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_ THE WORLD

With reports of divisions within the El Salvadorean

~ army as the extreme right wing forces move toward a

Complete take-over of the regime, the inevitable results of
last year’s so-called ‘elections’? are being seen. In this

analysis of the situation in El Salvador, Cindy Hawes, U.S.

Daily World Mexico City correspondent describes how the
shaky unity of the repressive forces is being torn apart.
* * *

The Salvadoran government and‘army are gradually
falling apart at the seams.

Ever since the Farabundo Marti National Liberation
Front (FMLN) launched its military campaign, ‘‘Heroes
and Martyrs of October 1979-80’’ on October 10 it has

ome increasingly apparent that the liberation forces
are determining the tempo of the war. Meanwhile, the
U.S.-backed military dictatorship — internationally
More isolated every day — seems caught up in a mire of
insoluble divisions and internal crises.
_ On the military front, the army has failed miserably in
its efforts to dislodge the FMLN from its occupied ter-
nitories, which now include more than half the northern
Provinces of Chalatenango and Morazan. On November
10, one month after the FMLN campaign was initiated,
Some 13,000 soldiers were sent to these provinces in the
largest counter-insurgency operation in three years. Two
thousand Honduran troops were also transferred to the
border area to aid their Salvadorian counterparts. But
after eight days of intense fighting, the army could make
no headway. -

On the political/diplomatic level the democratic revo-
lutionary forces have also taken the initiative. On Oc-
tober 26, Dr. Guillermo Ungo, president of the Dem-
Ocratic Revolutionary Front (FDR), and Ana Guadalupe
Martinez, member of the directory of FMLN, presented
a five-point proposal for dialogue with the Salvadoran
Military government. The plan called for direct talks

- .between the government and the FMLN-FDR, with no

Prior conditions; that both sides designate their own
representatives; that a group be organized to work out
the procedures for the dialogue; that an attempt be made
to extend the talks to other national sectors; and that the
@lalogue be conducted in the ‘presence of national or
international observers.

diverse reactions within the government to the
Proposed dialogue, which drew the immediate support of
the Catholic Church, exposed the deep divisions that
exist inside the military regime. As Ruben Zamora;
member of the political/diplomatic commission of the

-FDR, put it, these differences of opinion reveal

Salvador junta ‘glued
together with saliva’

that the so-called regime of national unity ‘‘is glued
together with saliva.”’

Power Struggle

On the one hand, the ultra-right Nationalist Re-
publican Alliance (ARENA) party, headed by retired
General Roberto D’Aubuisson, categorically rejected
any dialogue or negotiations with what it considered
“criminal groups.”’ Ironically, D’ Aubuisson, who pres-
ides over the Constituent Assembly, is himself head of
the notorious paramilitary groups and is personally im-
plicated in the assassination of Archbishop Oscar Rom-
ero.

D’Aubuisson’s position, however, failed to receive
the backing of other right-wing parties participating in
the government. The Christian Democratic Party, the
Democratic Action Party and the divided Party of Na-

‘tional Reconstruction, which together control 31 of the

60 seats in the Assembly, have formed a new right-wing
block. While not openly accepting the dialogue proposal,
this block has opposed what it considers to be the ‘‘in-
transigent’’ position of D’ Aubuisson. (It has been careful

not to fully embrace the dialogue for fear of an ultra-right

coup.)

This new block has also been attempting to remove
control of the Constituent Assembly from ARENA and
its small allied parties. For example, on November 8
seven top military officers were purged from their
governmental positions. These changes, which directly
affected the ultra right, included the ousting of Colonel
Nicolas Carranza, director of the National Telecom-
munications Administration (ANTEL). He was consi-
dered one of those responsible for the death squads
which D’Aubuisson directs.

At the same time, a power struggle is taking place
between D’Aubuisson and Defense Minister Gen. Jose
Guillermo Garcia. The defense minister reportedly ac-
cepts limited reforms and is not totally closed to the
dialogue, while D’Aubuisson rejects both.

Point of Exploding
But the contradictions shaking the power structure are

. hardly limited to the leadership. On November 6 a sector

of the Middle Command of the Armed Forces sent a
letter to the four principal Salvadoran dailies, the heads
of the three branches of government, Defense Minister
Garcia and army head Colonel Rafael Flores Lima urging
the acceptance of the FDR-FMLN proposed dialogue.

The letter said that the total rejection of talks was
“‘regrettable’’ and that it was necessary to find a political

solution to the war “‘that offers dignity and satisfies the
interests of the Salvadoran people.”

The officers also pointed out that the economy ‘“‘can-
not resist anymore’’ and the social situation ‘‘is at the
point of exploding.”’

Foreseeing this shift in favor of a negotiated settle-
ment to the conflict, the Reagan Administration months
before made attempts to unify the disintegrating regime
and to propose that it carry out the U.S.’s own version of
negotiations.

