* SOLIDARITY -

Pressure mounting
on Duarte regime

The revolutionary war in El Salvador
continues with new military tactics and a
new unity being forged among the libera-
tion groups comprising the Faraibundo
Marti Liberation Front (FMLN), says the
front’s Canadian representative.

Action on
Chile set

“Tt is significant to note that despite
the increased repression by Pinochet
there exists in Chile today a unity that
has never before been achieved,”
Prof. Paul Gilbert of Simon Fraser
University told delegates to a confer-
ence in solidarity with the people of
Chile held in Vancouver Sept. 28.

: Gilbert, who was part of a delega-
tion sent to Chile last April by the
Vancouver Chilean community and
the Latin American studies depart-
ment at Simon Fraser, stated that the
campaign against Pinochet is organ-
ized on four fronts. :

“The peasants, workers, artists and
women all have separate organiza-
tions but they are connected by
umbrella organizations through
churches and political groups that co-
ordinate activities,” he said. “We did
not have this kind of unity in action
even before 1973.”

Canadian government and corpo-
rate support for the Pinochet regime
was condemned by Thomas Anthony,
a United Church priest and organizer

‘forthe Inter-Church: Committee on
Human Rights in Latin America.

“Canadian banks make loans to
the Pinochet regime and Canada sup-
ports loans to Chile through the
International Monetary Fund and
that money is used to equip a profes-
sional army that is used against the
people,” he said.

Escalated repression of the Chilean
People is Pinochet’s response to the
growing demand for democracy.

‘Through 1984 and 1985 we have
Seen the largest demonstrations in
years. People are risking their lives to
Protest publicly,” he said, noting that
12 people had been shot as “terror-
ists” and 50 others were victims of
attempted assassinations between
January and June 1985.

“There are presently some 1,600
People held without trial in houses of
detention, and the number. of people
banished to internal exile is more than

and it increases every day. This is
a Tepressive measure that Pinochet
has borrowed from the South African
apartheid regime,” he said.

Other speakers included Art Kube,
President of the B.C. Federation of
Labor who opened the conference,
and Cathy Mahoney of Casa Chile. A

hilean solidarity organization in
Berkeley, Calif., it has recently
Stepped up the boycott of Chilean
Produce in the U.S.

_ Delegates to the conference, organ-
ized by Canadians for Democracy in
hile and the Vancouver Chilean
ommunity Organization, decided to
Organize a broad coalition in this
Country to promote the boycott of
Chilean goods on a national scale.

Individuals or organizations that
Wish to participate in the Canadian
Coalition organizing the boycott

should contact Sue Lockhart of Can-

254.9700 Democracy in Chile at

Jose Pedro Cedillos told the Tribune the
government of Napolean Duarte — touted
by its western backers as liberal and reform-
minded — ‘thas been unmasked” as a sup-
porter of the small group of wealthy families
that keep the Central American nation in
the economic and political bondage it has
suffered for decades.

Canadians should speak out against the
Canadian government’s relations with the
Duarte regime, and urge Ottawa not to
renew an economic aid package with that
government, said Cedillos, a member of the
front’s para-diplomatical “delegation” based
in Toronto.

In Vancouver during a national speaking
tour of major Canadian cities, Cedillos
spoke frankly of the problems and the vic-
tories of the Salvadoran liberation forces
striving to overturn the latest in a series of
unpopular governments propped up by the
U.S. Reagan administraiton.

Despite six years of intense fighting to
liberate El Salvador and create a govern-
ment dedicated to national independence,
the FMLN is also seeking a_ political
solution — but this is not possible unless
the world, including Canadians, speaks up
for it, said Cedillos.

Speaking through translater Alberto
Gonzalez, Cedillos related how the struggle
has moved from large scale confrontations
to smaller, guerilla based manoeuvres in the
face of bombing by government forces

under the training and assistance of U.S.

Marines.

There have been 600 aerial bombard-
ments of villages in the territory held by the
FMLN — some 40 per cent of the country
— in the first six months of 1984, said
Cedillos. ,

“Many have died in these attacks —
mostly kids and old people. More than
1,000 people have been killed.

“But in the civilian zones controlled by
the FMLN, the people have gained expe-
rience in defence. They now use tunnels and
other means to react to an aerial bombard-

. ment,” he related.

Using tactics that parallel the escalation
of the Vietnam war, the government in San
Salvador has moved to create “model” vil-
lages within the conflict zones “‘to create the
impression that we murder civilians,” said
Cedillos.

The model villages are populated by war
refugees forcibly removed from San Salva-
dor and other Salvador cities. Under the
process, called “Plan 1,000” by the Duarte
regime, the villages are equipped with the
latest in clinics and other social amenities.

