STATEMENT OF AMBASSADOR THOMAS O. ENDERS ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR INTER-AMERICAN AFFAIRS BEFORE THE HOUSE SUBCOMMITTEE ON INTER-AMERICAN AFFAIRS FEBRUARY 2, 1982

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP84B00049R000902300017-5
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 7
• Document Creation Date: December 20, 2016
• Document Release Date: October 12, 2007
• Sequence Number: 17
• Publication Date: February 2, 1982
• Content Type: REPORT

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STATEMENT OF
AMBASSADOR THOMAS O. ENDERS
ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR INTER-AMERICAN AFFAIRS
BEFORE
THE HOUSE SUBCOMMITTEE ON
INTER-AMERICAN AFFAIRS
FEBRUARY 2, 1982
Mr. Chairman, I welcome this opportunity to address
the Central American crisis, with specific reference
to El Salvador and to the certification required under
law.
,The Administration is committed to the goals set
out in the Foreign Assistance Act with regard to El Salvador.
As we understand it, the Act says, yes, there is a challenge
to our national security, so military and economic assistance
are required. But yes, we must also use our assistance
to help El Salvador control violence, make land reform
work, develop a-democratic process, bring murderers to
justice.
The certification the President made last week shows
that there has indeed-been substantial progress toward
each of the goals laid out in law.
Human Rights The law requires us to certify that
El Salvador is "making a concerted and significant effort
to comply with internationally recognized human rights,"
and "is achieving substantial control over all elements
of its armed forces." It does not say that human rights
problems must be eliminated. But it does demand progress.
There is no question that the human rights situation
is troubled, as is detailed in our annual report just
submitted to the Congress. The explosion of violence
and counterviolence following the extreme left's receipt
of outside support for guerrilla warfare has accentuated
already high historic levels of violence, strained the
system of justice to the breaking point, and eroded normal
social constraints against violence. Countless violations
of human rights have arisen from partisan animosities
of both left and right, personal vendettas, retaliations,
provocations, intimidation and sheer brutality. The
breakdown has been profound; the society will take years
to heal.
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Accurate information is hard to establish. Responsi-
bility for the overwhelming number of deaths is never
legally determined nor usually ever accounted for by
clear or coherent evidence. Seventy per cent of the
political murders known to our embassy were committed
by unknown assailants. And there is much special pleading.
For example, the Legal Aid office of the Archbishopric,
often cited by the international media and human rights
organizations, lists no victims of guerrilla and terrorist
violence from the left. In January, Apostolic Delegate
Rivera y Damas deprived the Legal Aid Office of any right
to speak on behalf of the Archbishopric. The prejudice
of the other main organization that collects statistics
-- the Central American University -- is virtually explicit
in its inclusion of a category on "ajusticiados" -- refer-
ring to persons killed by the guerrillas as having been
"justly executed." The organization that calls itself
the Human Rights Commission -- which occasionally issues
statistics from outside the country -- has become an
insurgent propaganda vehicle and has no credibility.
Most difficult to assess of all are the repeated
allegations of massacres. The ambiguity lies in the
fact that there are incidents in which non-combatants
have suffered terribly -- at the hands of guerrillas,
rightist vigilantes, government forces or some or all
of them -- and that the. insurgents have also repeatedly
fabricated or inflated alleged mass murders as a means
of propaganda. Last year, in a widely-publicized case,
the massacre of a thousand people in a cave was related
by Radio Venceremos (and picked up in our media) in con-
vincing detail, until it was determined that there are
no large caves in the region where the atrocity supposedly
occurred. More recently, our press published a detailed
account of how American green berets had witnessed Salvadoran
soldiers torturing prisoners. A careful investigation
showed this report to be an FDR/FMLN fabrication. On
the other hand, I do not accept that 19 people died in
a firefight in San Salvador two nights ago: whether
or not there were weapons found, or the people were members
of the insurgent groups, I deeply deplore the excessive
violence of the Salvadoran forces in this incident.
