EL SALVADOR: BACK FROM THE BRINK

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000605300013-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 3, 2012
• Sequence Number: 13
• Publication Date: May 1, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

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1 Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/05/03: CIA-RDP90-00965R000605300013-7
READER'S DIGEST
LR!I L.PPE ~: ED IIav 1985
OI PLGE
El Salvador:
Back From the
Brink
ARCH 1972. He had just
1\4 been elected president of
El Salvador. But the army,
which ran the country, prevented
him from taking office. He was
arrested, blindfolded, beaten sav-
agely, eventually exiled. With that,
Led by Jose Napoleon Duarte,
its first democratically elected
president in more than 50 years,
this once-beleaguered land fi-
nally has its Moscow-backed in-
surgents on the run
the Salvadoran generals concluded
that they were rid of Jose Napoleon
Duarte forever.
They were wrong. After seven
years of exile, Duarte returned to El
Salvador. On June 1, 1984, he be-
came only the second democratical-
ly chosen civilian president ever to
take office in that Central Ameri-
can country.
Under Duarte's direction the Sal-
vadoran army, now reorganized and
retrained by U.S. military personnel,
is making great strides against
El Salvador's cocksure communist
guerrillas. After five years of laying
waste to the country, the guerrillas
are, as one American adviser puts
it, "looking over their shoulders
and sleeping in their boots."
If the Salvadoran army contin-
ues to make progress against the
guerrillas, as most knowledgeable
observers predict, the consequences
will be profound. El Salvador was
targeted years ago by the commu-
nist world for an armed takeover.
At Moscow's direction, Cuba and
Nicaragua provided the Salvador-
an guerrillas with arms, ammuni
tion, training.and political backing.
The Soviets counted on victory in
El Salvador as the first round in a
concerted campaign to turn Central
America and the Caribbean, re-
gions that lie on our doorstep, into
Marxist strongholds.
Astounding Change. Recent vis-
itors to San Salvador, the capital of
El Salvador, can scarcely believe
that a war is going on. Situated on
the slopes of a volcano, bathed in
dazzling tropical sunshine year-
round, San Salvador is one of the
most pleasant cities in Central
America. Its tranquillity is usually
shattered only by tumultuous soc-
cer matches that draw tens of thou-
sands of wildly excited fans.
To those who knew Sari Salva-
dor in 1080, when the insurgene}'
was getting into high gear, the
change is astounding. The guerril-
las operated openly in the capital
then, carrying out assassinations,
kidnapping businessmen for ran-
som, murdering residents who re-
fused to contribute to their cause.
A military dictatorship that had
lasted nearly 50 years was toppled
in October 1979, in a coup d'etat
staged by reform-minded officers.-.
They set up a military-civilian jun--.
ta. that Duarte, back from exile,
eventually headed. But it was a
government that had virtually no-
control over its incompetent and
corrupt army. Thus the guerrillas
roamed unchallenged across much-
of the nation, destroying crops in'=
the field and crippling the eeono.-
my: Half a million Salvadorans`
were driven from their homes in=
the fighting, and unemployment
soared to an estimated 40 percent:-
Nicaragua had fallen to the pro--:
Soviet Sandinista guerrillas -- the,?
year before, and many Salvadorans
feared that their country would he
next.
. Ebbing Tide. U.S. military aid
eventually blunted the guerrilla
-onslaught, although the Adminis-
tration had to squeeze every last
dollar from a Vietnam-mesmer-
ized Congress that preferred to ig-
nore the Soviet-Cuban threat.
From 8ooo men five years ago, the
Salvadoran army has expanded to
nearly 30,000. Corrupt and inept
officers have been retired; younger
men, many trained in service
schools in the United States, have
taken over. In 1980 the Salvadoran
army had, at any one time, only two
or three helicopters in flying condi-
tion. Today it has 36 UH-1 "Huey"
helicopters that can airlift crack
units into combat within minutes.
