Word: salvadoreans
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...after a while the numbers begin to blur, and the death tolls lose their human meaning. The blood will seem much redder if we look at the reports of actual atrocities committed by the El Salvadorean government and documented by a Congressional fact-finding mission. Rep. Gerry Studds (D-Ma.), Rep. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.), and Rep. Robert Edgar (D-Pa.), obtained hundreds of first hand accounts of "murder, torture, rape, and the burning of villages and crops" by Government Security Forces. According to the United Press International...
...Mikulski stated at the press conference that, "Without exception, all the refugees interviewed said the atrocities were carried out by troops of the Salvadorean army, the National Guard or a paramilitary group equipped U.S. arms." "The Congressional delegation, whose trip had been prompted by the appalling rape and murder of three American nuns and a missionary by government security forces, immediately telegrammed President Reagan and appealed to him to end military aid to El Salvador...
...President Reagan has disregarded all of these entreaties, choosing instead to pour more kill power into the Salvadorean death machine. The New York Times reported two days ago that Reagan is committed to sending the Salvadorean regime another $225 million in economic aid, and another $25 million worth of military equipment--a gift package of helicopters, "small arms," radar systems, trucks and jeeps. Reagan will also dispatch an extra 34 military advisers from the Pentagon to join the 25 "training experts" already there. If you think the Salvadorean people feel the heat of American military operations now, try to imagine...
Secondly, it turns out that the alleged weapons deals outlined in the State Department's globetrotting "white paper" were uncovered by the Salvadorean army. The army claims to have found this "incontrovertible evidence" of foul play in captured rebel hide-outs. This assertion tends to cast some doubt on the validity of our reports. Generally, the State Department overstates the influence of the 250-member Communist Party in shaping policy of the Revolutionary Democratic Front--which is composed of every major opposition party in El Salvador, every trade union, teachers, doctors, students, and the Catholic Church...
...provides a fascinating picture of the sophisticated campaign orchestrated by the State Department to mislead the American public on what is happening in El Salvador. According to the dissent paper, the State Department has tried to plant in the media two major themes to obscure the reality of the Salvadorean struggle: the "far left versus far right" scheme, and the spectre of Soviet and Cuban power, the first theme, ingenious as it is, has largely failed; the Reagan Administration, therefore, is pushing the public's fear of communism panic button, hoping to activate a resurgence of the popular domino theory...