We sent two Embassy officers to investigate last
week's reports of a massacre in the Morazan villege of
El Mozote. While it is clear that an armed confronta-
tion between guerrillas-occupying El Mozote and attacking
government forces occurred last December, no evidence
could be found to confirm that government forces systemat-
ically massacred civilians in the operation zone, nor
that the number of civilians killed even remotely approached
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the 733 or 926 victims variously cited in press reports.
In fact, the total population of El Mozote canton last
December is estimated locally at only 300, and there
are manifestly a great many people still there.
So we must be careful. We try to investigate every
report we receive. And we use every opportunity to impress
on the El Salvador government and army that we are serious
about practicing human rights -- and so must they be.
Results are coming slowly, but they are coming.
Since October 1979, the Salvadoran authorities have done
much more than repeatedly emphasize to officers and men
the need to protect human rights. They have:
broken traditional links between large landowners
and the security forces by outlawing the para-
military organization "ORDEN".
-- promulgated a military code of conduct that
highlights the need to protect human rights;
-- transferred, retired, cashiered or punished
over a thousand soldiers for various abuses
of authority or for their cooperation with the
violent right; and
-- gradually reasserted control over scattered
local security force personnel, by strengthening
the authority of the High Command, and repeated
command discipline efforts.
In consequence, the level of non-combat violence
-- to judge by our best estimates and. the trends even
in opposition groups' figures -- appears to have declined
by more than half over the last year -- and this despite
the fact that the guerrilla FMLN boasted on Radio Venceremos
that it inflicted more than 2,000 casualties in the last
seven months of 1981.
But let me make this clear. Control of violence
is at the center of our relationship with the Salvadoran
government. We mean to see it reduced to the minimum
levels consistent with the existing civil strife.
Reforms. The law asks us to certify that El Salvador
"is ma' iinng-continued progress in implementing essential
economic and political reforms, including the land reform
program." Progress in land reform has been substantial.
Estates larger than 1,235 acres have been distributed
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to farmers who work on them. Compensation to former
owners is being made. A second part of the program trans-
fers ownership of small farms to tenants and sharecroppers.
The titling process has accelerated since mid-year and
provisional titles are now being issued at the rate of
4,000 per month. In response to the government's request,
the largest campesino organization, the Union Comunal
Salvadorena (UCS), representing over 100,000 peasants,
submitted a report in December detailing the many problems
with the program which remain to be addressed in the
months ahead. When this report was used by others to
criticize land reform implementation, the UCS went out
of its way to emphasize that the government was responsive
to its concerns and that the union expected to participate
"massively" in the election. In its letter of January
25, 1981, the UCS said:
"As for the Agrarian Document that was presented
in an updated form to President Duarte by UCS in
December 1981, dealing with the implementation of
Decree 207, we note that many of the suggestions
bearing therein have been taken into account by
the Government . This document was presented
without any intention of giving ammunition to the
enemies of the Land Reform Process . . .
From December 1, 1981, the system of liaison between
the Armed Forces and the UCS began to function and
now we can rely on a high ranking responsible person
who has a direct connection with the Ministry of
Defense. . . . the political consciousness of
the Salvadoran campesinos has changed substantially,
influenced by the agrarian changes that have taken
place lately. . . . we understand that the vote
is the weapon of democracy and at this time the
elections will mean for us the definitive bond cement-
ing our land tenure.
Elections. The law asks that we certify that the
government is "committed to the holding of free elections
at an early date." Ths is incontestably the case. Pre-
parations for Constituent Assembly elections on March
28, 1982 are well-advanced. The new electoral law pro-
mulgated in December was drawn up after thorough discussion
among the participating political parties. Eight parties,
ranging from the non-violent left to the far right, are
now participating in the election. Momentum is growing.
The independent labor group of campesinos and trade unions
(UPD) and the businessmen's association (ANEP) have appealed
for the public to vote. Just a week ago, the Council
of Bishops of El Salvador's Catholic Church stated:
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"We see in the elections ... a possible beginning
of a solution to the current crisis . . . Through
this Constituent Assembly election, we will pass
from a de facto government to a constitutional gov-
ernment, which is of fundamental importance for
the development of the country's life... It would
be ideal for all citizens to participate in the
elections. That is why we regret that some of our
brothers are rejecting them."