In late 1983, when I was in
northern Morazan Province, the
military commander there told me
that the entire region to the north of
the Torola River was a guerrilla
stronghold. A year later, when I
returned, government forces had
_ crossed the river and-retaken all of
the towns formerly occupied by the
4'. guerrillas. Helicopter mobility had
made it possible.-
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c
The guerrillas were once able to
mass loon men routinely for as-
saults on isolated towns or garri-
sons. Now, as a result of the army's
improved performance and its new
: air capability, the guerrillas gener-
ally are forced to break up into
groups of 25.to 30, constantly on the
move to stay alive. Intelligence
sources report that the guerrilla
high command wante to stage
_------ ---
offensiyes to the st~nnt and fall of
1_84, but that the sim I y did not
have the strengt to o so. Salva-
doran officials anticipate that the
guerrillas, now that they are on the
run in the countryside, may attempt
to revive terrorism in the cities.
But more and more, the guerril-
las are seen by the Salvadoran peo-
ple as losers, the worst fate that can
befall a guerrilla. Duarte's election
came as another setback. While the
guerrillas could claim in the past
that they were fighting a military
dictatorship, they now are seeking
to destroy a democratic government.
"Our Kind." A short, powerfully
built man with a craggily hand-
some face, the 59-year-old Duarte,
known as Napo to his friends, is
one of the world's toughest heads of
state. For most of his political ca-
reer, he has lived in constant danger
of assassination-by communists on
the left and by fanatics on the right.
His enemies describe him as a
"bombastic egomaniac," and even
his friends concede that he is not
lacking in self-confidence.
Duarte grew up in the slums of
San Salvador. When he was a teen-
ager, his father, an often-unem-
1 ed tailor won $16,ooo in a
o
with a bachelors degree in civil engi-
neering in 1(448.. he returned home
and got a loll as an engineer with an
architectural firm.
Later, as a partner in the firm,
Duarte supervised the construction
of many buildings in San Salvador.
And soon the one-time slum kid
was prosperous. Plunging enthusi-
astically into civic work, he headed
El Salvador's Boy Scouts and glad-
handed his way through Central
America. organizing-service clubs.
He also found time to help set u.p
El Salvador's volunteer fire associa-
tion, be active in the Red Cross and
teach structural calculus at the Uni-
versity of El Salvador.
A practicing Catholic, Duarte
was one of the founders, in 1960, of
El Salvador's Christian Democratic
Party, which presented itself as an
alternative to communism in seek-
ing reforms by peaceful means.
failed to receive a majority, a runoff
was held in May, with an estimated
8o-percent turnout. Duarte won
54 percent of the vote and was
sworn in as president.
On a visit to Washington after
the election, Duarte charmed U.S.
Congressmen, many of whom had
previously opposed military aid to
El Salvador. "I'm purling my life
on the tine," he told them. "Don't
leave me standing alone." Won over,
Rep. Clarence Long (D., Md.), then
chairman of the House Appropria-
tions Subcommittee on Foreign Op-
erations and a skeptic on Salvadoran
aid, paid Duarte the supreme com-
pliment: "lie's our kind of man."
The result: Duarte persuaded Con-
gress to approve $62 million in addi-
y ,
p
lottery. The money. enabled the fa-
ther to send his son to the University..
of Notre Dame in Indiana. Young
Duarte supported himself there by
working as a waiter, dishwasher and
window cleaner, quickly picking up
English in the process. Graduating
Duarte served three two-year terms
as mayor of San Salvador, where he
built a new central market and
introduced street lighting in low-
income neighborhoods.
Then, in 1972, he won the presi-
dential election as a centrist-coali-
tion candidate. After the military
installed its own candidate in his
place, a group of officers attempted
a counter coup, and asked Duarte
to assume the presidency. But the
coup failed.
For seven years, Duarte lived in
exile in Caracas, Venezuela. Once
again he prospered, becoming gen-
eral manager of a construction
company. He hurried home after
the coup in 1979, and eventually
became president of a military-
civilian junta preparing for a return,
to democratic rule.
