...
...But real power in El Salvador has never been determined at the ballot box...
...Most cover the entire region and spend the bulk of their time in Managua or the contra camps in Honduras...
...A younger woman tells us that two months ago, her two sons were picked up on their way home from school and taken to the army garrison for train- ing...
...The next day, at our U.S...
...The army is more sophisticated in its methods these days, placing greater emphasis on "psychologi- cal operations" and "civic action...
...It's terrible what happened-but that was two years ago...
...The guerrillas are less visible than they were a year ago, operating in smaller units, ambushing army patrols and inflicting heavy damage on the country's economic infrastructure...
...The head of the Armed Forces Press Office takes out his silver pointer and shows us on a map the area where Villalobos was hit, and the flight path of the helicopter that came from Nicaragua to pick up his corpse...
...Now they've taken my sons...
...Not coincidentally, he has also fallen out of favor with AIFLD...
...The neighboring landowners used to graze their cattle on that land...
...Unconditional U.S...
...Reshuffling the Deck To date, three members of the civil defense patrol have been detained in the Las Hojas case...
...Disconnected from the guerrilla movement and suspicious of it, they are nonetheless frustrated by the lack of justice, continuing repression and the war that encroaches more each day...
...In Sonsonate, the overwhelming support for the Christian Democrats in the Assembly elections was a vote for peace, for a national dialogue they say must include not just the government and the guerrillas, but also those caught in between...
...But we are still waiting for justice.'' Justice, for the Indians of Sonsonate, is defined as punishment of those responsible for the 1983 massacre at Las Hojas, a small farming cooperative run by ANIS...
...The armed forces, still the ultimate arbiter of political life in El Salvador, hold veto power over any and all initiatives...
...It doesn't do any good...
...We worked tirelessly to elect Napole6n Duarte," he says...
...But, as always in El Salvador, the deck has been reshuffled...
...All the money goes for weapons...
...Even Victors Stunned But the more subtle and complex story in El Salvador today is the political battle being waged behind the scenes...
...During his first 10 months in office, Napole6n Duarte dedicated himself to building bridges to the Right, to making his presidency acceptable to his long-time enemies, the army and the private sector...
...The next day, at our U.S...
...The big story this week is that guerrilla commander JoaquIn Villalobos, reputed to be the FMLN'S top military strategist, is dead...
...Colonel Gonzalez Araujo was transferred to the Ministry of Defense...
...The country is in transition, and how power will be redistributed is still to be determined...
...they yell threats and throw stones and steal our wood...
...The mass organizations that galvanized El Salvador's popular movement in the 1970s made little headway in the west...
...All the money goes for weapons...
...They wanted to build a road through the land and we refused...
...Over the last year, there has been an increase in guerrilla activity, particularly to the north of Sonsonate in Santa Ana province...
...advisers stationed in Sonsonate were quietly withdrawn...
...Soldiers had come to their village that morning and taken two young men away...
...they say...
...Esquino tries to prod her into talking...
...The archbishop denounced the attack in his Sunday homily...
...An elderly woman, whose 75-year-old husband was killed in the massacre, anto REPORT ON THE AMERICAS those who have gone to the polls three times in the last three years...
...The American public has lost interest in El Salvador," their editors tell them...
...The army is more sophisticated in its methods these days, placing greater emphasis on "psychological operations" and "civic action...
...Embassy likes to refer to as El Salvador's ''democratic center.'' He is president of the National Association of Salvadorean Indians (ANIS), representing 15,000 members nationwide, and a member of the executive committee of El Salvador's largest labor coalition, The Popular Democratic Union (UPD...
...The community was meeting to discuss the water problem: fetching water now means walking three kilometers each way, up and down steep, dusty paths...
...The civil patrols come every night now...
...Still No Justice Adrian Esquino, a short, round man with a fierce pride in preserving his Indian heritage, is a leading spokes- person for what the U.S...
...Today, there is little hope in Las Hojas that justice will be served...
...Maybe we were too successful, too independent," says Fermin Guardado, whose 20-year-old son was among the dead...
...Duarte's Christian Democratic Party won 153 of 202 mayoral posts, and 33 of the 60 seats in the National Assembly...
...My husband is dead, Now they've taken my sons...
