Word: salvadorans
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...moment, the more immediate concern in Washington seemed to be how to hold the line in El Salvador. Buoyed by the reorganization of the Salvadoran high command last November, U.S. military aides argued that government forces "had turned the corner" in their struggle against the guerrilla armies of the five-member Farabundo Marti National Liberation
...direct hits on barracks where government soldiers were sleeping. Some army troops scattered in panic. Within eight hours, the guerrillas had overrun the chain-link fence and barbed-wire perimeter, but they abandoned the fort at nightfall. Several days later, the rebels reportedly released 158 captured soldiers and civilians. Salvadoran military officials claimed that 100 government troops were killed in the fighting, but hospital officials and villagers who witnessed a mass burial reported that at least 160 had died. It was the largest toll of any single battle in the civil...
...twin attacks underscored the continuing problems that American military advisers have faced in turning the Salvadoran army from a Praetorian guard of the rich into a modern fighting force. They are particularly concerned about the training and motivation of the captains, majors and lieutenants in charge of field combat. Some junior officers have even told their soldiers to wear street clothes under their uniforms so that if need be they can be dressed for surrender. The number of government troops who have gone over to the guerrillas or allowed themselves to be captured is far higher than the number...
...nightly news given over to psychosis. The scenes define a distinct style of politics in the world today, politics in a ski mask, violence dramatizing an unappeasable rage. Faceless, and morally depthless, the zealots crash truck bombs into their targets in Beirut or Tyre, go night riding with the Salvadoran death squads, or set the timers for the I.R.A. One sees their work-the almost daily deposits of bodies in the roads of Central America, for example. Or, in London, the innocent blown up to make an awful noise for Irish unity-horses of the Queen's Household Cavalry...
...contras talk about a January offensive, and the Sandinistas say that in February they will set an election date. Big Pine II, due to end by March, will be almost immediately replaced by Big Pine III. El Salvador will doubtless hold its presidential elections on schedule, March 25, but Salvadoran citizens do not seem aroused or optimistic about the voting. As far as U.S. policy is concerned, Central America is no place to invest high hopes. Right now, averting a crisis seems good enough...