A CAFE MASSACRE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000100100001-2
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: March 20, 2012
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: July 1, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

ST"T
Declassified in Part -Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/03/20 :CIA-RDP90-009658000100100001-2
A Cafe
Massacre
Gunmen kill 13-including 6 Americans-as frus-
trated Salvadoran rebels bring the war to the city.
a Zona Rosa seemed worlds away
from EI Salvador's civil war. U.S.
'Marine Sgt. Tom Handwork had
just joined a girlfriend at Chili's,
an outdoor cafe in San Salvador's most
fashionable district. Three fellow Marines
sat nearby, quietly sipping their beers.
Shortly before 9 p.m. two vehicles pulled
up outside the cafe, and approximately 10
young men in military camouflage T shirts
piled out. "; Viva El Salvador!" cried the
leader of the group as his followers opened
fire. They gunned down the four '.Marines
with automatic cifles and fired indiscrimi-
natel} through the sidewalk restaurants
that lined the street. Thirteen people died
in the furious attack, and at least 15 more
were wounded. According to some survi-
vors, the gunmen returned to the fallen
'.Marines to pump additional rounds into
their bodies. Then they disappeared into
the depths of the city, leaving behind a
gruesome montage of shattered bottles,
corpses and blood.
"It was democracy that was attacked
last night," declared U.S. Embassy spokes-
man Don Hamilton. "The United States
was among the victims." In addition to the
Marines, all of whom served as embassy
guards, two American businessmen died in
the massacre. The deaths marked the first
time that an American serviceman had
been killed in EI Salvador since the murder
of Navy Lt. Cmdr. Albert Schaufelberger
in May 1983, and for Ronald Reagan,
already living through the agony of the
Mideast hostage crisis, they were a final
straw. "This cannot continue," Reagan
declared, promising to speed delivery of
S 128 million in military aid Congress
had already approved for El Salvador.
"We must act against those who have so
little regard for human life and the values
we cherish."
A tiny rebel faction, the Central
American Revolutionary Workers Party
(PRTC), claimed responsibility for the at-
tack. "The first American Marines have
begun to fall," it gloated in a communique.
"The Marines killed in the Zona Rosa
were not innocent; no Yankee invader is
free of guilt." The assassins professed to
"lament profoundly" the fact that some
Salvadorans had been killed in the gunfire.
Nonetheless, they vowed to treat as "mili-
tary targets" any restaurants or merchants
that serve U.S. military personnel.
Loves: Ironically, Salvadoran officials
regarded the Zona Rosa massacre as evi-
dence that the war against the leftist rebels
was being won. Earlier this month, govern-
ment troops launched a major offensive in
the northeastern department of Morazan,
a stronghold of the Farabundo Marti Na-
tional Liberation Front (FMLN) for the
past Sifz years. Air Force planes strafed
rebel positions as five Army battalions
moved in on the ground-and the FMLN
was clearly hurt. Captured documents sug-
gested that the rebels were turning to ter-
rorism to recoup their recent losses in the
field. Over the past six months the guerril-
las have been responsible for the kidnap-
ping or killing of numerous Salvadoran
mayors, bureaucrats and military offi-
cers-and U.S. and Salvadoran officials
had been warning of an upsurge in urban
violence. "The fact that [the guerrillas)
have returned to the city is clear proof of
their losses in the countryside," said Maj.
Carlos Aviles, chief spokesman for the
Salvadoran armed forces.
U.S. officials speculated that the rebels
may have hoped to goad the Salvadoran
government into a repressive backlash. But
one official in Washington said, "I think
the Salvadorans have come too far to let it
happen." Still last week's massacre repre-
sented the first time since 1980 that E1
Salvador's capital had been hit by a crime
of such violent proportions-and military
officials doubled San Salvador's police pro-
tection. If there are other attacks, it seems
likely that the city will return to the repres-
sive police control that had been relaxed
only in recent years.
DesettKioffi: Military analysts maintain
that while the rebels are far from defeated,
they have clearly lost their earlier momen-
tum. According to Napoleon Romero, a
former guerrilla leader who defected to the
government last April, the five main rebel
groups have between 6,000 and 7,000
fighters, down sharply from the 9,000 to
10,000 they had in 1983. And while the
rebels have large numbers of weapons
buried around the countryside, Romero
told his interrogators, they are receiving
less than half the ammunition they require
each month. As a result, say U.S. officials,
rebel morale is suffering; desertions are
rampant, and some commanders have
been forced to take "extreme measures,"
including executions, to keep their troops
in the field.
