LA PALMA A Report on the Negotiations
Shenk, Janet
The peace that Duarte has offered is being dropped from his A-37 planes. Radio Venceremos (FMLN), October 17, 1984. I think that the extreme Left is doing everything possible to destroy...
...The Joint Com- muniqu6 confirmed it...
...A rebel music ensemble performed...
...Duarte has lost every major legislative battle-from agrarian reform to universal conscription...
...Would they embrace after so many years...
...The face under the baseball cap remained impassive, without a flicker of recognition...
...In the town of La Palma, now calling itself "the cradle of peace," Boy and Girl Scouts provided the only security as they tried their best to keep the crowds in the central plaza under control...
...Since the FDR-FMLN first issued its call for dialogue two years ago, Duarte had rejected any suggestion of sitting down to talk and insisted that the rebels first lay down their arms...
...Duarte than punishing those responsible for so many deaths...
...One trade union leader has already been killed...
...initiative, or to make sure he didn't overstep the bounds of what the Army might tolerate...
...Giving us our freedom is easier for Mr...
...Since Duarte's inauguration in June 1984, El Salvador's labor movement has begun to slowly recuperate from years of intense repression...
...In addition to Ungo and Zamora, the rebels' negotiating team consisted of Fermin Cienfuegos, leader of the National Resistance (RN), and Facundo Guardado, of the Popular Liberation Forces (FPL...
...For five and a half hours, ten thousand people waited under a burning sun for the two sides to emerge...
...The head of El Salvador's Supreme Court joked that he really should arrest Neto...
...Neto's face broke into a broad smile...
...Nor does it have the power to prosecute...
...Just hundreds of peasants from surrounding villages walking to La Palma...
...The Cradle of Peace Just after dawn, I joined a caravan of buses and trucks chugging up the highway, packed with government employees, peasants and party stalwarts...
...The two sides would meet again in late November...
...That's Ruben Zamora's brother...
...Two recent massacres of unarmed civilians, in Cabafias and Chalatenango provinces, were widely reported in the foreign press and denounced by the Archdiocese...
...In the month of October alone, their victims included a university professor machine-gunned in front of his home and a trade union leader found beaten and drowned...
...But we're fighting so the Salvadorean people can achieve the miracle of their own liberation...
...But there will be signs along the way to indicate progress or the lack of it...
...An esti- mated 8,239 trade unionists were killed, disappeared or tortured in El Salvador between 1979 and 1981, prior to the outbreak of full-scale civil war...
...But in a "Document of Principles and Norms" presented to the rebels at La Palma, Duarte set forth the central issue of debate: "From this forum I wish to tell the ideologues of El Salvador's rebels in arms to tone down their strategies to adapt to the country's new circumstances...
...Long Lost Friends As the church doors closed behind the rebel delegation, I wondered about the atmosphere inside...
...In exchange for pledges of economic reforms to benefit the poor, and a clear commitment to seek a dialogue for peace, the unions turned out the vote for the Christian Democratic Party...
...The case of the jailed trade unionists-all members of El Salvador's hydroelectrical workers' union (STECEL)--dates back to August 22, 1980, when they took part in a nationwide general strike protesting widespread government repression...
...The U.S...
...There were more soldiers lining the route than I had ever seen before, but even they seemed relaxed, with an oc- casional flower protruding from the barrel of an M-16...
...It is easy to be cynical about the peace talks-about the motives that led each side to sit down and talk, about the fanfare that accompanied the event and about the prospects for peace in El Salvador...
...During the long hours of waiting at the airport, they expressed a mixture of joy and sadness...
...The Secret Anti-Communist Army issued a communique on October 5 warning that unions and union leaders who engage in strike activities "will be targets for annihilation by our forces...
...But La Palma did mark a sharp break with the country's past, and offered the chance for a still remote future of peace...
...and the withdrawl of all U.S...
...There were undoubtedly other factors that went into Duarte's decision: pressure from European governments on his recent diplomatic tour...
...But neither did the rebel leaders, in subsequent statements to the press, make power-sharing their bottom line...
...The centrist labor unions of the Popular Democratic Unity (UPD) had signed a "social pact" with Duarte prior to the March presidential elections...
...ambassador, tried to interpret his absence as a sign of disunity in rebel ranks, Villalobos broadcast his strong endorsement of the talks over Radio Venceremos...
