Word: rebels
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...Department Official William Bowdler puts it, "the legacy of exploitation and abuse of the impoverished majority by the privileged few." By underplaying these factors, the U.S. often ends up backing regimes that turn out to be doomed-and perhaps deserve to be. Meanwhile, the Soviets benefit from having popular rebel movements pushed into their embraces, despite the ample record of the brutality of Communist regimes...
...resiliency of the guerrilla forces that are disrupting El Salvador and causing the U.S. such concern is demonstrated not only by their strong showing at the battle of Guazapa but at small encampments throughout the countryside. Typical is a rebel stronghold in the department of Usulután, 80 miles southeast of San Salvador. In February, the army had launched a campaign against the area, which Defense Minister General José Guillermo Garcia boasted would bring about "the final destruction of the guerrillas." But last week the rebels had solidly re-established themselves in their old surroundings...
There is even some question whether the guerrillas in El Salvador could keep bargains made in good faith. The rebel collective is an uneasy lashing-together of at least five factions with conflicting programs. The most radical, the Popular Liberation Forces, led by Salvador Cayetano Carpio, believe in the traditional Marxist guerra prolongada, a war sustained until ultimate, total victory. Neither negotiations nor elections would necessarily stop this group from fighting...
Perhaps the most ominous sign of rebel intentions is that the crucial issue in any negotiations would be control of El Salvador's army and arsenals. Some rebel factions demand a complete purge of the current military leadership because of its ties to the old ruling oligarchy and the savage right-wing "death squads" that still roam the country. Whatever group takes charge of the country's firepower-as the Sandinistas did from the outset in Nicaragua-will be able to impose its will on the rest of the country...
Nineteen-year-old Orlando Jose Tardencillas proudly confirmed that he had voluntarily joined rebel troops in El Salvador after fighting to overthrow the Somoza regime in his native Nicaragua. He denied, however, ever having been to Cuba or Ethiopia and said that he had been coerced into that lie by U.S. officials after his capture by Salvadoran National Guardsmen last year. Describing brutal torture in a Salvadoran government jail, he said that U.S. Embassy representatives offered him a simple choice: "They gave me an option. They said I could come here or face certain death. All my previous statements about...