Word: salvadore
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...problem with all these figures is that they are useless in determining how many of the killings are political. In the climate of violence that has characterized El Salvador for decades, the pettiest disputes are settled permanently by gun or knife. In many cases the death squads have murdered people not for ideological reasons but for personal ones. In other cases, death squads have no role whatsoever. Rumors occasionally circulate about how this businessman or that official found with EM (for escuadron de la muerte) carved on his chest was actually killed by a jealous husband or business rival. Sometimes...
...national guard often acted as a private security force for the country's landowners, who helped to pay the salaries; when peasant uprisings got out of hand, the landlords organized bands of vigilantes to assist the guardsmen. In 1932, when Farabundo Marti, the father of El Salvador's revolutionary movement, led a revolt, paramilitary squads were sanctioned to aid the army in squashing the rebellion. The estimated toll: at least 10,000. The lines between official and illegal violence blurred further after the National Democratic Organization (ORDEN) was formed in the mid-1960s. ORDEN's dual purpose...
Last December, Vice President George Bush read the riot act to government and military leaders in San Salvador, privately naming names and demanding action by January. Yet even State Department officials who defend the Administration's overall position acknowledge that Washington has sent too many "mixed signals." Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Nestor Sanchez, for example, has stated repeatedly that the U.S.'s first priority is the protection of El Salvador against Communism, a remark that some Salvadorans have interpreted to mean that the Administration, feeling forced to pick between two evils, would tolerate death squads rather than...
...region scarred by violence, El Salvador is the most blood-drenched country by far. Duarte's success in crushing the squads will hinge on how well he establishes his authority over the armed forces. No civilian in Salvadoran history has ever won control over the military, but Duarte's U.S. backing, from both the White House and Congress, gives him unprecedented clout. Duarte has promised to start rooting out the deadly henchmen by disbanding the treasury police, allegedly the most brutish of the security forces. Bringing the killers to justice, however, is another story. The saddest legacy...
...James Kelly. Reported by Ricardo Chavira/San Salvador and Barrett Seaman/Washington