Last August 20, Assistant Secretary of State for
Inter-American Affairs Thomas Enders spoke of negoti-
ations at the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco.
Weeks later, the Salvadoran right-wing parties gathered
at the coffee plantation of Salvadoran President Alvaro
Magana, where they signed the Apaneca Pact. A virtual
stamp of approval of Ender’s speech, the pact estab-
lished the groundwork for a new program of political
action for the government. Briefly, it outlined an elec-
toral plan for 1983 and the creation of three com-
missions; the so-called political, pacification and human
rights commissions.

Through this plan, U.S. government envisioned set-
ting up an “‘institutional’’ apparatus — the pacification
commission — through which its concept of negotiations
would be conducted. It planned to convince Salvadoran
Archbishop Arturo Riveray Damas and the more ‘‘mod-
erate’ elements within the FDR-FMLN to participate,
providing that the insurgents agreed to lay down their
arms.

U.S.-Style Negotiations

The main idea behind the U.S.-styled negotiations was
to divide the FDR-FMLN and at the same time to main-
tain the U.S.’s democratic facade by appearing to favor a
political rather than a military settlement. But the plan
never really got off the ground.

Rather than solidify the government around this polit-
ical program, the contradictions only worsened. None of
the commissions functioned. Furthermore, the dialogue
proposed by the FMLN-FDR revealed that the dem-
ocratic revolutionary forces totally rejected this U.S.
maneuver. United, they announced their plan for
dialogue, with no preconditions.

Nevertheless, in rejecting the FMLN-FDR dialogue,
the Reagan Administration has chosen to persist in
pursuing its own version. John Hughes, spokesperson
for the State Department, said that the U.S. favors a
reconciliation in El Salvador, but that it should be carried
out within the framework of the emergent constitution
and Salvadoran institutions, namely the pacification
commission.

The U.S. position contrasts sharply with those of
governments like France, Mexico, Panama and Costa
Rica, all of which have supported the FMLN-FDR
dialogue. In addition, the 13 social democratic parties of
Latin America that signed the Belize declaration, the
Socialist International and the Catholic Church are
among others that have backed the proposal.

International Focus

Tom Morris

‘

Not a bang,
Sat a ocber

It’s one thing to bring the full
might of the Royal Navy down
upon the barren Falk-
lands/Malvinas islands to dis-
lodge Argentina’s decades-
long claim.

It was bad enough that hun-
dreds died on both sides in the
short but dirty war to preserve
the last vestiges of British Im-
Perial Glory and to keep the
shaky Tory’ Thatcher govern-
Ment in power.

——7

Three cheers for Maggie! :

Most victors are satisfied
with the spoils. But not Mar-
garet Thatcher. Last week she
stepped from an army helicop-
ter on the windy Falkland
shores to view first-hand the
prize won at such heavy cost.
It wasn’t exactly India or the
Middle East.

The place hardly ranks as
one of the shining jewels in the
British Crown. But, what the
hell, this is the 20th Century.
The tired lion gave one last lit-
tle roar, Thatcher’s roar.

The Empire goes out not

with a bang, but with a

whimper.

Anew Kampuchea

four years after

Four years ago, Jan. 7, 1979,
with the help of their Viet-
namese allies, the democratic
forces of Kampuchea liberated
their country from the hell of
Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge.
The nightmare of killings and
institutionalized genocide was
over.

Kampuchea lay in ruins.

Almost three million people
died at the hands of the Khmer
Rouge; cities stood empty, the
nation’s social and cultural
institutions dismantled.

A blue ribbon international
jury immediately visited the
country and its finding shocked
even the most seasoned obser-
vers. Pol Pot’s ‘‘100% High
Level Socialist Revolution’
had left only 4.5 million people
alive — from 7.5 million four
years earlier.

* * *

I visited Kampuchea in 1979
shortly after its liberation and
described what I saw in the
Tribune. That was almost four
years ago, but the sights,

_ ‘sounds and smells are still viv-

id. That this crime could have
taken place with such cold pre-
cision and devastation still
haunts my mind.

I recall talking about it with
fellow journalists in Phnom
Penh at the time. We wondered
if it was humanly possible to
rebuild this shattered land. We

‘ debated whether a people who

suffered “such trauma could
recover. -

Recover they have, and
against heavy odds. Aid im-

‘Mediately poured in from

around the world, the bulk
from the socialist. community.
Kampuchea needed every-

_ thing — especially to feed its

people, to re-house the scat-
tered population, to restore its
institutions.

It still receives massive aid
from allies and friends. And
Kampuchea’s government is

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—JANUARY 21, 1983—Page 9

A Soviet doctor holds a little patient at Phnom Penh’s Kam-
puchean-Soviet Friendship hospital.

stable, despite constant efforts
by the so-called ‘‘free world”
(including Canada) to keep it

~out of the United Nations and

schemes such as bringing back
a ‘‘coalition’’ including Pol
Pot.

Four years isn’t long, but all
reports tell of a new Kam-
puchea being built as the scars
slowly heal. The beautiful land
of the Khmer people is being
reborn. :

aii

Pare