...A moment of drama has passed...
...Justice, for the Indians of Sonsonate, is defined as punishment of those responsible for the 1983 massacre at Las Hojas, a small farming cooperative run by ANIS...
...Soldiers had come to their village that morning and taken two young men away...
...MAY/JUNE 1985 II GUATEMALA . swers our questions in monosyllables...
...But even in the west, the effects of El Salvador's civil war are being felt...
...He did so at the expense of his supporters within the trade union movement and the peasantry, who, lacking alternatives, nonetheless supported the Christian Democrats in the Assembly elections...
...An already desperate economic situation has been aggravated by the influx of migrants from war zones in the east...
...But three days later, a delegation from the United States, headed by former Congressman Jim Shannon, meets with Villalobos in the town of PerquIn in Morazan province...
...And who will protect us...
...Resistant to Political Organizing Sonsonate province, home of the majestic Izalco volcano, was once the heart of El Salvador's indigenous Lenca and Pipil culture...
...During his first 10 months in office, Napoleon Duane dedicated himself to building bridges to the Right, to making his presidency acceptable to his long-time enemies, the army and the private sector...
...Colonel Gonzalez Araujo was transferred to the Ministry of Defense...
...The Right is in disarray following its debacle in the March elections, but its resiliency should not be underestimated...
...There is concern within Duarte's own party that he will continue to negotiate more with the Right than with the Left...
...Maybe we were too successful, too independent," says FermIn Guardado, whose 20-year-old son was among the dead...
...Another woman begins: "They killed my two sons and my husband died of sadness...
...Napoleon Duane's control of the National Assembly does not translate automatically into the ability-or the political will-to curb human rights abuses, punish those responsible, carry out reforms and pursue peace talks with the Left...
...Campaigning for the presidency a year later, Napole6n Duarte pledged he would make the Las Hojas case a priority...
...They know we are women left alone...
...Patience is running out among The New and the Old War Soldier In Usuluton MAY/JUNE 1985 9 El Salvador The New and the Old War BY JANET SHENK El Salvador no longer dominates the headlines from Central America...
...You must tell it a hundred times a day if need be," says Esquino, "and never lose hope...
...Ambassador Jeane Kirkpatrick visited the battlesite on a one-day trip to El Salvador, assuring ample coverage on the evening news...
...Travelling recently to El Salvador's western provinces with a delegation organized by the Commission on U.S-Central American Relations reinforced this sense that a deep frustration is building...
...Disconnected from the guerrilla movement and suspicious of it, they are nonetheless frustrated by the lack of justice, continuing repression and the war that encroaches more each day...
...A new wing is being added to the ANIS headquarters in the provincial capital of Sonsonate, with monies donated by the AFL-CIO, and the new jeep parked outside is on loan from the American Institute for Free Labor Development (AIFLD...
...ANIS had purchased the abandoned hacienda in 1978...
...We stop at another village where the men gather at the roadside to tell us of last week's events...
...Today, the older generation still speaks Nahuatl as well as Spanish, and women in the outlying villages wear the long, wrap-around skirts of cloth hand-woven in Panchimalco...
...But even in the west, the effects of El Salvador's civil war are being felt...
...The day of the massacre, a delegation from ANIS went to see the commander of the local garrison, Colonel Elmer Gonzalez Araujo, with no result...
...The peasants and Indians of Sonsonate are becoming part of a "left flank" with which President Duarte will have to contend...
...Despite his "centrist" credentials, Adrian Esquino has become a thorn in the side of the government his members helped to elect...
...President Magana promised 100,000 co/ones (about $25,000) for the families, but we've never seen a penny of it...
...But the meeting was broken up by soldiers, who said they'd been informed that "subversives" were stirring up trouble...
...Unconditional U.S...
...they say...
...The Right is in disarray following its debacle in the March elections, but its resiliency should not be underestimated...
...Already there are signs of regrouping, with the partial eclipse of Roberto D'Aubuisson and the rise of a "respectable" new right-wing party, Patria Libre (Free Fatherland), headed by former ARENA deputy, Hugo Barrera...
...support for the war effort has made them more confident of winning a military victory, and less inclined to seriously engage in negotiations...
...We risked our lives to do it, and when he was elected [in May 19841, people thought everything would change...
