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Central American Repression: No More Aid!

By Jack Elder

The repression in El Salvador and Guatemala, carried out by elements of the army, national police, treasury police, paramilitary death squads, and opportunistic goons, is itself difficult to understand. Acts of incredible barbarism have turned both these countries into besieged insurance asylums where rational acts like charity and self-willed ignorance of the all-pervasive carnage is one of the few mechanisms people have to assure at least temporary survival.

To understand the roots of rebellion in Central America, and to do justice to this complex Issue , is also difficult. But it is not an impossible task: it required either some knowledge of the history of the region, or a well-developed sense of what is right and what is wrong. To study the history of Central America and the Caribbean is to come face to face with a master-slave relationship between the colonizing powers and their possession. The "independence" or nearly all the Central American and Caribbean republics during the first half of the last century did nothing to change this relationship. Their economies remained tied to and subservient to the economic life of the major powers. As colonialism gave way to neo-colonialism, and later to multinational economic penetration, the wealth of the masters increased and the economies of the slave countries grew increasing distorted. Any reforms aimed at correcting these distortions have inevitably been crushed.

Today, the arsenal that the elite employs (in addition to torture, mutilation, "disappearances," and psychological terror) to suppress dissent and maintain its privileged position, includes paid informers, control of the media, "bread and circuses" in the form of evangelical revivals and fold art festivals and sports tourneys, and the constant search to increase prestige through the efforts of public relations agencies. It is not coincidental that much of this arsenal—including torture techniques—was developed with the assistance of the U.S.

Our leaders, both in government and in the corporate world use the self-serving propaganda they have created in two ways. First, it serves to create an atmosphere which justifies repression within the colonized countries. Secondly, a steady floor of misinformation tends to discredit those groups that try to put the problems in perspective and offer some practical, just solutions. It's the "big lie" technique, delivered with a vengeance.

What we find then, when we read the history of Central America is a repetition of this theme: the wealthy sell their nation's land and resources to foreign capitalists who turn the best lands into cash crop cultivation and sack the country of mineral resources. The farmer becomes poorer, his parcel becomes smaller, and only occasionally does he find day labor. The cities swell with illiterate job seekers who flee in hunger and despair from the countryside. The wealthy class tightens it stranglehold on its country's economy only at a high cost of violence. Illiteracy, alcoholics, land expropriations, illness, starvation, unemployment and hopelessness batter the poor until at last some response is inevitable.

What is curious about this scenario is that it is applicable to nearly every country in Latin America. Any study of the region leads to not only a greater understanding of why rebellion has come abut, but also an appreciation of rebellion, of the necessity of revolution in light of the dreams of reform that so many martyrs have carried to their graves.

If we can't or won't study history, there is another, shorter, though more difficult road to understanding rebellion in Central America. Shorter, because all it requires is a firm conviction of what is just and equitable; difficult because it requires that we not only acknowledge what is right but commit ourselves to some action, some form of solidarity, to attain justice. Whether the victims are disemboweled, decapitated, burned to death, chopped to pieces, or sacrificed while still in their mother's womb, their deaths and suffering stem not only from the actions of their own power-hungry countrymen but also from our own lack of action. In Guatemala, as in El Salvador, the slaughter of innocents will continue until we in the U.S. have the courage to demand and end to economic and military aid to both these countries.

Jack Elder
San Antonio
VVAW

El Salvador has once again been certified by the Reagan Administration as having made substantial strides forward in the area of human rights. This requirement, placed on the country by Congress before more aid would be approved, must be met every 6 months and is a considerable chore for the government of El Salvador and for the Reagan Administration which would have gladly aided Hitler if the opportunity had existed.

It is the El Salvadorian military that our tax dollars will be going to support. And that is an organization which many Americans, if they knew the history, might think was less than perfect.

1932, when the population of El Salvador rose in rebellion, the military slaughtered between 20 and 25,000. But the military has kept going ever since. From World War II until 1979, the U.S. donated $16.7 million in military aid. Since then there's been an additional $398 million in military aid and another $257 million in economic aid (which the military can get its hands on).

In El Salvador, the military officer corps is the path to obtaining money and power. Certainly, it is the military officers who control the seats of power. There are 500 officers in the various security forces—and 90% of these went to El Salvadors military school. There, each officer candidate belongs to a "tanda" or graduation class which becomes a kind of local "clout" which will let you advance as you wish. It amounts to a licence to steal and, with connections with other groups of officers, do damn near anything you want to do.

This is the bunch which our tax dollars keeps in power (without U.S. support this group of hoodlums would have long ago been subjected to the people's justice and strung up). The military in the country controls the banks (which are nationalized), 15% of the best farmland, all export-import activities and a large chunk of U.S. aid, and this leads directly to some of the corruption which goes long with the Salvadorian military.

According to the former U.S. ambassador, "There are reports which I consider reliable, that some of the military officers are selling arms before they are even out of the crates to the revolutionaries because, at this point, a number of military officers are seeing the end of the road and they want to make sure the have something left when they have to flee."

U.S. dollars—and that means the money we are paying in taxes—are being squandered on a bunch of thugs, not only in El Salvador but in other right-wing regimes throughout Central America. U.S. government might love it, but the people who have to live under these regimes are the same people who join the revolutionary armies trying to get rid of these governments. U.S. aid only helps to keep these governments in power—NO MORE AID!