PROXY PRESIDENT

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000605740046-3
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 3, 2012
• Sequence Number: 46
• Publication Date: March 2, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT
Declassified in Part -Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/05/03 :CIA-RDP90-009658000605740046-3
ARTICLE APP~~ NATION
~~ pA~E_~'y~-+~ 2 ~~larch .1y85
President
ose Napolebn.Duarte's election last year was hailed
by many. as:the beginning of an.era of democracy in
El Salvador and a stunning triumph .for U.S. policy,
The. search for an elusive center begun under the
Carter Administration had finally: ended. The Reagan Ad-
ministration could at last claim to have found an untarnished
ally in its. war against "communist subversion," and Con-
gressional opposition to extending military aid crumbled.
Eight :months: lafer,_ Duarte appears to be less an ally .of
the United States than an instrument of U.S. policy.. He has
had remazkable success in lobbying Congress to approve
dramatic increases in military aid and to drop all binding
conditions on its appropriation: But at home, Duarte is at
the mercy'of forces beyond his control.
The National Assembly is .dominated by, extreme right-
wing parties determined to block .reforms. Most recently,
the Assembly slashed the executive branch's budget,- elimi-
nating the commissions that had been investigating corrup-
tion and human rights abuses and causing Duarte to com-
plain that he can barely afford to light the presidential
palace. By his own admission, Duarte has no authority or
influence over the judiciary, whose members are appointed
by the Assembly for five-year terms and are controlled by
the far right: His inaugural pledge to punish those responsible
for political assassinations remains unfulfilled, and 1985 has
started with an alarming increase in death squad activity.
The armed forces, E1 Salvador's traditional guarantor of
political stability and economic privilege, continue to set the
parameters of civilian power. Duarte's skill in procuring
millions in military aid is critical to the war effort. But his
two rounds of peace talks with the guerrillas in 1984 sent
shudders through the military and nearly resulted in a
December coup. The armed forces have since set such strict
limits on the scope of those talks tharthey may never resume
in a useful way.
Duazte's only chance for broadening the powers of his
presidency is through a Christian Democratic victory in the
elections scheduled for March 31. At stake are all sixty seats
in the National Assembly, as well as 231 mayoral posts. But
even the optimists in Duarte's camp predict that his party
will pick up only two to three seats at best, not enough to
break the right wing's hold.
The U.S. government; which contributed close to $1 mil-
lion to Duarte's presidential campaign through C.I.A, than-
nels, might be: expected to place its hopes, if not its money,
liar Democrats. But in ~ recent meeting-with a
visiting U.S~.delegation,_a high-ranking official at the U:S.
Embassy in El Salvador expressed the opposite view. Acon-
tinued. Christian Democratic. minority in the Assembly
would preserve a system . of checks and balances,. he said.
"Duarte will have to.learn how to make compromises with
the busirtess community, the military and the political paz-
ties of the right." ~
Indeed, .U.S: policies are partly responsible for Duarte's
declining popularity and his party's grim prospects in the
upcoming elections.. U.S.'. pressure has brought Reagan-
omits to El Salvador, in the form. of benefits to lazge land-
owners'and exporters and deep cuts in government spending
at the expense of the poor.: Duarte and his party have paid a
high political price for those U.S.-imposed policies, designed
to placate the right. Protesting a wage freeze that began in
1981,- labor unions organized several successful strikes last
year, only to see their gains erased by rising consumer costs.
In addition, -the failure of .the peace talks has frustrated
those who voted for Duarte in 1984 as the "peace candidate:"
Meanwhile, the waz continues. Increasingly heavy bomb-
ing is driving civilians from guerrilla-contested zones in ever
greater numbers. Refugee camps inside El Salvador and in
neighboring countries now house hundreds of thousands of
them. U.S. officials predict that within two years the war
will be over, the guerrilla threat reduced to a "nuisance."
But if Duazte continues to rule as a reluctant proxy for the
right and if negotiations. with the left are not resumed,
EI Salvador's waz is probably just beginning. JANET SxENx
Janet Shenk, a staff water with the North American Con-
gress on Latln America, travels frequently to E! Salvador.
Declassified in Part -Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/05/03 :CIA-RDP90-009658000605740046-3