MEMORIAL LIBRARY
Central American Peoples Face Imperialist Escalation
Worldwide Mobilizations Against the Threat of War
EDITORIAL
Every day American imperialism takes another step in its military escalation in Central America.
It is continually increasing its financial support for the bloody dictatorships in El Salvador and Guatemala. It is openly prodding the Argentine army to intervene in El Salvador.
Already directly involved in the fighting through the military advisors it has sent to El Salvador, U.S. imperialism is now training 1,500 soldiers and officers of the Salva-
PETER GRAHAM, мЕне
In Salvador, with the approach of the elections for the Constituent Assembly scheduled for March 28, the decay of the junta is accelerating. The divisions in the bourgeoisie are deepening. The army itself is showing signs of cracking--corruption, indiscipline, desertions, soldiers refusing to fight.
None of the promises the junta made in kept. According to church sources, in 1981 there were more than 12,000 docuof the struggle in Central America is being met with an escalation of imperialist threats.
The U.S. is already in fact engaged in a counterrevolutionary war. That is the meaning of its arms deliveries, the presence of its military advisors, the NATO naval maneuvers off the Salvadoran coast, the training of Salvadoran shock troops in the U.S., the financing of plots against Nicaragua, and the attempts to blackmail and threaten the Cuban workers state.
As at the time of the Vietnam war, a vast dor junta in bases in the United States. mented cases of political murder of civilians, movement against imperialist intervention
According to the Washington Post, the CIA is involved in financing harassment operations against the Nicaraguan revoltion--the growing number of murderous incursions by reactionary gangs across the Honduran border and terrorist attacks carried out in the interior of Nicaragua.
The so-called Development and Military Aid plan for Central America that Reagan unveiled on February 24 is in fact a cover for increased military involvement. Out of the 350 million dollars appropriated, 60 are explicitly earmarked for military aid. This is in addition to the 26 million already included in the regular budget and the 55 million extended on February 1 for immediate replacement of the aircraft destroyed a few days before at the Ilopango airbase by Salvadoran guerrillas.
These expenditures are included in an unprecedented military budget, 2l6 billion as against 9,000 in 1980, and more than 1,000 in 1979 (before the formation of the junta.)
The basic freedoms of expression, movement, and association are susperded by the state of siege. The agrarian reform, which has been interrupted, was only an additional pretext for subjecting the rural population to regimentation and terror.
In these conditions, how could the junta and its big brothers in Washington give any democratic credibility to elections after a 60-day campaign under the constraints of martial law and the state of siege and without the participation of any opposition force?
Of the 66 countries asked to send observBrazil and Canada, In Europe, only the and most of all in the U.S. itself, can block Washington's criminal operations.
Active solidarity with the revolution in Central America has to be built up on a scale that corresponds to the real stakes in this growing confrontation.
In Europe, two million trade unionists and youth mobilized last fall against the installation of nuclear missiles in Western Europe and threats of war. A war has already begun in Central America. Mobilization against war starts with mobilizing against the imperialist intervention in Central America.
Reagan has made every possible effort to present his involvement in Central America as defending the Free World against Cuban and Soviet subversion. But public opinion in the U.S. is generally hostile to supporting reactionary government of Margaret Thatcher dictatorships and still more to direct interdollars. And this huge increase in military appropriations comes at a time when the U.S. has ten million unemployed and when social spending is to be cut by 4l billion dollars over the next three years.
This imperialist escalation shows that it is too late for economic solutions in Central America. Desperately hanging on to their privileges, the local oligarchies are incapable of turning to reforms in time. The wearing out of these traditional ruling classes and the growing strength of the revolutionary forces frighten away potential investors. For the Pentagon, crushing the revolution is becoming the precondition for any political solution.
The attempt to use elections to give some semblance of legitimacy to the regimes in Guatemala and El Salvador has proved to be a total failure.
In Guatemala, General Guevara, the candidate of the military dictatorship, claimed victory in the March 7 election. His three rivals immediately raised the cry of fraud and are challenging the result, calling for a national day of protest.
has given its endorsement to this farce. Less than two weeks before the date scheduled for the elections, it is still not certain that they will take place. That is because the Christian Democrats are afraid of finding themselves defeated by a fanaticized far right.
While the junta decays, the FMLN-FDR are increasing their authority day by day and asserting their claim to power.
The zones the FMLN controls cover a quarter of the country. The guerrillas' schools are constantly at work. A network of radio communication and broadcasting has been brought to a point of perfection.
The guerrillas have increased their pressure on strategic points, such as the Pan-American Highway and the coast highway. The armed struggle is moving back toward the urban centers, with a homefront consolidated in the rural areas. It is now penetrating into the suburbs of the capital city itself.
This advance of the revolution in El Salvador and the growing internationalization
Large demonstrations against imperialist intervention in Central America will take place March 27 in the U.S. and in Mexico on March 28, as well as in several West European countries. At the beginning of May, a joint delegation from the FSLN, the FMLN, and the Guatemalan URNG will tour a dozen West European countries. Massive new demonstrations are expected for Reagan's visits to France on June 5, England on June 7, and West Germany on June 9. In conjuction with this, a demonstration is planned in the U.S. for his return to New York on June 12.
The sections of the Fourth International will throw all their energies into this strug-
Down with Imperialist Intervention in Central America!
Hands off the Cuban, Nicaraguan, and Grenadian Revolutions!
Everything to Aid the Victory of the FMLN in El Salvador and of the URNG in Guatemala!