Simultaneously, U.S. officials say there
has been a marked improvement in the
effectiveness of the government troops. In
June 1984 the FMLN won a significant
psychological victory when 1,000 rebels
overran the sentry posts at the Cerron
Grande dam and destroyed enough equip-
ment to shut down EI Salvador's largest
hydroelectric generating station for a
month. But more significant was the way
in which the government forces managed
to drive the rebels away. "The Salvadoran
Army reaction was picture perfect," re-
calls one American official. Improved
training and growing experience with
guerrilla warfare have brought new and
more capable commanders to the top.
American trucks and helicopters have
greatly increased the Army's tactical mo-
bility, and the government forces are also
benefiting from better ;ntelligence. "Cer-
tainly nobody's going to put up a signpost
that victory is two miles ahead," says a
Defense Department analyst. "But the war
has been turned around."
The Salvador~ri?r~~~o seems
y.
Declassified in Part -Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/03/20 :CIA-RDP90-009658000100100001-2
 Declassified in Part -Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/03/20 :CIA-RDP90-009658000100100001-2
to be gaining the upper hand politically-at
least against the right. Following his unex-
pectedly strong victory in the General As-
sembly elections last March. President Jose
Napoleon Duarte has managed to consoli-
date power and defuse the threat of such
extreme right-wing populists as Roberto
D'Aubuisson. But he still faces a strong
political challenge from militant left-wing
labor unions, many of which the govern-
ment accuses of being infiltrated by the
rebels. Whatever the case, the electoral vic-
torygave Duarte more freedom to negotiate
with the guerrillas. Not that the talks will be
easy. "He expects [that] it's going to be a
long process," says a State Department offi-
cial, "and that not all the guerrillas will end
up un board."
In Washington the secret hope is that
lengthy negotiations against a backdrop of
increasing government strength will drive a
wedge between the rival rebel factions. Stilt,
U.S. officials planned to provide more sup-
port. In addition [o expediting the military
aid, Reagan promised to make available any
"additional military assets" the Duarte
government might need. White
House spokesman Larry Speaker
suggested that the administration
might send a group of FBI agents
to El Salvador to provide technical
help in finding the killers as well as
improving the country's overall
intelligence-gathering capacity.
Security: Better intelligence will
not be enou h to safe uard L.S.
Ives rom more terrorist attacks.
As was the case with the Ameri-
cans hijacked in the Mideast, the
slain Marines apparently fell vic-
tim to lax security. Following the
death of Schaufelberger, who was
shot as he sat in a car waiting for
a girlfriend, the U.S. Embassy
warned its personnel to avoid vul-
nerablespots, such as the sidewalk
cafes of the Zona Rosa. Yet the
Marine guards were frequently
spotted at restaurants such as
Chili's. On the night of the shoot-
ing, said one witness, the Marines
were approached by a young man
who chatted with them briefly and
then bicycled away. Ten minutes
later, the gunmen appeared and
opened fire. State Department of-
ficials said they found it hard to
understand w y the Marines did
not tae realer recauhons, par-
ticularly since t e most recent in-
te tgence reports to tcate tat
t e guerre as mtg t e stepping up
[~iet~ at[a-T on~men'can mili_
lacy personnel. e t annex 'u -
viously had ... some sense that
there was some safety in a crowd,"
said American Embassy spokes-
man Hamilton. But "against peo-
ple willing to kill so wantonly,
there is obviously no protection
in a crowd."
While Salvadoran police and
military continued to search fur
clues to the identities of the killers,
President Duarte traveled to the
[lopango military airport in El
Salvador late last week to watch
the flag-draped Marine coffins
depart for the United States.
"Like brothers," he said, "we
have felt the loss of these four
men who had come to our coun-
try to serve." Assistant Secretary
of State Robert Lamb concluded
a tearful eulogy by naming the slain Ma-
rines. "Sgt. Bobby Dickson, Sgt. Thomas
Handwork, Cpl. Patrick Kwiatkowski,
Cpl. Gregory Webber," he said, "we are
proud of you and we've come to take you
home." Ronald Reagan presided over the
Marines' emotional arrival at Andrews Air
Force Base. "We know that no words can
console," he told their grieving families,
"but we thank you for your sons."
HARRY ANDERSON with LIZ BALMASEDA
in San Sal~adorand JANE WHITMORE and
JOHN W'ALCOTT in Washington
Declassified in Part -Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/03/20 :CIA-RDP90-009658000100100001-2