US influence in El Slavador's civil war

[struggle4progress]

Oscar Alvarado
March 06, 2009

... According to the Robert White, US Ambassador to El Salvador in 1980, it was crucial that the United States bring to an end the “officially-sponsored and tolerated violence” through the withholding of military assistance. Further visible assistance (i.e. helicopters) would be “interpreted by all sectors as support… for the campaign of repression” and would vastly undermine efforts to bring together the moderate elements of the governmental, military and popular organizations. These opinions were also expressed by Archbishop Oscar Romero before his death in 1979. Unfortunately, Ambassador White was removed from his post in 1981 as the US government, acting after the events in Nicaragua within a Cold War mentality, rapidly increased economic and military aid to the government and its security forces. This policy had three main effects:

a) Firstly, it introduced fresh resources into the conflict in an effort to stop the uprising via overwhelming military force. This alone had significant effects for the intensity and prolongation of the war (by facilitating the use of heavier tactics)

b) Secondly, it convinced centrist and moderate left groups that the primary American objective was not reforms or the cessation of violence but the elimination of the left-wing guerillas (strengthening the support that these groups had among most of the rural population, who were seeking change)

c) Lastly, this visible show of support to the right-wing, anti-communist government (who had been overlooking or encouraging the ‘death squads’) inspired the various, disorganized guerrilla groups to seek external assistance for retaliation (and thus further increased the parties and resources involved in the conflict) ...

http://www.monitor.upeace.org/innerpg.cfm?id_article=591