...In the preceeding days, the rebel leaders had bitterly attacked Duarte for creating a "circus atmosphere" and security nightmare in La Pal- ma...
...Insiders later said they did not, but asked about each other's families as an acknowledgement of the intimacy they once shared...
...FMLN leaders said it would have taken Villalobos at least five days to walk to La Palma from Morazdn, and charged that Duarte had refused to provide a helicopter...
...No mention was made of a cease-fire and no major concessions were made by either side...
...that the security forces have been reorganized and purged of their most corrupt and brutal elements...
...The cost of pursuing this policy, in terms of human suffering, is beyond measurement...
...That's Neto...
...Perhaps Duarte wanted to assert his independence from the United States, at a time when the Reagan Administration could hardly oppose a peace initiative...
...But in his first four months in office, Duarte seemed more intent on placating El Salvador's conservative business sector with generous concessions than with fulfilling his pledges to labor...
...The rhetoric of war replaced the rhetoric of peace...
...A recent report by the respected human rights group, Americas Watch, states that, "As best we can determine, these attacks on civilian noncombatants in conflict zones are part of a deliberate policy...
...And, of course, it is a policy that flagrantly violates the laws of war.] The causes of the conflict in El Salvador have not been eradicated...
...The Mothers of the Disappeared demonstrated...
...Why Did Duarte Do It...
...The STECEL workers shut down the country's major electric plants, until they were rounded up by national guardsmen, tortured and interrogated for 70 days and then moved to Mariona prison where they languished for exactly four years...
...Independent actors, in the trade unions and Christian base communities, will also be testing the government's commitment to controlling right-wing violence and carrying out reforms...
...Congress has praised Duarte as a true democrat and given him millions in economic and military aid...
...There is no contradiction, simply hard reality...
...Congress than with his own Legislative Assembly--dominated by a bloc of right-wing parties and endowed with considerable power under the new constitution...
...Duarte's own inquiry absolved the Army of any wrongdoing...
...Admittedly, La Palma was but one day in the life of a country at war-an "event" and not yet a process...
...His invitation to La Palma was a calculated political move to halt the erosion of his social base, quell divisions within his own party and prepare for the Legislative Assembly elections scheduled for March 1985...
...NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 1984 7During the talks, Duarte presumably cited the oft-repeated claims that death-squad killings are down dramatically...
...His peace initiative is a treasonous act to the ultraRight which already has issued threats against his life...
...Fermf.n Cienfuegos led the crowd in chants of "We Want Peace...
...But it seemed clear that each side had sought to avoid emphasizing insuperable differences in the interest of keeping the door open to future talks...
...This time, however, there were no FMLN patrols to greet the visitors and ask for "a small donation for the cause...
...One litmus test of the government's commitment to peace will be its choice of delegates to the new peace commission and the next meeting in November...
...If El Salvador's civil war is to end peacefully, then Duarte must prove that condi- tions can be created for the armed opposition to enter the democratic process...
...But La Palma tap- ped and unleashed a new social force: the people's profound desire for peace...
...The UPD unions publicly denounced his economic policies and threatened to withdraw their support unless a dialogue with the opposition was initiated promptly...
...The two sides were never seen together at La Palma...
...and that a new commission has been established to investigate politically motivated killings...
...I think that the extreme Left is doing everything possible to destroy the possibilities for peace...
...Many had been given the day off, lunch money and a free ride to La Palma by the Christian Democratic Party...
...The sincerity of both sides will be tested, as will the limits of Duarte's power and the unity within rebel ranks...
...In the last year, it has emphasized the need to rebuild its urban structures and mobilize new sectors in pursuit of basic economic demands...
...The guerrillas paralyzed traffic in the eastern third of the country and moved their attacks into the capital itself...
...Another test will be Duarte's progress in fulfilling his promise to inves- tigate specific cases of political vio- lence and prosecute the accused...
...Rather, they emphasized concrete steps toward the creation of a more just society: a halt to the bombings of rebelcontrolled zones, full respect for human rights and punishment of those responsible for abuses...
...Duarte, the impetuous man of grand gestures, the gambler, the consummate politician, the messianic believer in his own power to "save El Salvador" from chaos...
...Peace cannot mean a return to that past...
...The U.S...
...We are not leaving our country by choice," said Recinos, "but because the death squads force us to do so...
...All indications are that the Reagan Administration had no role in formulating the La Palma initiative...
