In a certain way, those who died won this war, while those who survived still seem to be living a dream in which helicopters have become ambulances, and cannons and bombs have ceased to disturb the silence of night. After almost 20 years in exile, I have returned to my country. My first reac- tion-after the difficult search for my documents in disordered files-has been emotional. Of course, I have tried to hold back my feelings in order to reacquire a sixth sense of survival, for which I will need a force of character close to stoicism. Stoicism is hard to come by in a country of tumul- tuous activity like El Salvador whose people are known for the assertiveness with which they make and remake their plans. Yet it made its reappearance in the last 12 years, when men and women had to hide their pain in order not to be recognized as the friends and relatives of victims, and thus immediately become victims them- selves. San Salvador is a city that still moves desperately, although peo- ple no longer fear dying in a cross- fire of bullets or seeing an entire family decapitated by death squads. No kind of atrocity was foreign to this war which cost so many lives. The war has left few signs of physical devastation in San Salvador, even though the cap- Manlio Argueta is the author of One Day In Life (Random House, 1983) and a col- lection of poems, La Guerra Florida (1992). He is currently at work on a new novel, Night of the Children. ital was the center of the great 1989 guerrilla offensive. In a cer- tain way, those who died won this war, while those who survived still seem to be living a dream in which helicopters have become ambu- lances, and cannons and bombs have ceased to disturb the silence of night. A year after the end of the war, Salvadorans want to return to nor- malcy. The 1989 offensive left many convinced that the country was moving towards an extermina- tion of senseless proportions. That conviction produced the impulse to find a negotiated solution to the conflict. This was a war in which one side (the army and the govern- ment) raised the flag of national security and the defense of Western values, while the other (the FMLN) fought for social jus- tice, as if these concepts were irreconcilable. In its essence, the war was a struggle to conserve or overturn historical privileges-to defend or seize power. It took place within a vortex of polariza- tion and ideological dogmatism that led to the assassinations of the Archbishop of El Salvador, the North American nuns, the Jesuits, and the Dutch and North American journalists. It was also in that con- text that FMLN guerrilla and poet Roque Dalton was killed by his militarist compafieros. Now, in 1993, the senseless insti- tutional crimes so common in the past have almost disappeared. An optimism is putting down roots in the civilian population. Those who before were spectators and victims of the war, who watched from their windows as tracer bullets flew by and prayed that a rocket would not fall on their roof tops, are now becoming actors in the reconstruc- tion of their country. However, like an oil spill in the sea, a stain is darkening these hopes. After the holo- caust of war, the nation's deserved tranquility has been broken by the crime of the post-war era. The per- manently marginalized now assas- sinate those who have a little more. "You know," said a taxi driver, one of those people with whom I often talk to take the pulse of the city, "before we knew there were two factions, and we knew how to deal with them. Now we are worse off than during the war. We don't know who they are, and we don't know what the rules of the game are. They only want our money and valuables. If they are not satis- fied with what we give them, they kill us. They have a light finger on the trigger." The war has left a pifiata of mili- tary weapons available for the tak- ing. People are ready to fire M-16 4NACLA REPORT ON THE AMERICAS 4 NACLA REPORT ON THE AMERICASUPDATE / EL SALVADOR rifles or AK-47s, or throw a grenade, in order to steal a watch or avenge an unrequited love. Or out of sheer craziness. Post-war El Salvador is as lethal as the war itself. And this unsettled situation could last as long if there is no spiritual disarmament. How can we explain this gratuitous violence? On the one hand, these murders are psychological remnants of the war, and on the other, the consequence of dire economic necessities. What is incomprehensible is that the government still talks of these crimes as if they were rou- tine occurrences. Some sec- tors of the FMLN charac- terize them the same way, perhaps in an attempt not to disrupt the dynamic of the peace process. As if the defense of lives can wait. The far Right has asked the army to patrol the streets-to control traffic and fight street crime. President Alfredo Cristiani supports this military patrol, even though the peace accords explicitly A crir stipulate that the army limit ken b itself to defending sover- eignty and responding to natural catastrophes. Is the government calling in the army out of despera- tion, or are some sectors trying to feel less abandoned by their former patrons? No one knows, but popu- lar opinion is divided over a response that would militarize the city and the countryside when the footprints of war are still fresh. Of course, compared to the bloody standards of the recent past, these incidents can appear routine or irrelevant. They involve commando-style assaults in any side street on unwary drivers, or attacks on youths or school chil- dren to take away their school bags. Or grenades thrown through windows, for no other reason than to "joder," rough Salvadoran slang meaning "because I goddamn feel like it." But we dismiss the significance of this crime at our peril. There cannot be peace without respect for life and the natural world. Civic security should not be postponed. It cannot be tossed to the side by alleging other priorities. The great- est priority is human existence. A recent news report told of an assault on a car in which the attackers brandished guns and hand grenades. After watching his partner die, one of the assailants exclaimed, "I have three children, and I was fired from work. I do ne scene. The nation's tranquility has bee y the street crime of the post-war era. this out of necessity." This is the school of cynicism. It is the responsibility of those who taught war and legitimated violence to educate Salvadorans about how to live in peace. The first task before us is the creation of a Salvadoran state with institutions, legal guarantees, and respect for life and