ustxtxb_obs_1988_03_11_50_00007-00000_000.pdf

2600 E. 7th St. Austin, Texas 477-4701 I This publication is available in microform from Universi fi Microfilms International. Please send information about these titles: Nam Company/Institution Address City State Zip Phone \( Call toll-free 800-521-3044. Or mail inquiry to: University Microfilms International. 300 North Zeeb Road. Ann Arbor, MI 48106. complete personal and business insurance ALICE ANDERSON AGENCY 808-A East 46th P.O. Box 4666, Austin 78765 Weizenbaum’s address. Specifically, he would like to see the local Jewish Committee for Sanctuary strengthened. Marilyn Croman, chairwoman of the sanctuary committee, said she would like to see a stronger Jewish presence in the sanctuary movement. “I would like for us to say to this city and this state that Jews recognize their unique bond with people fleeing oppression, having ourselves experienced a catastrophe of enormous proportions,” she said. Weizenbaum cited a passage in Leviticus 19:34 that is relevant to politics today: “The stranger who sojourns with you shall be to you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself; for you were strangers in the Land of Egypt.” Tom Keene Rebels Expect a Long War in El Salvador CHALATENANGO, EL SALVADOR In the village of San Juan de la Cruz, on the Salvadoran-Honduran border, 20 to 30 guerrillas, members of the Salvadoran were taking a break from the war and relaxing on a recent Sunday afternoon. Among the guerrillas were men and women, ranging in age from 14 to 45. While a few wore camouflage fatigues, most wore jeans and civilian shirts. All, however, had web belts on which hung canteens and clips of ammunition for the M-16s they carried wherever they went. In an interview with the British news agencies, Reuters and Visnews, Ricardo and Diana, representatives of the guerrillacontrolled Radio Venceremos, discussed plans for the coming year and the FMLN position concerning upcoming legislative and mayoral elections in March. “These elections will do nothing to solve the problems of the Salvadoran people,” Ricardo said. “They are a maneuver by the government to support its counterinsurgency strategy, which has been imposed by the U.S.” In the countryside, members of the 6,000soldier guerrilla force now attack the army actively, usually with ambushes set along trails or roads they know the army will use, or passively, by planting mines along the same routes. In cities, urban guerrilla units ambush police, spraying their cars with machine gun fire. The FMLN also is weakening the country’s economic infra Vic Hinterlang is a freelance journalist from Austin who is currently working in El Salvador. VIC HINTERLANG Guerrilla in San Juan de la Cruz structure by blowing up electrical generating stations and poles, thus cutting off power in parts of the country. In addition, guerrillas directly threaten the economic heart of El Salvador by attacking coffee plantations, often planting mines in the fields. While the Salvadoran army’s claim that there are now no areas of the country controlled by the FMLN may be accurate in the sense that the army can, with its fleet quickly to any attack, it is also true that there are areas into which it doesn’t venture for months at a time. These zones are predominantly in the far north of the country, especially in the departments of Morazan and Chalatenango. They are areas of high, rugged, heavily forested mountains, traditionally strongholds of FMLN support. The FMLN wants the war to make clear to the Salvadoran population the shortcomings of the government as well as that there can be no peace without the FMLN’s assent, which will be forthcoming only when certain terms are met. To some degree these terms have been specified and include an end of U.S. involvement, the sharing of power, including the integration of the FMLN’s and the Salvadoran government’s armed forces. The strategy of Prolonged Popular War is intended to force the government to accept the FMLN’s terms due to popular demand, which is to be engendered by a combination of persuasion and coercion. In order for its strategy to prevail, the FMLN will have to convince a large part of the population to actively rise up and demand a resolution of the war on the guerrillas’ terms. \\There is currently no indication of the kind of support for the FMLN that would be required, and it is doubtful whether such support can be developed in the near future. One problem is the nature of some of the FMLN’s tactics, which are highly controversial. Mines planted on trails and roads in the countryside kill and maim campesinos, including a disproportionate number of children, as well as soldiers. The loss of electricity affects the poor as well as the rich. And the lack of public transportation caused by FMLN paros poor and the working class. Another problem is a result of the intense trauma experienced by most Salvadorans in the early 1980s when right-wing death squads under military control killed hundreds of people each week. This reign of terror basically wiped out the left, aside from those who either fled the country or went up to the hills to become guerrillas, and it has made people afraid to do anything that might cause the repression to recur. To openly support the FMLN is an act of courage and an act that can place one’s life in jeopardy. Cultivating popular support in such an atmosphere will continue to be difficult. Vic Hinterlang THE TEXAS OBSERVER 7