...That rests with the attorney general and the courts, both controlled by parties of the ultraRight...
...Yet the Salvadorean government's decision to free these ten trade unionists-and the prisoners' decision to choose exile over remaining in their homeland-is a reflection of both the process set in motion at La Palma and the many obstacles that lie ahead on the road to real peace...
...Candies were passed around...
...Government dignitaries and their fam- ilies were crouched on the stone patio of the church-men and women dressed in white as a symbol of peace...
...Yet as the crowds boisterously cheered their arrival-just as they had cheered Duarte moments before-the exhilaration showed on the faces of FDR leaders Guillermo Ungo and REPORT ON THE AMERICAS r 4Ruben Zamora, and the FMLN comandantes...
...It has been that way for several years now-the strange passage from Army control, to no-man's land, to the FMLN banner over the highway welcoming visitors to territorio libre...
...Two sides to a conflict...
...Recent death-squad com- muniqu6s have threatened union activists and teachers...
...We're at war and peace at the same time...
...But the death squads have already threatened re:prisals...
...Political parties are respected and their activities are promoted and the people choose their leaders freely...
...Napole6n Duarte, October 24, 1984...
...But most seemed to be travel- ing there because they wanted to be part of history-they were curious, adventurous and, most of all, hopeful that they might be witnesses to the beginning of an end to the war...
...So far, his investigative commission has said nothing...
...Just as suddenly, the fanatic Right was silenced-if only for a day...
...of plans to re-open their offices and hold public meetings...
...He has the populist's instinct for reading the public mood...
...Ungo was Duarte's running mate in 1972...
...Yet the prisoners, remembering a fellow unionist who was released and then killed by unknown assassins last spring, reL to r: Dutch Ambassador Bertens with Recinos and Valencia...
...the desire to up-stage Nicaragua's surprise acceptance of the Contadora draft treaty for regional peace, and complywith its call for negotiations to end civil conflicts...
...U.S...
...economic measures to benefit the poor...
...There was even talk of forming a new party "to rescue the Social Christian principles" on which Christian Democracy had been founded...
...As the hour of decision approached, the Boy Scouts made way for two young men to enter the small space at the front of the church occupied by the Christian Democratic elite...
...For the moment, Duarte has up- staged his rivals and vastly improved his party's chances of winning a majority in the Assembly...
...On commercial radio stations, the terms "ter- rorist" and "subversive" gave way to "los sefiores del FMLN" in a series of unprecedented interviews with rebel leaders...
...A Plea For Patience The brilliant sunshine became a drizzle and then a downpour just as Archbishop Rivera y Damas emerged from the church at 3:30...
...A pact of silence has prevented either side from discussing the substance of the peace talks...
...Indeed, it runs counter to what has been the goal of U.S...
...The government dignitaries began whispering, elbowing each other ner- vously, until one of them cried out and pointed to one of the guerrillas...
...But Duarte also has taken a huge political risk...
...But there will be a new arena of struggle in El Salvador, as each side tries to grab the political space opened by the talks...
...Rivals within Duarte's own party didn't miss the opportunity to play on labor's discontent...
...On October 8, the same day as his speech at the United Nations proposing talks with the FMLN, President Duarte announced that a military judge had cleared the trade unionists and ordered their release...
...And the FMLN will not abandon the armed struggle in exchange for exaggerated claims and vague promises...
...Humanitarian relief workers have been kidnapped by armed men in civilian clothes, only to turn up days later in the hands of the National Police...
...The aim seems to be to force civilians to flee these zones, depriving the guerrillas of a civilian population from which they can obtain food and other necessities...
...One test of progress will be the fate of the labor movement...
...But Guardado was an unknown entity to a press corps largely ignorant of El Salvador's pre-war history...
...Once over the bridge into Chalatenango province, not a soldier was in sight...
...At least we made it to jail...
...Unions that have operated virtually underground for the last four years now talk...
...Their only protection was the press corps-a convoy of two dozen cars that nearly drove its prey off the road...
...Things have gone better for Duarte with the U.S...
...It was a complete turnaround...
...The attitude adopted by the United States will have a significant impact on the prospects for peace in El Salvador...
...The death squads, generally believed to include off-duty and retired military personnel, continue to operate with impunity...
...The FDR-FMLN clearly gained an enormous measure of legitimacy and recognition in the eyes of those who witnessed the spectacle at La Palma, those who watched it live on national television and those who read about in the international press...
