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Salvador visit revealing

By HARRY RANKIN

®conomic, social and political collapse.

This tiny Central American republic with
_ 2 Population of 5% million is torn by civil
_ War in which 65,000 people have been
Killed. The majority of its people live in
Indescribable poverty. Death is the fate of
those who dare to express dissent.

While the country is formally ruled by an
elected government, the real rulers are the
military and U.S. officials whose power is

“pervasive,

The government headed by President
Napoleon Duarte survives only because it is
Propped up by a military that is supplied
and directed by the Pentagon. Without this
Support it would collapse in a matter of
Months,

These are only a few of the conclusions I
Came to after a visit to El Salvador in June. I

zed by “Salvaid,” a non-governmental
Organization dedicated to humanitarian
help to the people of El Salvador.

Our delegation included David Burr,
Mayor of Windsor, Ald. Ted Bounsall of
the Same city, Rev. Gilbert Currie-Johnson,
4 United Church minister from the Fraser

alley, and members of Salvaid from east-
€m Canada. The purpose of our visit was to
Mark the first anniversary of the return to
their villages (after being evacuated by the
Military) of the people of San Jose Las
Ores and Las Vueltas. The latter had been
_ Adopted as a sister town by the city of
Indsor. :
We spent a week in the capital, San Sal-
| Vador, and a week in the countryside includ-
“Ing San Jose Las Flores. Because of
Testrictions placed by the military we never
did make it to Las Vueltas.
The poverty of this country is the worst I
ave ever seen. Canadian slums look well
off by comparison. Unemployment has

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El Salvador could be on the verge of

Was one of a nine member delegation organ- .

reached the staggering figure of 65 per cent.
The peasants lack land, seed, fertilizer and
agricultural equipment.

President Duarte, who assumed office in
1984, has not carried out his promise to end
the civil war, establish human rights or insti-
tute desperately needed economic reforms.
Instead he doubled the size of the air force
and cut social welfare programs to pay for
his increased military budget, and is spend-
ing-huge sums in subsidies, tax breaks and
credits for the big business interests. The
economy is being diverted from self-
sufficiency to dependency on the U.S.
market, as directed by the U.S. government.

President Duarte is not a liberal, demo-
crat, moderate or reformer. He is a captive
pawn of the political right and does what
the military and U.S. tell him to do. He was
head of the military junta in 1980-82, during
which period 25,000 people were killed by
the U.S. directed military and death squads.
What has changed today is that in place of
indiscriminate mass
killings, the death
squads and military

program of selected
killings, listing as
their targets any trade
union leader, demo-
crat or priest who
dares to speak out.
From 1979 to

1985 the U.S. poured
RANKIN —__ $1.8 billion into El
Salvador. (This is the official amount and
does not include money and supplies fun-
nelled in by the CIA and other covert
bodies.) Most of this money was for military
supplies and the amount has gone up every
year since then.

One of the tactics of the U.S. in El Salva-
dor, based on experience in Vietnam, was to
forcibly remove the peasant population
from areas where the rebels are strong and
herd them into areas unsuited for farming
or into city slums. This is their infamous
“pacification” campaign.

The people of the two villages I menti-
oned earlier were the victims of this policy.
A year ago, taking their lives into their
hands, they decided to move back no matter
what the price. So far they have been able to
hold out, despite continual harassment. by
the military including the use of machine
guns and mortars all night as a form of
intimidation.

The real opposition to the government,

now carry out a

which is organized underground and in the
hills and jungles, is the Democratic Revolu-
tionary Front (FDR) and its military arm,
the Farabundo Marti National Liberation
Front (FMLN). They hold big sections of
the countryside and actually form a parallel
government.

Our delegation had the stimulating expe-
rience of meeting some of the rebel leaders
while we were near a village and getting
their views on the future of their country.
Their solutions are clear and straight for-
ward. They include the following:

@ The future of Salvadoreans should be
decided by the people of El Salvador, free of
all foreign interference.

@ The country should pursue a policy of
non-alignment, free of all military and polit-
ical alliances.

® The government should be reorgan-
ized to include all sections of the popula-
tion, including the FDR/FMLN.

e A ceasefire should be declared while
negotiations proceed to establish a new
government and determine its priorities.

@ Free and general elections must follow.

© Reforms instituted by a new govern-
ment should include land reform, an end to
unemployment, a fair distribution of
wealth, respect for private property and free
enterprise, and a mixed economy that
would include both private property and

' state property.

@ All political repression must end.

@ The one million refugees who have left
the country must be allowed to return.

It seems to me that this is fair and reaso-
nable program that is acceptable to all who
believe in democracy and a fair deal.

The government of Canada has supplied
El Salvador with some aid, in the form of

~ about $7 million worth of fertilizer. But the -

trouble is that this was handed to the
Duarte government.

The results were predictable. A big per-
centage of it was siphoned off as graft by
corrupt government officials and the mil-
itary. As for the rest, the peasants could not
buy it because they have neither money nor
credit so it went to the big corporations who
need it the least.

That sort of a transaction is self-
defeating. It’s a waste of our money and it
does not help the people of El Salvador.
Any such aid should be handed over to
non-governmental organizations in El Sal-
vador with strict controls to see that it is

distributed to the people who need it the —

most and can make the most use of it.

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PACIFIC TRIBUNE, JULY 22, 1987 e 11