Duarte meets with FMLN/FDR; Civil war continues

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The civil war in El Salvador has heated up in the aftermath of the first set of negotiations between the Duarte regime and the FMLN/FDR. Immediately following the conclusion of the negotiations, the Salvadoran army began a sweep of rebel-held territory in the northeastern part of the country. The FMLN received advance notice of the operation and was able to avoid the government troops.

Four days after the conclusion of the talks, a CIA spy plane crashed into the Guazapa Volcano, killing all four CIA employees on board. The crash provided the first evidence of a direct CIA role in intelligence gathering in El Salvador. The circumstances of the crash also seem to indicate a CIA role in directing Salvadoran army operations.

According to Radio Venceremos, the plane had been directing a Salvadoran army offensive in Morazan province and was "downed."

U.S. government officials continue to insist that the plane had crashed into the side of a mountain far away from Morazan when it encountered stormy weather.

The Salvadoran revolutionaries countered the government military operations with their own show of strength. The day after the negotiations in La Palma ended, the FMLN paralyzed traffic throughout the eastern half of El Salvador. And the FMLN continued its diplomatic offensive through making public the 29 demands it had presented to the Salvadoran government at the Oct. 15 talks.

Their demands included the punishment of those responsible for the most notorious death squad killings; establishment of a minimum wage of $4.80 per day for coffee and cotton plantation workers; a 10 percent increase in wage for commercial, bank, and industrial workers; an agrarian reform program; a reduction in the prices of basic foodstuffs, fuels, and power; the right of workers to strike; freedom for political prisoners; a reduction in interest rates for small farmers and businesses; the cessation of bombing of civilian areas; and the establishment of full civil liberties.

Roberto D'Aubuisson, the leader Jose Napoleon Duarte far-right negotiations, ARENA party, vigorously denounced the negotiations. He warned that the negotiations were playing into the hands of the FMLN/FDR. By contrast, the Reagan administration adopted a posture of support to the negotiations, although privately, administration officials were expressing skepticism over whether the negotiations could offer any solution acceptable to the U.S. government. It has been the policy of the U.S. government to attempt to divide the FMLN/FDR as part of an overall strategy to win a military victory over the guerrilla movement.

Nevertheless, the negotiations allowed the Reagan re-election campaign the opportunity to allay fears that its policies would lead to a regional military confrontation in Central America in which American troops would be directly involved. Reagan was therefore careful to publicly support the negotiations.

The in the last analysis, product of the present political and military stalemate in El Salvador. The FMLN cannot defeat the right-wing government at the present time nor can the U.S.-backed regime root out the guerrillas from the liberated zones. Each side is obligated, therefore, to attempt to win support from layers of the population which, above all, desire an end to the fighting.

In this context, Duarte decided to drop his previous precondition for negotiations with the rebels— the purge of Villalobos, the leader of the Ejercito Revolucionario Popular [ERP-People's Revolutionary Army], from the FMLN-and proposed to begin negotiations without any prior conditions. The FLN/FDR, which had already proposed negotiations without preconditions, accepted the offer. After several matters relating to the security of the FMLN representatives were settled, the negotiations were able to take place.

The FMLN/FDR used the talks to put forward 29 demands which they considered preconditions to the establishment of peace in El Salvador. These 29 demands, which deal with the most urgent necessities of the Salvadoran population-civil liberties, land reform, raising wages, and bringing to justice those responsible for the death squads-is designed to clearly explain to the Salvadoran masses the social stakes in the conflict. The demands can appeal to the urban masses who seek not only an end to the war, but also a solution to their daily problems.

Duarte-who was accompanied by General Vides Casanova, the commander of El Salvador's hated National Guard-proposed once again that, if the guerrillas lay down their arms, they would be given amnesty and allowed to participate in El Salvador's elections. The FMLN/FDR once again rejected that proposal.

The only actual result of the Oct. 15 talks between Duarte and the FMLN/FDR was an agreement to set up a peace commission which would meet again sometime in late November. For the time being, the civil war continues. The conditions which provoked the civil war still exist: poverty, hunger, unemployment, inequality, and a government which defends the privileged few.