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Edited on Wed Feb-21-07 04:29 AM by Judi Lynn
Revolutionary management in El Salvador A transport strike paralysed El Salvador last month after the rightwing government rejected a traffic plan that had been negotiated by San Salvador’s leftwing mayor. Former guerrilla fighters now rule the capital and the outcome of the 2004 presidential elections may depend on them.
By Karim Bourtel
~snip~ 3) In 1980 Robert White, the former US ambassador to El Salvador, described Roberto d’Aubuisson Sr, who died in 1992, as a "psychopathic killer". As the overseer of El Salvador’s death squads, he is believed to have masterminded the murder of San Salvador’s archbishop, Oscar Romero. (snip)
Reference to his brother:
Roberto d’Aubuisson, an Arena member of the Legislative Assembly’s public works committee and son of the "archangel of the death squads" (snip)
Fifteen years of Arena party rule have seen "the ruthless privatisation of public services, whopping price increases and the continued impoverishment of the populace", complains one NGO director. "Over the space of three years the gas and telephone bills have gone up threefold. Water, health and education are now all we expect", she adds. Sociologist Antonio Uribe explains: "The peace accord emphasised institutional reform. Unlike Colombia’s revolutionary armed forces (FARC), which invariably bring up economic issues during negotiations, such questions have never been raised in El Salvador" (9).
Owing to geopolitics and power struggles stemming from the massive US presence in Central America, the 1992 peace accord, which instituted democracy and the rule of law following years of repression at the hands of a reactionary oligarchy and the military, left other key issues unresolved. In defence of El Salvador’s former guerrilla fighters, their only option was to fight a long and bloody war even though a military victory was unimaginable.
Ten years later, Central America’s smallest nation now seems beset by natural forces (measuring only 21,000 km2, El Salvador is slightly smaller than Sardinia). Two earthquakes rocked large sections of the country early last year and a severe drought struck in the months that followed. The country is on its knees, dependent on international aid. More than 1m Salvadorians live in exile in the US and their remesas (remittances) help to shore up El Salvador’s economy (10). The people are unanimous in their call for an end to one-party rule, with the FMLN representing one alternative. The polls show Silva as the frontrunner in the 2004 presidential race. For many on the left, Silva is the most "respectable" FLMN candidate: he triggers the least virulent reaction from rightwingers. It remains to be seen if Silva will be able to establish his name in the political debate that is sweeping the nation (see box).
The people’s desire for a new president might not translate into a FMLN victory, even though the FMLN increased its share of the vote in the 2000 municipal and legislative elections while Arena’s support fell, a trend that began in 1997. But the gap separating the long-suffering people and the political classes is illustrated by the abstention rate, which reached 62% in 2000; thus only 11.7% of those registered voted for the FMLN in 2000 (11). The FMLN is currently gaining valuable experience in grassroots democracy: the administrative skills it demonstrates at the council level (especially in San Salvador), and its ingenuity and talent at overcoming rightwing obstacles, will prove that the party is ready to govern. El Salvador is awaiting such evidence so that 75,00 people did not die in vain." (snip/) http://mondediplo.com/2002/03/09salvador~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~BACKGROUND: ALFREDO CRISTIANI President of El Salvador General Hernandez Martinez's 1932 anti-communist purge, was carried out on behalf of El Salvador's rich coffee oligarchy, the so-called "Fourteen Families". New president Alfredo Cristiani is a member of those same " Fourteen Families", and his ARENA party is linked to brutalities surpassing Hernandez Martinez's. Cristiani is moderate-sounding, schooled in Washington D. C., and indebted to the military for power. As puppet - president, he yielded to ARENA founder Roberto D'Aubuisson, whom a former US Ambassador called a "pathological killer". D'Aubuisson, a former Army Major with ties to Jesse Helms and the US right, studied unconventional warfare in the U S and Taiwan. According to D'Aubuisson, "the Christian Democrats (Ex-President Jose Napoleon Duarte's party) are communists, but Jesuit priests are "the worst scum of all". US State Department cables indicate D'Aubuisson "planned and ordered the assassination of the late Archbishop Oscar Amulfoo Romero". It's believed he was behind the White Warriors Union (UGB), whose slogan was "Be patriotic-kill a priest". In 1989 six priests were slain and Cristiani soon admitted his US trained soldiers had committed the murders. Yet, although assassinations of priests are notable, 70,000 other civilians were killed by the Salvadoran military and the death squads since 1980. (snip/) http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/US_ThirdWorld/dictators.html~~~~~ click ~~~~
The archangel of death squads, Roberto d'Aubuisson, Sr.PAT ROBERTSON, ROBERTO D'AUBUISSON & THE DEATH SQUADS by: S.R. Shearer In the Spring of 1984 Pat Robertson and CBN reporter Norm Mintle traveled to El Salvador where they met with the late Roberto D’Aubuisson. Following the trip, the "700 Club" aired four 20-30 minute segments on El Salvador, the major theme being that D’Aubuisson was a "very nice fellow" who was being maligned by the "biased liberalism" of Newsweek, Time and U.S. News and World Report.
D’Aubuisson - a very nice fellow? Hardly! D' Aubuisson was considered to be the most nortorious torture and Death Squad leader in El Salvador; he was described by Robert White, former U.S. Ambassador to El Salvador, as a "pathological killer," and was widely known as "Major Soplete" (i.e., "Major Blowtorch").
How is it possible that Robertson could have described him as "a very nice fellow?" - but that's the kind of "purposeful blindness" which has become altogether too much the hallmark of those evangelicals who have gotten mixed up in politics. God preserve us from those who have been so blinded, and from their leaders - it's a case of the blind leading the blind! (Matt 15:14)
When confronted with the facts concerning those with whom they have allied themselves, evangelical leaders like Robertson don't even bother confronting the facts themselves, but with a wave of their hand they simply lie and dismiss the allegations outright. Truly it can be said of them: "Having ears to hear, they hear not, and eyes to see, they see not!" (Mark 8:18)
There will be a reckoning someday, and on "that day" it will not go well for many of the leaders of today's evangelical church.
Please see Report on Human Rights in El Salvador, America Watch Committee (New York: Random House, 1982); also State Terrorism and the Death Squads by William Lavellel; unpublished manuscript, California State University, Sacramento, 1983. (snip/) http://www.antipasministries.com/html/file0000045.htm
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