As war heats up, Death Squads escalate terror

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offensive recently, with bold attacks on military bases in the capital and an intimidation campaign that has left more than a third of the nation's municipalities without mayors.

The upswing has provoked a deadly response from the Salvadoran military, with new attacks against individuals and groups it terms sympathetic to the FMLN. Several new "death squads," linked to the military, have appeared. They have stepped up a campaign of bombings and murders.

On Dec. 22, three explosions destroyed the National University's biology department. A watchman who survived the attack fingered a heavily armed squad of about 50 men, some in uniform. He said that most were armed with G-3's, an automatic weapon commonly used by the Salvadoran Armed Forces.

Public figures, including University Rector Luis Argueta, have laid the blame for the bombing squarely on the military. Maria Julia Hernandez, head of the Catholic Church's human rights office, Tutela Legal, said in The Christian Science Monitor (Jan. 13, 1989): "These are actions of people with military training, heavily armed and moving with total liberty. These are the classic actions of death squads, but we are very clear in our vocabulary-death squads are clearly linked to military structures.

Defense Minister Carlos Eugenio Vides Casanova denies accusations that the Salvadoran army bombed the university. The army had charged that the FMLN was storing weapons at the university. "If we want to go Green light to death squads Vides Casanova indicated after the bombings that the Salvadoran government is considering extending the state of siege and martial law to the capital. (A state of siege has already been declared in La Paz province.)

This was seen as a green light for the death squads, and it was only one day later that three new death squads were formed, all threatening to kill leftist leaders and their sympathizers.

The first of the groups to surface, the Revolutionary Anticommunist Association of Extermination (ARDE), has promised retribution for every action by the FMLN.

An ARDE communiqué of Dec. 26 focused on the FMLN's campaign against the mayors, stating that "for every mayor that is forced to resign, a communist leader will be executed."

The FMLN's has threatened mayors because of their participation in the U.S.-funded "Municipalities in Action" program. This program provides mayors with Agency for International Development funds for local projects designed to win support for the government.

A study conducted for the U.S. Embassy in San Salvador last September characterized the program as "a counterinsurgency strategy." The mass resignations have undercut this program and further frustrated government efforts to project a positive image in the countryside.

"Government to collapse"

An PMLN representative, speaking in Cambridge, Mass., on Jan. 18, said that of 262 municipalities, 100 do not have mayors. He stated that these towns were not leaderless, but were under the influence of the FMLN.

Mayors have been flocking to San Salvador SOCIALIST ACTIO to appear on national television and resign, an admission that they have little or no confidence in the army's ability to defend their towns. "The government of El Salvador is about to collapse," the FMILN representative said.

The Monitor quoted one source with close contacts in the military as saying that army leaders "are not worried about an immediate guerrilla victory [but] they feel the situation is serious. They believe they need to counter the guerrillas and the only way to do that is with selective terror."

It is widely felt that the death-squad activity of December and January is only the beginning of a new wave of state-sponsored terror against the Salvadoran people. National elections are slated for March 19, and many feel that the immediate post-election period will see a dramatic increase in right-wing brutality.

Last minute: As we go to press, the FMLN has announced that it will participate in national elections provided these are postponed from March to September. This announcement has been greeted with cautious approval in Washington, but has been rejected in San Salvador. Our next issue will feature an article by Jim Henle and Scott AdamsCooper, both antiwar activists in Boston, on the meaning of the elections and the strategy of the FMLN.—The editors N FEBRUARY 1989 11

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onto the university, we will do it with the law in our hand," he said.