Yet despite the appearances of reform,
the Duarte government — which  suc-
ceeded the fascist regime of death-squad
leader Robert D’Aubuisson one and a half
years ago — has backed off from its stated
intention of establishing the demanded
agrarian reform in the face of pressure from
the “oligarchy,” the small group of wealthy
families which control the nation’s econ-
omy.

Last year El Salvador experienced 112
strikes, with another 51 in the first six
months of 1985. Most, staged over eco-
nomic conditions but also containing union
demands for the release of political prison-
ers and an end to the state of seige, have

- been met by military repression, said Cedil-

los.
In a recent strike by health workers, “the

military took over and assaulted the striking
workers...In May, they made the trade
union of the sewage and water workers ille-
gal,” he related.

“These actions have led to the unmasking
of the government and have shown it to be
pro-oligarchy and pro-imperialistic,” he
charged.

CEDILLOS...
urges stepped-
up Canadian
demand for
political
solution in El
Salvador.

t;
“8
~
~
x

4
dS Fre,
ess

Despite the repression, trade unions have
undergone a recent resurgence of activity,
following the “disappearing” of trade union
executives in 1981. Most of the several labor
centrals in El Salvador are opposed to the
Duarte regime, Cedillos indicated.

One labor central that initially supported
Duarte’s election bid in April, 1984, was the
Popular Democratic Union (UPD). But
most of its original 100,000 members

- became disenchanted after the government
failed to deliver promised land redistribu-
tion measures, and to continue a “dialogue”
with the liberation forces, he said.

“Agrarian reform didn’t continue because
it conflicted with the interests of the oli-
garchy. And the dialogue with the FMLN
hasn’t continued. :

“So both compromises were ignored,
which generated a crisis within the UPD.”
Cedillos said two unions have since left the
central.

Other sectors, including small and
medium business leaders, are also disaf-
fected by the Duarte regime. Government
measures such as devaluing El Salvador’s
colon, which now trades at a rate of 650 to
the U.S. dollar, are applied only to smaller
businesses, while the oligarchy continues to
enjoy the former 250 to one rate, said Cedil-
los.

The United States has also favored the
oligarchy with a $226-million infusion into
the country’s sagging coffee trade. The revo-
lutionary war has cut production by some

40 per cent, said Cedillos, and the govern- -

ment desperately needs the trade to funds it
war.”

The aim of FMLN military actions is to
cripple the “war” economy — SO per cent
of it goes for military uses — that fuels the
government’s military repression. A recent
FMLN offensive to disrupt transportaiton
on the highways last August was ‘90 per
cent effective” said Cedillos.

The FMLN’s work is facilitated by the
growing political unity among the five
member organizations, which are not
divided on military strategy, Cedillos
reported.

“There is a great disposition from the five
groups to make this unity a reality,” he said.

Recent talks with the Duarte regime have
broken off, because, said Cedillos, the
regime refuses to consider any of the
FMLN’s proposals.

The movement demands the withdrawal
of U.S. forces and the establishment of a
“national forum” involving all Salvado-
rans. From this should emerge a provisional

government undertaking a series of political
and economic projects “to guarantee
national sovereignty and independence,”
said Cedillos.

So far the government has only
demanded a “humanization” of the con-
flict. That’s something the FMLN supports,
but not as the sole object of the talks, he
said.

Recently Duarte’s daughter was kid-
napped, by a group calling itself the Pedro
Pablo Castillo Front. The FMLN knows
little of the group, but “‘at present, the front
is not developing these types of actions,”

‘ said Cedillos.

But the front does attack U.S. Marines
stationed in El Savlador: “We consider the
Marines a military objective.

“There are 300 Marines in El Salvador,
although the government says (there are)
only 55. They train the young forces in
counter-insurgency warfare, and participate
regularly in military. offenses,” Cedillos
charged.

The FMLN is urging the Canadian
government — as should Canadians who
support the liberation of El Salvador — not
to renew an aid package involving $8 mil-
lion for the Duarte regime, he said.

“We recommend that if the Canadian
government wants to help the people of El
Salvador, they should pressure the Salvado-
ran government into continuing the dia-
logue for a political solution.

“Then their assistance would be benefi-
cial,” he said. -

Toronto enforces |
S. Africa boycott

Toronto city council has called for
strict monitoring of its policy of not
investing in companies linked with
South Africa. Toronto passed the ban
in 1981 but has not kept close watch”
over how its investments have been
placed.

The enforcement follows a decision
taken two weeks ago by the Ontario
government which announced it would
not buy any South African products.
The boycott affects mainly fruit and
foodstuffs supplied to government
institutions, including hospitals.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE, OCTOBER 2, 1985 e 13