PEASANTS PRAY FOR JUSTICE ON MASSACRE ANNIVERSARY

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000707040031-3
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 20, 2011
• Sequence Number: 31
• Publication Date: February 25, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

C'TAT
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/12/20: CIA-RDP90-00965R000707040031-3
LOS ANGELES TIMES
25 February, 1985
Peasants Pray for Justice
on Massacre Anniversary
SONSONATE, El Salvador-
The dark-faced peasants gathered
for a solemn anniversary and to
pray for justice that they now
believe will never come.
They met at the San Antonio
church in Sonsonate for a Mass to
commemorate the 1983 massacre of
Indian farmers, apparently by ar-
my troops, at the nearby Las Hojas
farm cooperative. A judge officially
counted 18 farmers killed, but local
residents say many more were
slain.
For two years, leaders of an
independent organization of Indian
farmers, the Salvadoran National
Indigenous Assn., have pressed the
army, the courts and now the
government of President Jose Na-
poleon Duarte to arrest and try
those responsible.
Little has happened. Three
non-military informers were ar-
rested, although seven others
named in warrants remain free.
The soldiers believed to have
done the killing and their com-
manding officers have not been
charged with anything.
~_ The inaction-on the arLof the
Duarte government is most frus-
trating to the peasants who were
among the Salvadoran president's
staunchest supporters in his climb
to power in last spring's elections.
Indigenous Assn. leaders met with
him in January but came away
with only a promise to investigate.
"The government has no guts,"
said association leader Adrian Es-
quino Lizco. "The case is paralyzed.
We see no movement."
The feeling that justice has been
delayed in the Las Hojas case
bolsters a sense in El Salvador that
Duarte's government is often frus-
trated in exercising its power.
The sources of that frustration,
in the view of many observers, are
the forces that traditionally ruled
El Salvador-the political right and
the military.
The country's National Assem-
bly has taken the lead in obstruct-
ing Duarte's administration. Right-
ist parties, led by the conservative
Arena party, outnumber Duarte's
moderate Christian Democrats and
have voted consistently as a block
to stymie his programs.
Assembly elections are sched-
uled March 31. The rightists are
expected to maintain-even ex-
pand-their majority, owing in part
to a new election law tailored by
the assembly.
The law permits the two biggest
conservative parties, Arena and
the National Conciliation Party, to
appear separately on the ballot
even though they have formed a
coalition. Their votes will be com-
bined after the polls close.
The appearance of several par-
ties on the ballot will diminish the
Christian Democrats' chances of
obtaining a majority of votes for the
60 seats at stake, political observers
believe.
Duarte tried to veto the coalition
provision of the law, but the Su-
preme Court, whose justices were
named by the assembly, overrode
his action.
Ironically, in a country long
accustomed to rule by a strongman,
the assembly wields formidable
power. It can effectively veto Du-
arte's budget and tax proposals.
Any agreements reached to end El
Salvador's -civil war, such as am-
nesty, would require the approval
of the assembly.
Land Reform Blocked
The legislature demonstrated its
considerable muscle last summer
by ending the last active land
reform program in El Salvador.
Indirectly, it has also helped to
delay prosecution in the Las Hojas
massacre case. The assembly, using
its constitutional powers, appointed
the country's attorney general. He
is an Arena party functionary who
has neither carried out a further
investigation of the massacre nor
enforced warrants already out-
standing for the arrests of those
responsible.
The armed forces, meanwhile,
have lost little of their traditional
hold on power. Duarte's efforts to
negotiate an end to the civil war
with leftist rebels have made little
progress, in part because of opposi-
tion by the military to concessions
demanded by the rebels.
- Also, the armed forces reported-
l=y continue to shield their members
from having to answer to charges
of human rights abuses.
- In the case of. the Las Hojas
massacre, no ~egular military mane
has been charged, although about
200 soldiers allegedly were on the
scene when the killings took place.
The officers in control of the I
troops, Col. Elmer Gonzalez and
Capt. Salvador Figueroa Morales,
remain on active duty.
The United States, a factor in El
Salvador because of its economic
aid and backing for Duarte's ad-
ministration, has played an ambig-
uous role in recent months.
The United States sent hun-
dreds of t ousan of dollars on last
years vadoran election, chan-
neling the money through the CIA,
which gave the funds to trade
unions supporting Duarte
Since Duarte's inauguration in
June, however, some U.S. Embassy
officials reportedly have told right-
ist politicians that it would be best
if the right continues to hold a
majority in the assembly.
The State Department also lifted
its ban on travel to the United
States by Roberto D'Aubuisson, the
Arena party's firebrand leader,
who an ran unsuccessful presiden-
tial campaign against Duarte last 1
year. Denying D'Aubuisson a visa
had long symbolized U.S. disap-
proval of his alleged ties to death
squad activity. The change in the
U.S. attitude was seen in El Salva-
dor as something of a blessing for
Arena.
Continues;
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/12/20: CIA-RDP90-00965R000707040031-3
 Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/12/20: CIA-RDP90-00965R000707040031-3 ti
The U.S. Embassy here contin-
ues to call for prosecution of cases
such as the Las Hojas massacre.
But the United States has not tried
to enforce such calls by threaten-
ing to withhold aid to the Salvador-
an military and economy, as it did
in the case of four murdered U.S.
churchwomen whose killers were
prosecuted last spring.
The Las Hojas massacre oc-
curred on Feb. 22, 1983. A land
dispute between campesinos and
local landowners set off the kill-
ings, residents say.
Civil defense militiamen in the
employ of the landowners fingered
the Indians as rebel sympathizers,
according to local accounts. Sol-
diers, arriving in force in the early
morning, dragged the victims from
their homes, led them to a nearby
river, bound them and shot each
one in the head.
Visit by Pickering
"They took my father as he was
getting ready for work," said Al-
fonso Marquez, 25. "I protested, but
they said they would take me, too."
The government itself seemed
revolted by the murders. Its own
human rights commission investi-
gated the incident. Top army offi-
cers promised justice, as did Duar-
te's predecessor, President Alvaro
Magana.
The United States withdrew mil-
itary trainers from the local bri-
gade that was responsible for the
killings. U.S. Ambassador Thomas
R. Pickering paid an unpublicized
visit to the massacre site.
Duarte, at the beginning of his
term, said that the Las Hojas
incident would be one of several
important human rights cases his
government would prosecute.
But so far, nothing concrete has
occurred. The judge who was han-
dling the case is running for a seat
in the National Assembly as an! Arena party candidate. At present'
there is no judge handling the case.
In any case, the Arena party
judge once told reporters he feared,
for his life if he tried to pursue the
I
criminals.
"They treat us like animals who
are fit to be slaughtered," France-
sca Jimenez, widow of one of the
victims said. She said she is without
support not only because of her
husband's death but because the
army has drafted her oldest, son.
"Everyone has forgotten our
murdered brothers," the Indian
leader Esquino Lizco said at the
commemorative Mass.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/12/20: CIA-RDP90-00965R000707040031-3