In December, the Organization of American States
General Assembly gave an overwhelming 22-3-4 endorsement
of the Salvadoran election process. The new Central
American Democratic Community represents a similar endorse-
ment of democratic principles and institutions by El
Salvador and its near neighbors.
The law also asks us to certify that
"to this end (that is, to the end of early free
elections), (the government) has demonstrated its
good faith efforts to begin discussions with all
major political factions in El Salvador which have
declared their willingness to find and implement
an equitable solution to the conflict, with such
solution to involve commitment to (A) a renouncement
of further military or paramilitary activity; and
(B) the electoral process with internationally recog-
nized observers."
The FDR/FMLN is certainly not committed to the current
electoral process. The guerrillas have burned town halls,
threatened to kill anyone found with voting ink on his
finger, and assassinated and intimidated local officials
and candidates.
Nor is the FDR/FMLN committed to elections in the
future. An apparently authoritative December statement
says only that there should be a "plebiscite" to ratify
the government after the guerrillas have gained a share
of power. This plebiscite which would take place only
after six months had passed, would not offer voters a
choice between competing slates. In other words, with
some cosmetics, the Nicaraguan model.
President Duarte, in contrast, has invited all poli-
tical parties and groups to renounce violence and parti-
cipate in the elections after an advance dialogue on
the ground rules. The Communist and Social Democratic
parties were both formally recognized and invited to
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participate. Nonetheless, the FDR/FMLN refused even
to discuss electoral ground rules.
Apostolic Administrator Rivera y Damas in his January
10 homily said that:
"not to believe in elections or not to see in them
a solution gives no right to resort to blackmail
and fraud on one hand, or sabotage on the other.
I believe that voters have the right to express
what they feel".
But the Foreign Assistance Act expresses the need
to defend our national security interests, as well as
to further our humanitarian and political values.
The Caribbean Basin is at our southern border.
Everything from migration to geopolitics, and from common
sense to narcotics, dictates that we not ignore it.
The Administration, the Congress, the American people
must confront the problems of the area together.
There is no mistaking that the decisive battle for
Central America is underway in El Salvador.
Cuba is systematically expanding its capacity to
project military power beyond its own shores. The arrival
this year of a second squadron of MiG-23/Floggers and
the 63,000 tons of war supplies imported from the Soviet
Union in 1981 have added substantially to an air, land
and sea arsenal that was already the area's most power-
ful.
Nicaragua is being exploited as a base for the export
of subversion and armed intervention throughout Central
America.
If, after Nicaragua, El Salvador is captured by
a violent minority, who in Central America would not
live in fear? How long would it be before major strategic
U.S. interests -- the canal, sea lanes, oil supplies
-- were at risk?
For most of its life as a nation, our country has
faced no threat from its neighbors. But, unless we act
decisively now, the future could well bring more Cubas:
totalitarian regimes so linked to the Soviet Union that
they become factors in the military balance, and so
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incompetent economically that their citizens' only hope
becomes that of one day migrating to the United States.
There is something else. If we do not sustain the
struggle now, we shall fall back into that terrible vicious
circle, in which in Central America the only alternative
to right-wing dictatorship is left-wing dictatorship.
General Romero's traditionalist military government
was overturned two years ago by a military-civilian coali-
tion committed to reform -- land reform and the transfor-
mation of El Salvador into a democracy. We supported
the reforms then, we support them now. And real progress
has been made -- for all the civil strife, even though
there is a long way to go, above all in bringing violence
under control.
Some are proposing that we now cut off aid to El
Salvador. I do not see how that would advance the goals
embodied in the Foreign Assistance Act, whether they
be security, democracy,*or human rights. Clearly, the
hope for democracy would be extinguished. The Soviet
Union and Cuba would have a new opening to expand their
access to the American mainland. And I wonder how it
would promote human rights to make El Salvador into another
Nicaragua.
Our intention is to keep up the pressure in order
to promote the full scope of our interests in the region,
interests we believe are widely shared in this country:
-- Defense of our national security interests against
the Soviet/Cuban challenge;
-- Promotion of more democratic and humane societies
in our immediate neighborhood.
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