...The day of the massacre, a delegation from ANIS went to see the commander of the local garrison, Colonel Elmer Gonzalez Araujo, with no result...
...Former U.N...
...They wanted to build a road through the land and we refused...
...On April 9, they made headlines, however, by attacking the village of Santa Cruz Loma, 35 miles southeast of the capital, and killing both armed members of the local civil defense unit and unarmed civilians, including several children...
...But the aerial bombardments that have become a daily routine in the east, the massive army sweeps in search of guerrilla camps, are still unknown in the west...
...A younger woman tells us that two months ago, her two sons were picked up on their way home from school and taken to the army garrison for training...
...Even Victors Stunned But the more subtle and complex story in El Salvador today is the political battle being waged behind the scenes...
...This is Day One in El Salvador, a new beginning...
...Cooperatives established since 1980 under the agrarian reform are going bankrupt for lack of credit and technical assistance...
...the jeep was repossessed a few days later...
...They travelled to San Salvador to meet with then President Magana, who promised an immediate investigation, but no report was ever made public...
...Often, they collaborated with the army...
...Embassy briefing, they gently scold us for visiting Las Hojas, for journeying into what they consider El Salvador's past...
...The infamous Treasury Police now distribute toys...
...the captain who led the unit was given a desk job in charge of intelligence...
...Peasants wanted to be left alone...
...Radio communications have been intercepted, he says, revealing plans for his funeral...
...Helicopters "rescue" civilians fleeing army ground sweeps and take them to the nearest garrison to watch propaganda films, shower and eat a good meal...
...Often, they collaborated with the army...
...Embassy briefing, they gently scold us for visiting Las Hojas, for journeying into what they consider El Salvador's past...
...Now, however, they expect results...
...Napole6n Duarte's control of the National Assembly does not translate automatically into the ability-or the political will-to curb human rights abuses, punish those responsible, carry out reforms and pursue peace talks with the Left...
...But we never expected trouble...
...But three days later, a delegation from the United States, headed by former Congressman Jim Shannon, meets with Villalobos in the town of Perquin in Morazin province...
...Moreover, the Right's tremendous leverage over the economy is a powerful bargaining chip with Duarte, as is its influence over hard-line sectors of the military...
...The guerrillas have never established a significant presence there...
...But countervailing pressures are mounting, as trade unions, Christian base communities, and other groups of the Left and center begin to cautiously stretch the new political space created by the Assembly elections...
...Everytime we put up fences, they tore them down...
...By the end of the day, 74 bodies were scattered at various sites around Las Hojas, most of them shot in the head, others hacked to pieces with machetes...
...The peasants and Indians of Sonsonate are becoming part of a "left flank" with which President Duarte will have to contend...
...Not coincidentally, he has also fallen out of favor with AIFLD...
...We'd always made it a point to be on good terms with the army...
...Former U.N...
...Helicopters "rescue" civilians fleeing army ground sweeps and take them to the nearest garrison to watch propaganda films, shower and eat a good meal...
...Reshuffling the Deck To date, three members of the civil defense patrol have been detained in the Las Hojas case...
...Most cover the entire region and spend the bulk of their time in Managua or the contra camps in Honduras...
...An elderly woman, whose 75-year-old husband was killed in the massacre, anREPORT ON THE AMERICAS 10swers our questions in monosyllables...
...There is no debate in Congress on the issue...
...The civil patrols come every night now...
...By the end of the day, 74 bodies were scattered at various sites around Las Hojas, most of them shot in the head, others hacked to pieces with machetes...
...My husband is dead...
...But we are still waiting for justice...
...The head of the Armed Forces Press Office takes out his silver pointer and shows us on a map the area where Villalobos was hit, and the flight path of the helicopter that came from Nicaragua to pick up his corpse...
...Everytime we put up fences, they tore them down...
...Duarte's Christian Democratic Party won 153 of 202 mayoral posts, and 33 of the 60 seats in the National Assembly...
...The archbishop denounced the attack in his Sunday homily...
...Resistant to Political Organizing Sonsonate province, home of the majestic Izalco volcano, was once the heart of El Salvador's indigenous Lenca and Pipil culture...
...they yell threats and throw stones and steal our wood...
