Page 78 - 50.La Biennale di Venezia issue of World of Art Magazine

1984 was also the year that the United States government were intent on persisting with their goal of using the war as
massively backed Duarte’s presidential electoral victory justification to interdict political opposition while intensifying
and even though the election was replete with fraud, it was military activities.
presented by the United States as a crowning success of U.S.
policy. In actual fact, Duarte’s inadequate reforms and the war A trade union building in San Salvador was bombed by the
component of U.S. policy ended up deepening the systemic military at lunchtime, killing and wounding a large number
polarity in Salvadoran society. of activists and the FMLN proceeded to organize an urban
offensive. Their attack commenced in November 1989. Impressive
In the meantime, the FMLN was forming its forces into small- growth in the plenitude of rebel forces and in their fighting
scale mobile units and dispersing them to all parts of the ability was well demonstrated during the November offensive.
country. Guerrilla bases where established in twelve of the Their forces were able to penetrate to the core of all the
fourteen provinces of El Salvador. The insurgency forced wealthy principal cities. The military responded with indiscriminate
landowners to pay higher wages to farmhands and a war tax to bombing of the poor in the barrios, especially in the suburbs
the revolutionary army. By 1987, nationwide traffic stoppages, of San Salvador. Untold numbers of civilians, men, women, and
sabotage campaigns against the economy, and thousands of children, were killed and wounded. Of course there was no
small lightning ambushes on government forces, became the bombing when the FMLN combatants moved into Escalon, the
order of the day, creating chaos for the military and for the area of San Salvadorwhere the wealthy live. One of the worst
government. acts of brutality on the part of the Salvadoran military was the
assassination, in cold blood, of six Jesuits and two women at
With 65% of eligible voters refusing to vote, to a large extent the Central American University UCA. This act was so heinous
because the FMLN called for a boycott of the fraudulent in the eyes of the people of El Salvador and the international
election, Christiani, of the ARENA party, gained the presidency community that it constituted a turning point in the war. Both
in 1989. He immediately negated the limited reforms of the United States government and a majority of Salvadoran
the previous government. Banks were privatized. Austerity businessmen, who had heretofore expressed support of a
measures, blatantly advantageous to the wealthy 2% of the military solution, became cognizant of the reality that neither
population, were made law and the Supreme Court ruled that side in the conflict could win a military victory. It was time to
lands previously annexed as part of agrarian reform were to be end the war through political agreements.
returned to the wealthy landowners, a law that devastated the
lives of thousands of peasant families. As well, ‘antiterrorist’ During the 12 years of civil war, over a million Salvadorans were
legislation was passed which effectively decreed El Salvador driven into exile while more then 80,000 people were killed
a police state. But ARENA’s actions and intransigence towards and over 8000 disappeared, mostly at the hands of government
any proposals for a political settlement of the war became the security forces and the notorious death squads. This took place
impetuous for the inception of the Permanent Committee for the in the smallest country in the Western Hemisphere, a country
National Debate, a massive organization comprised of seventy- only half the size of Vancouver Island. During this period, the
four organizations, including Churches, small businesses, and U.S. government sent nearly two million dollars per day to the
trade unions. The organization represented well over a million right wing Salvadoran government and military.
people. The Permanent Committee for the National Debate,
as well as local, regional, and international pressure, forced “We taught security measures to Salvadoran police chiefs and
the Christiani government to consider a policy of peace, and counterinsurgency methods to Salvadoran military officers
United Nations-sponsored meetings between the rebels and at our schools in the Panama Zone. We sent them weapons
the ARENA government of El Salvador took place in Mexico and airplanes in a vain expectation that social stability would
City and San José, Costa Rica. grow out of enforced order.” As stated by Murat W. Williams,
Ambassador of the U.S. Embassy in El Salvador 1961-1964. The
The rebels came to these meetings with explicit proposals quote here is from his introduction to Charles Clements’ book,
for the democratization of Salvadoran society and complete Witness to War, published in 1984 (see page X1).
observance of human rights as precursors to FMLN demobilization.
ARENA was demanding rebel disarmament prior to talks. The It has been estimated that without U.S. intervention and support
result was an impasse and the talks broke off. It became clear for the counterinsurgency forces, the civil war in El Salvador
to the rebels that both the Salvadoran military and ARENA would have been over in six months, with an FMLN victory.

THE TERROR

PROJECT

78 WORLD of ART