The junta scheduled elections
for a constituent assembly that
would write a new constitution.
The guerrillas ordered the public to
boycott the elections and threat-
ened to kill those who went to the
polls. Nonetheless, some 85 percent
of eligible voters cast their ballots.
The guerrillas also tried to disrupt
the presidential elections in March
1984, but about 75 percent of the
electorate turned out. As Duarte
tional assistance for his country.
Facing the Problems. When
Duarte took office, many won-
dered if he could gain control of the
army, which had always run the
country. A test came four weeks
after his inauguration. Guerrillas
attacked the country's largest darn
and hydroelectric station at Cerrbn
Grande. Duarte appeared. at the
army's operations center, the first
time in memory that a civilian lead-
er had dared venture into the inner
sanctum of the military. He de-
manded a briefing, then ordered:
"Take'the dam hack right away." Six
hundred airborne troops, flown to
the dam by helicopter, turned back
the guerrillas before they could se-
riously damage the facilities.
A further test of the army's loyal-
ty came last October. During a
speech to the United Nations Gen-
eral Assembly in New York,
Duarte surprised everyone by an-
nouncing that he was willing to
meet guerrilla leaders to discuss
cWtinued
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/05/03: CIA-RDP90-00965R000605300013-7
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peace. Some army officers objected
that he vwas foolishly giving the
enemy legitimacy by appearing
with them in public. Put a majority
of officers supported the president.
On the appointed morning,
Duarte arrived by car at the village
of I,a Palma in a contested area
about 15 milts north of the capital.
With him were his defense minister
and three civilians. By agreement
with the guerrillas, the men were
unarmed, and had no bodyguards.
There to greet Duarte were thou-
sands of his countrymen.
In a five-hour meeting in time
village church, Duarte offered the
guerrillas amnesty if they would lay
down their guns. And he assured
them that they could organize a
political party to work for change
within the system. The guerrillas
flatly rejected the offer, showing
that they are not much different
from other Marxist-Leninist totali-
tarians who want to shoot their way
into power. While both sides.seem
willing to continue talks, no date
has yet been set.
Having gained the confidence
and cooperation of the army,
Duarte tackled one of his most
difficult problems: the escuadrones
de la muerte, or death squads. These
right-wing groups, operating with
the tolerance or guidance of high-
ranking army officers, are believed
to have assassinated thousands of
civilians. In an effort to root them
out, Duarte disbanded the i to-man
intelligence, unit of the Treasury
Police, widely regarded as being
involved in such practices. He fired
more than ioo soldiers and police
believed to be responsible for
abuses, and placed under a-single command the Treasury Police, Na-
tional Police and National Guard,
which had functioned as laws unto
themselves. Duarte also gave orders
that the International Red Cross
was free to talk with El Salvador's.
prisoners any time it chose.
Death squads still operate, but
killings of civilians by security per-
sonnet have fallen dramatically.
Says Duarte: "I'm truing; to con-
vince ttie army and society that
we're all worse off if we use vio-
lence to solve our problems."
One area where Duarte gets only
a passing grade, if that, is his atti-
tude toward El Salvador's business
community. Duarte needs the co-
operation of businessmen to revive
the depressed economy, but rela-
tions are mutually cool. Says a
knowledgeable American in El Sal-
vador: "He hasn't done enough to
make businessmen confident enough
to invest. Until he does, the econo-
my won't recover." Duarte's party
may also suffer election reverses
that could hamper his ability to
move the country toward his goals.
Nonetheless, El Salvador has
come a long way from those dark
days in 1980 when it looked as if it
was about to fall to a Soviet-orches-
trated onslaught. Salvadoran guer-
rillas still have fight left in them,
and there are bound to be setbacks.
Yet the tide in El Salvador has
clearly turned. Because we refused
to back down-and because one
brave man was willing "to put my
life on the line"-a potential com-
munist foothold has become in-'
stead a budding democracy.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/05/03: CIA-RDP90-00965R000605300013-7