Congress Should Not Punish The Salvadoran People For The Acts Of Extremists

Today, the U.S. House of Representatives is poised to act on legislation that would curtail U.S. military assistance to the democratically elected government of El Salvador (i.e., the Studds and Moakley amendments to H.R.4636). The Center for Security Policy believes such an action would be both inimical to American interests in the region and a grievous disservice to the people of El Salvador.

In the autumn of 1989, two groups of extremists launched deadly assaults against innocent civilians in El Salvador. First, communist guerrillas laid siege to the country’s major cities, wantonly using civilians as shields in combat. In the course of the intense fighting these guerrillas initiated — and thanks in no small measure to their use of this cowardly tactic — some 300 innocent civilians were killed and wounded along with 1,700 government troops and 2,700 communist insurgents.

Second, in the midst of this weeks-long guerrilla offensive, six priests and their two civilian employees were brutally murdered, allegedly by a faction of the Salvadoran military.

Citing the apparent involvement of some Salvadoran forces in these reprehensible murders, prominent members of the left-wing of the House Democratic Caucus are seeking to eliminate or reduce U.S. military aid to El Salvador’s democratically elected government. They attempt to justify such a draconian step on the grounds that, as with previous cases of right-wing human rights abuses, the Salvadoran justice system has not moved quickly or effectively enough to bring the suspected murderers to trial.

The Center for Security Policy believes this is time to strengthen the forces of democracy in El Salvador, not by cutting off the elected government’s ability to defend its people from attacks by either the left or the right, but by providing the level of economic and military aid to that country requested by the Bush Administration. The people of El Salvador should not be punished by Congress for the misdeeds of extremists.

Frank Gaffney, Jr., director of the Center said today: "Many of the supporters of this legislation in the past were wrong about the Nicaraguan peoples’ willingness to vote out the Sandinista dictatorship, if only they were given the chance. They were wrong in opposing, year after year, adequate levels of military aid needed to foster a democratic government in El Salvador. And they are wrong now in seeking to punish the innocent people of El Salvador for the abuses of extremists."

Gaffney added, "Unless we wish to see reversed the real progress made in recent years toward democracy throughout Central America, the U.S. Congress must continue to pursue a balanced policy of political, economic and military aid to the elected government and people of El Salvador."

The Center believes the following facts are germane:

• Free and fair elections in 1982, 1984, 1988 attest to the Salvadorans’ commitment to building democratic institutions. Had the efforts of some congressional Democrats succeeded in cutting off military aid to El Salvador in 1981 and 1982 or in making a Salvadoran commitment to a "power-sharing" arrangement a precondition of such aid, it is very unlikely that even the fragile democracy now in place would have materialized.

 

• In November 1989, the duly-elected president of El Salvador displayed a courageous, personal commitment to seeing justice served in connection with the tragic murders of the Jesuits. Toward this end, President Cristiani sought aid from three democratic countries to ensure that a rigorous investigation was performed. He also subsequently alleged publicly that a renegade group of Salvadoran military personnel was suspected of the murders and ordered their arrest.

 

• The timetable for prosecuting the case against the suspects in this murder trial has been hindered by reported obstructions on the part of associates of the suspects. Unfortunately, this has been made possible, in part, by a provision of Salvadoran law that stipulates an indicted individual cannot be required to testify against suspected co-conspirators. While this statute may be inconvenient in this instance, it is nonetheless an important safeguard against state coercion — comparable to the U.S. Constitution’s Fifth Amendment protections against self-incrimination.

 

• Since early 1990, President Cristiani has expressed his willingness to negotiate with the communist guerrillas. Yet on 2 May 1990, just as the representative of the U.N. Secretary General arrived to begin the negotiating process, communist guerrillas launched attacks on the presidential residence, the home of a cabinet minister, and other locations, killing a total of 26 persons.

In light of these considerations, the Center believes that President Cristiani requires the use of U.S. economic and military aid to increase civilian authority over the military and to strengthen the majority of the Salvadoran military leadership who reject the violent methods of an extremist faction. Should such aid now be denied, it may doom the duly elected president and the cause of democracy in this strategically important nation.