...and pleaded for patience to achieve a lasting peace: "You have waited here for five hours but the Salvadorean people have also struggled for 50 years...
...The communique was strong on procedure and short on substance, but at least the dialogue had not been broken off...
...This is a crazy country," said one woman joyously...
...Waging War And Peace The war most certainly will intensify in the months ahead, as each side seeks to demonstrate that it came to the talks not out of weakness but out of strength...
...Yet their meeting placed the guerrillas and government in a position of parity for the first time...
...On August 20, 1982, the wife and 13-year-old daughter of Hector Recinos, the union's top leader, were "disappeared" from the streets of San Salvador...
...advisers and military aid...
...But what the press failed to note was the political context in which Duarte reached his dramatic decision...
...Within days of the peace talks at La Palma, El Salvador returned to waras-usual...
...And if the talks break down, who will the people blame...
...And a brand new banner proclaiming "An Honest Dialogue Will Bring Peace -FDR-FMLN...
...Zamora was his young prot6g6 in the Christian Democratic Party...
...Recent history, including Duarte's first term as president in 1980-82, does not bode well for the future...
...If the Army is absent from the delegation, it will be an ominous sign that Duarte has failed to exert civilian control over the military...
...I remember him, too," said another man from the government group...
...Protest demonstrations and sit-ins obtained his release, at a cost of 23 people shot dead on the steps of San Salvador's Cathedral...
...Where the word "dialogue" once was spoken in hushed tones, and those who sup- ported it were shot, there was now a crowd of thousands applauding the dialogue and demanding it be sincere...
...A climate of freedom pervades our country...
...So why did Napole6n Duarte change his mind...
...General Vides Casa- nova went along to La Palma, but that is no guarantee of the Army's continued support...
...At La Palma, a Christian Democratic leader embraced his son descended from the hills for a day...
...Guardado had not been seen in public since...
...How much room does Duarte really have to negotiate...
...What's To Negotiate...
...Her body was found days later in a public garbage dump...
...The main causes of violent death among the civilian population today are the bombs dropped by the Salvadorean Air Force and the Army's sweeps into territories contested by the guerrillas...
...the right to organize workers in the countryside and cities...
...Most importantly, a sector of opinion in El Salvador suddenly regained its voice on October 15...
...By pre-arrangement, the FDR- FMLN delegation and the government addressed the crowd for 15 minutes Trade Unionists Released--A Step Toward National Reconciliation While the eyes of the world focused on the historic meeting at La Palma on October 15, another step toward national reconciliation in El Salvador went unnoticed...
...If Duarte appoints lowlevel officials, the FDR-FMLN will most likely respond in kind...
...If pursued as a propaganda ploy, as a ticket to unlimited aid from the United States and further escalation of the war, then there will be no end in sight...
...They appeared proud of their president and amazed by the exuberance and size of the crowds...
...Charged with developing a national strategy for economic recovery, he stated publicly that recovery would be impossible without peace achieved through political means...
...This is a first step," said Guillermo Ungo, "but many more steps must be taken...
...fused Duarte's offer to open the prison gates until secure arrangements could be made for direct transport to the airport and exile abroad...
...They were not part of the celebration at La Palma...
...Everyone sensed immediately from the smile on the archbishop's face that the meetings had gone well...
...In the weeks leading up to La Palma, however, there were signs that Duarte was in danger of losing his most powerful constituency...
...The Army mounted major operations in three provinces...
...Not one has been subjected to civilian or mili- tary justice...
...advisers say the Salvadorean Army has "seized the initiative" in the war...
...Death-squad activity can be expected to increase as a result, and left-wing splinter groups, particularly the tiny faction that broke away from the FDR-FMLN last year, may try to sabotage the talks as a "sell-out" of the revolution...
...Yet prison was still a safer place than the streets...
...The delegates to the talks had agreed to establish a commission made up of four represenNOVEMBER/DECEMBER 1984 5itives appointed by each side and a moderator chosen by the Church...
...The prisoners became a cause celdbre in union circles in the United States and Europe, as telegram campaigns were organized for their release and union delegations visited them in jail...
...They were probably home plotting...
...Napole6n Duarte emerged to the cheers of equally vocal fans...
...They have been among the strongest voices supporting a dialogue for peace...
...People in the crowd took the rare opportunity to express their sympathies without fear, shouting "Ungo, Ungo...
