Intervention may bring n By KERRY McCUAIG Fierce fighting is under way in El Salvador as the revolutionary forces mount a major military offensive for control of the country, joined by a massive general strike of private sector and government workers. In response the U.S. administration announced it will resume military aid to the discredited government ot José Napolean Duarte. Aid was supposedly sus- pended in early December last year following a public outcry in response to the murder of three U.S. nuns and a Catholic layworker by the junta’s armed forces. The new Reagan administration has voiced its sup- port of the junta and refused to rule out the possibility of direct «: med intervention. Currently it is playing its card through the Organization of American States. Daily attacks on guerrilla strongholds are launched from neighboring Honduras and Guatemala. In early January, six U.S. ‘‘advisors’’ wearing the uniforms of the ‘‘rangers’’ — a specially trained army unit — were found killed near the Honduras border. Guatemala is reported to have over 1,000 troops operating inside the country. The capture of amunition boxes supplied by Ven- ezuela indicates the strong interference of that government on the side of the junta, especially since the coming to power of the Christian Democrats last January. There is also evidence the U’S. is training troops for El Salvador in their Panama Canal Zone. Direct military intervention by the U.S. however threatens to spark a new Vietnam-type war involving most of Central America. Despite threats by Washington to cut off $75-million in funds to the new Nicaragua, the Nicaraguans have stated “that an at- tack against El Salvador would be considered an at- tack against Nicaragua.” A joint communique signed by the Cuban and Panamanian governments wars that an intervention OTTAWA — At the moment Ronald Reagan was being inaugurated in Washington, 250 Canadians marched at the U.S. embassy in Ottawa demanding the United States stop its military aid to El Salvado- rian junta. Speaking to the crowd, NDP MP and foreign affairs critic Pauline Jewett said, “The U.S. is actively supporting the bloody junta . .. and this must PACIFIC TRIBUNE—JAN. 30, 1981—Page 6 CANADIANS TELL U.S. ‘HANDS OFF’ or threat against El Salvador would affect the entire Central American and Caribbean region. Meanwhile inside the country the Farabundi Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN) is. reported to hold the capitals in three provinces: Santa Ana, Chalatenango and La Paz. More than 50 other towns and localities have been liberated and revolutionary governments established. In the capital many suburbs and the highway surrounding San Salvador are con- trolled by FMLN forces. One of the most strategic and fierce battle zones is 14 miles outside the city where control for the highway linking San Salvador with Honduras is being fought. The country’s trade unions have vowed to maintain a general strike in support of the revolutionary forces until the conflict is resolved. Bus drivers set fire to vehicles and barracaded streets when police tried to put some buses into operation. The drivers’ support _of the strike has been considered a major blow to the junta which tried to keep mass transportation run- ning. Liberation Radio reports 70% of the factories shut due to work stoppages. Small stores have closed their doors despite threats and reprisals from the junta. Bank workers, the largest section of white collar workers, have walked off the job. At a press conference held in Havana in late De- cember, Juan Madrin Ridano of the Revolutionary United Leadership said all the revolutionary forces in the country are united in a common aim and war plan. He reported that in addition to defections in the top leadership of the junta and military, many of the FMLN’s arms are supplied by deserting government troops. Even the head of the army has reported that it is on the defensive. “The situation has become so intense’’, said Ridano, ‘‘and the repression of our people so brutal, stop now! This action goes against the United Na- tions’ resolution adopted last year. If this situation persists, there is great danger El Salvador and all of Central America will become a new Vietnam. . .” The _protest was organized by the Ottawa El Salvador Solidarity Committee, CUSO, church groups, left wing NDP members and the Communist Party. ew Vietnam that only the most hardened fascists are sticking with government’’. Internationally the junta has been widely con- demned..Many Christian Democratic governments in Latin America have severed relations with their El Salvadorian counterparts. In the past year alone over 12,000 people died at the hands of the right-wing. The bodies of 50-60 persons appear daily in the streets, mostly old people, women and children who have been terribly tortured. ‘‘This brutality generates great hatred against the junta,” said Ridano, ‘‘and strengthens the position of the democratic front.”’ For the people there has been no normal life. The economy has been destroyed, unemployment hovers around 50%. Purchasing power is very low, accom- panied by a scarcity of consumer goods. The price of staple foods is astronomically high. Mortality rate especially among children has increased. Death by starvation in the rural areas is alarmingly high, Ridano reported. Businessmen, schools and universities have been given orders to keep their door open or they would be considered cooperating with the guerrilla forces. ‘‘And anyone considered cooperating with us is killed’, he stated. ~ Ridano asked other governments to add themselves to the resolution advanced by Cuba in the United Nations calling for non-interference in the internal affairs of El Salvador. He also called on them to break relations with the government of José Duarte and recognize the FMLN as the legitimate representative of the El Salvadorian people. At the very moment Reagan was being sworn in as the 40th U.S. president Canadians were on the streets protesting the resumption of U.S. military aid to the junta in El Salvador. : Speaking to 250 demonstrators outside Parliament at noon, Jan. 20, NDP MP Pauline Jewett said that we are in danger of becoming involved in “‘another Viet- nam’’ and urged Canada protest to the U.S. over its arms supplies to the discredited regime. Later, Jewett raised the question in the House which was replied to by External Affairs Minister MacGuigan who voiced “‘disapproval’’ of the arms shipments but said Ottawa planned no protest to Washington. * * * In Toronto, 400 people marched outside the U.S. consulate the same day carrying placards saying: “Stop U.S. Intervention in El Salvador’’ and ‘“‘Reagan, Don’t go to War’’. The march was spon- sored by the newly-formed Committee of Solidarity with the People of El Salvador. * * * MacGuigan’s ‘‘disapproval’’ remark, however, was just the opposite of his comment on EI Salvador weeks earlier when questioned by students in Water- loo, Ontario. Asked whether his government would uphold the U.S. position of lending support to the junta in light of its poor human rights record, MacGuigan said: “Our position in this matter is the same as the American position. We’ve seen the present government as a centrist government, being attacked from the left and the right, and we feel it deserves support.” See See At a Vancouver press conference, Jan. 19, Mar- guerita Sandborne, one of two recently-appointed representatives of the El Salvadorian revolutionary front to Canada, warned of the growing danger of U.S. direct intervention in Central America. The press also heard Rev. John Hillborn, a United Church minister recently returned from El Salvador where he attended the funeral of six murdered liberation front leaders. Rev. Hillborn said he spoke with two U.S. nuns, later murdered by right-wing terror squads, who had told him about a growing repression against the coun- try’s religious community. The minister said there ‘‘is no doubt in our minds that the junta and the para- military right-wing are one and the same. “You can see resentment growing every day among the people,’’ Rev. Hillborn said. ‘The only. solution now, unfortunately, is the present conflict.” ct LL LB _t