civil rights (isn't this the raison d'8tre of the state?). One element of state for- mation is the National Civil Police, which is supposed to begin taking the place of the old Treasury Police and National Guard. The new police force-made up of ex- members of the FMLN and of the disbanded police corps-fielded its first contingent of 500 men in the third week of February. Even though necessary facilities had been requested many times over the past year, the new national police force was housed in provi- sional quarters. The government has given no valid reasons for not granting the salaries it originally offered the police or, at the very least, providing them with the installations of the disbanded secu- rity corps. Nor have Salvadorans been told why there are so few trainees. The government claims it doesn't have the money. How can there be money in the national treasury to subsidize the export crops, the big importers and the private banks, all of which were awash in privileges in past administrations, but not a penny to safeguard the well-being of the Sal- vadoran people, or to pro- vide adequate wages and social benefits? Twenty-four hours before graduating, that first con- tingent of police officers marked its appearance with an act of rebellion. They threatened not to attend their graduation cere- n bro- monies because of their low salaries which, to make things worse, the government had told them about only at the last minute. President Cristiani threatened to fire them if they persisted with their demands. The population, besieged by vio- lence, had placed its hopes in this new police force-trained over long months with the support of the international community, and educated in a new philosophy of social security. Once again, popu- lar expectations were dashed. ertainly, there is fear among the right. Although it has been compelled to partici- pate in the peace initiatives, the Right is afraid of the unknown, of cutting loose from those who were its armed protectors. I don't think the majority of the military any longer play the dirty role that was their lot. But they need time to Vol XXVI, No 5 May 1993 5UPDATE / EL SALVADOR readjust, especially with respect to their financial affairs. It's important to keep in mind that military offi- cers became an important econom- ic power, giving mortgage credits and loans to members of their own ranks. They didn't lose the war, but they lost their role in society-- which is as if they lost the war. At the end of last year, when rumors circulated of a pending military coup, U.S. Under-Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs Bernard Aronson and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs-of- Staff Colin Powell hastily travelled to El Salvador to contain the remaining crazi- ness that was frustrat- ing the fulfillment of the peace accords. The United States made one thing clear: it would not give any more money for the war. Despair has also gripped the FMLN. The popular organi- zations, allied politi- cal parties on the Left The old Nat and the Church-all National Civ of whom were a tremendous moral force during these 12 years of war-were sur- prised to learn that the FMLN and the government had entered into secret negotiations over the carry- ing out of the findings of the Truth and Ad-Hoc commissions. The FMLN explained that two of the five organizations that made up the former armed insurgency had negotiated a deal in which land for former guerrillas would be exchanged for forgiveness for cer- tain military officers. And so the fissures appeared. Without a doubt, the FMLN must have time to convert its military forces into a political party. The contradictions, though they appear strong, are not yet deep enough to threaten this process. But many FMLN sympathizers-members of the movement's "social base"-are not happy about these secret high- level negotiations. Thanks to the power of democratic participa- tion-one key outcome of the insurgency-the FMLN is begin- ning to recognize its mistakes. But given how desperately it resolved its disagreements over the immediate future, and given its failure to involve its natural allies in this resolution, the FMLN still runs the risk of losing its credibili- ty. The front's vacillations and :ional Police with M-76 rifles stand guard ii Police march by carrying the national flag pragmatism as it maneuvers politi- cally have created confusion among Salvadorans, some of whom now claim that despite the clearly recognizable fruits of the insurgency, the population may have paid too dearly for the rights and freedoms that the modern world has enjoyed since the French Revolution. With all that said, there is a glimmer of a new history for El Salvador-an uncharted process of social recomposition that seems irreversible. On March 15, the Truth Commission, made up of three independent investigators, released its report, naming those implicated in war crimes. Although those named will not be brought to justice, they have been singled out by the finger of histo- ry. In truth, this date marks the beginning of a real civil society in El Salvador. "We are not dealing with two forces in conflict that weakened," says Iqbal Riza, the head of the United Nations human-rights mon- itoring agency ONUSAL, "but rather that recognized each other's might." The military and the FMLN thus came to the conclusion that neither side could win a mili- tary victory. It remains to be seen, however, if the triumph of one of the opposing sides in the 1994 elections will be honorably accepted by the other. Some sectors of the Right are now con- vinced that pluralism is a way to ensure their own survival; that it is no longer possible to maintain a despotic state which subjects people to the daily horrors of mili- tary impunity. Before, many on the Right preferred to go on as the new fighting than lose g. their privileges. Now the new circum- stances demand pragmatism. Rhetoric about Western culture or about sacrifice and heroism does not have the resonance it once had. The countries of Central America are modernizing their way of thinking. They are recog- nizing what their social needs are-schools, access to health care, and human rights. Culture, and perhaps ethics, will play an impor- tant educational role during this period of peace and democratiza- tion. How to achieve these objec- tives is the challenge facing those Salvadorans who are positioning themselves to head their country. Now it's in the hands of the Left and the Right: a battlefield without arms or hierarchy for the FMLN and with humane methods for the Right.