...On June 11, 1981, the 17-year-old daughter of one prisoner, Jos6 Valencia, was kidnapped by armed men in civilian clothes...
...The FDR-FMLN realized long before La Palma that its struggle could not be won by military means alone...
...We never believed it would be possible in a single meeting to formalize all aspects of peace...
...Things will get worse in El Salvador before they get better...
...6 REPORT ON THE AMERICAS 6 REPORT ON THE AMERICASeach...
...Cienfuegos, a former medical student and an organizer of the earliest guerrilla cells, was a familiar name to journalists who interviewed him in Managua and Mexico back in 1981-82...
...If he is to realize his dream of "saving El Salvador," he must sweep the March elections and gain control of the Assembly...
...We are the lucky ones," the prisoners insisted to visiting trade union leaders from the United States in 1983...
...All of that is true...
...People clustered on tree branches until they broke, climbed on rooftops and pushed against the human barrier of scouts to get closer to the village church where the twc sides would meet...
...The rebel delegation may well have countered with the following points: * Only a handful of Salvadorean officers accused of human rights abuses have been transferred, mainly to diplomatic posts abroad, while the others remain on active duty...
...The ,mmission's task would be to "deelop appropriate means to incorpoIte all sectors of the nation in the :arch for peace," to "discuss all tose aspects that lead to peace in the iortest time possible," and to "discuss measures to humanize the armed conflict...
...Was the General there to support Duarte's -n thousand people waited under a burning sun...
...Many spectators were disappointed that Joaquin Villalobos, leader of the FMLN's largest military faction, was not part of the rebel delegation, as previously announced...
...We aren't offering miracles...
...And how would the rebel comandantes interact with the dour General Vides Casanova, dressed in camouflage fatigues...
...If Duarte's document is read as a statement of intent, rather than a list of accomplishments, there is hope that the way can be paved toward peace and truly fair elections...
...First surrender, then we'll talk, he said...
...Neto, don't you remember me...
...that the Army has been "professionalized" and now respects human rights...
...The total number of death-squad victims may have declined since Duarte took office, but the structures remain intact and the terror persists...
...For two days, El Salvador was the scene of once unimaginable eventsbeginning with the arrival of FDR leaders Guillermo Ungo and Rub6n Zamora aboard a Colombian Air Force plane on October 14, and their 42-mile drive to a guerrilla camp in the mountains above La Palma...
...There were no TV cameras to cover the release of El Salvador's longest held political prisoners, their nervous journey aboard Red Cross vans to San Salvador's airport and their flight to political exile in the Netherlands...
...This is not the same El Salvador that they left in 1978 and 1979...
...He has disarmed his critics in Europe and the United States, assured himself of time and money for the war effort, and further isolated his opponents on the right...
...Planning Minister Fidel Chav6z Mena, once considered as a possible presidential candidate, advocated more equitable economic policies...
...But what was in it for Duarte...
...There's a saying in El Salvador: "Duarte may be crazy, but he isn't stupid...
...If followed by serious steps toward establishing respect for human rights and the conditions for a genuine democracy in El Salvador, La Palma can become the first step toward peace...
...press has generally focused on Duarte's personality to answer that question...
...policy for the last four years: a military victory over the rebels, whatever the cost in human lives and suffering...
...Hey, we went to high school together...
...Duarte must be prepared to do battle with these forces, and to let some heads roll in the Armed Forces if his "new society" is really to take shape...
...One week later, nine of the prisoners and their families were quietly flown to the Netherlands in the com- pany of the Dutch Ambassador...
...A peasant from Chalatenango, he was a founder of the country's first farmworker union in 1972, and secretary general of the People's Revolutionary Bloc (BPR)-the largest mass organization of the Left-until his arrest in 1979...
...Abuses of authority and violations of human rights have decreased to a minimum level and those guilty of them are sought out and punished . . . El Salvador has a new society today...
...Two armies and two political visions...
...Their treatment epito- mized the lack of a functioning judicial system in El Salvador: no access to legal counsel, no formal charges filed against them, no trial...
...Cameras and rolls of film were strung from their necks...
...They might have been taken for journalists had it not been for the beards and baseball caps that gave them away as guerrillas, who were checking out the scene before their leaders emerged from the church...
...While some people, including the U.S...
Vol. 18 • November 1984 • No. 6