...Radio communications have been intercepted, he says, revealing plans for his funeral...
...The American public has lost interest in El Salvador," their editors tell them...
...We stop at another village where the men gather at the roadside to tell us of last week's events...
...seven people in my family died for no reason, just hate...
...At day- break on February 22, three truckloads of soldiers from the Sonsonate garrison arrived in Las Hojas, accompanied by 10 masked menmembers of the local civil defense patrol-who proceeded to identify people whose names were on a list of alleged "subversives...
...Back in the city of Sonsonate, two members of ANIS are waiting for Esquino outside his office...
...the jeep was repossessed a few days later...
...seven people in my family died for no reason, just hate...
...They travelled to San Salvador to meet with then President Magafia, who promised an immediate investigation, but no report was ever made public...
...And for that, at least, people are grateful...
...Several months after taking office, Duarte created a special commission to investigate the massacre and four other "symbolic" cases that he said would serve as a litmus test of his presidency...
...We'd always made it a point to be on good terms with the army...
...The widows sitting on the porch of a wooden shack exude a bitterness that is exceedingly rare in El Salvador, even among those who have experienced unspeakable suffering...
...support for the war effort has made them more confident of winning a military victory, and less inclined to seriously engage in negotiations...
...The guerrillas have never established a significant presence there...
...Low-intensity conflict," the term now in vogue to describe El Salvador's war, just does not keep the TV cameras rolling...
...But the legacy of 1932 has made people more resistant to political organizing, more determined to avoid involvement in any cause...
...Americans have to stop dwelling on the sins of this country's past...
...An already desperate economic situation has been aggravated by the influx of migrants from war zones in the east...
...Ambassador Jeane Kirkpatrick visited the battlesite on a one-day trip to El Salvador, assuring ample coverage on the evening news...
...Embassy likes to refer to as El Salvador's "democratic center...
...Campaigning for the presidency a year later, Napoleon Duarte pledged he would make the Las Hojas case a priority...
...Could Adrian please call around to the garrisons to see what has become of them...
...It was also the epicenter of the peasant uprising that shook El Salvador in 1932 and ended in the massacre of 30,000 people...
...Another woman begins: "They killed my two sons and my husband died of sadness...
...The big story this week is that guerrilla commander Joaquin Villalobos, reputed to be the FMLN's top military strategist, is dead...
...They know we are women left alone...
...There is not enough work on the sugar and coffee plantations...
...Las Hojas: No hope for justice The stories of continual harassment do not end at Las Hojas...
...Patience is running out among MAY/JUNE 1985 1 I II 9those who have gone to the polls three times in the last three years...
...From there, the army takes them to already overflowing camps for displaced persons-part of the process of emptying the sea to catch the fish...
...There is not enough work on the sugar and coffee plantations...
...No charges or disciplinary actions have been brought against the officers who led the unit or the soldiers who carried out the executions...
...No charges or disciplinary actions have been brought against the officers who led the unit or the soldiers who carried out the executions...
...There's still no justice, no help for the widows and orphans...
...Travelling recently to El Salvador's western provinces with a delegation organized by the Commission on U.S.-Central American Relations reinforced this sense that a deep frustration is building...
...The infamous Treasury Police now distribute toys...
...Both the army and the FMLN claim high casualties on the other side, but the military conflict has become a slow war of attrition, a stalemate that takes a regular quota of lives each week with no end in sight...
...Despite his "centrist" credentials, Adrian Esquino has become a thorn in the side of the government his members helped to elect...
...Cooperatives established since 1980 under the agrarian reform are going bankrupt for lack of credit and technical assistance...
...There's still no justice, no help for the widows and orphans...
...The armed forces, still the ultimate arbiter of political life in El Salvador, hold veto power over any and all initiatives...
...In Sonsonate, the overwhelming support for the Christian Democrats in the Assembly elections was a vote for peace, for a national dialogue they say must include not just the government and the guerrillas, but also those caught in between...
...Duarte is no longer blocked by the Right majority in the Assembly...
...A moment of drama has passed...
...It was an act of hate...
...And who will protect us...
...But the aerial bombardments that have become a daily routine in the east, the massive army sweeps in search of guerrilla camps, are still unknown in the west...
Vol. 19 • May 1985 • No. 3
