in the Salvadoran revolutionary movement
He developed a strong inclination toward receiving praise and adulation, toward placing himself and his opinions above those of the collective leadership and of party bodies, to protect and pay attention solely to those who applauded him blindly.
Toward the end of 1983, a split took place in the People's Liberation
Forces (FPL), the largest component of the Salvadoran revolutionary front, the FMLN. The FPL minority formed the Revolutionary Workers
Movement (MOR). which is outside the front.
FMLN was published in the last issue of IV.
ment of the FPL, which was issued in El Salvador. For the comment of the Mexican section of the Fourth International on these two communiques, see the previous issue of IV. The translation is by Intercontinental Press.
The Central Committee of the People's iod - guidelines that enrich our general
Liberation Forces-Farabundo Marti (FPL), strategic line.
member of the Farabundo Marti National
Liberation Front (FMLN), communicates to the working class, to the Salvadoran people, and to the other people of the world, to sister revolutionary organizations, to the world revolutionary movement and to progressive governments, that in the course of the complex, difficult, self-sacrificing and victorious struggle of the Salvadoran people for their liberation - in face of the oligarchy's rabid and genocidal military dietatorship, supported, equipped and trained by Yankee
- the People's Liberation imperialism
Forces-Farabundo Marti, together with the other revolutionary organizations that make up the FMLN, have been applying, developing and enriching their strategic line, assimilating the rich revolutionary of our people and of other experience peoples of the world.
In August of this year we held the Seventh Plenary Meeting of our Revolutionary Council, the highest leadership body of our FPL-Farabundo Marti party. In the framework of intense work, great seriousness, responsibility and an increased level of political and ideological cohesion, discussed the delegates and deepened their understanding of the major problems facing the people's war, our organization and the people of our country.
This has made it possible to provide our party and people with:
The statement of the The following is the state-
Following investigation and assessment of the sorrowful and repudiated assassination of Companera Melida Anaya Montes (Commander Ana Maria) and the suicide of Salvador Cayetano Carpio (Marcial), the FPL Revolutionary Council has concluded the following:
That Salvador Cayetano Carpio, who was our chief leader and commander-inchief of the People's Armed Forces for Liberation, embarked in recent years on a process of ideological and political decomposition. This led to grave distortions that eventually resulted in Companera Ana Maria's assassination, which Carpio was the main organizer and responsible for. Among these deviations were the following;
At the same time, toward others he expressed a lack of confidence. He looked on those who did not accept his views as a danger to the revolution, as unconscious instruments of the enemies of the revolution.
2. As a consequence of this exaggerated self-esteem, Marcial became the victime of serious political backwardness and became incapable of thinking and acting at the level required by the historic demands posed by the development of our revolution.
Marcial clung tightly to dogmatic and sectarian schemes and plans. This, together with his obstinacy about prevailing at whatever cost, became an obstacle to the progress of the People's Liberation Forces-Farabundo Marti and exercised a negative influence on the process of unification of the revolutionary forces as a whole, thus harming the effort to liberate our people.
Meanwhile, a living experience in struggle, attained at the cost of the lives of thousands of companeros and the assimilation of the revolutionary teachings of other peoples, led our organization as a whole - leadership and ranks -
A. A profound assessment of the CUNTE [April 6, 1983] assassination of our second-in-command, Commander Ana Maria, and of the [April 12, 1983] suicide of our chief leader, Marcial, including a scientific assessment of the facts.
B. A strengthening of our party's highest leadership bodies, the Revolutionary Council and Central Committee, for which first and second secretaries were elected.
C. A profound scientific analysis of the national and international situation including the development of the war and the relationship of forces domestically and abroad. On this basis, strategic guidelines were drawn up for the present perInternational Viewpoint 27 February 1984
SALVADOR
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DOCUMENT.
to advance alongside the struggle of our people. Our thinking became enriched, our line and orientation developed. This, naturally, opened up a confrontation of ideas, within the framework of party norms and statutes.
3. Marcial's deviations deepened with the development of the people's war and with the development of the necessary internal ideological struggle to keep pace with these advances. Holding stubbornly to this opinions and demonstrating the negative characteristics of his personality, Carpio used his position as chief leader of the FPL-Farabundo Marti to make his point of view prevail.
With increasing frequency and on increasingly important points, he violated our party's revolutionary principles of functioning. He paid no attention to the leadership bodies, or to the decisions and accords they had already reached, and instead acted behind the back of our party.
The brunt of this conduct by Carpio was directed against the companera Commander Ana Maria, Melida Anaya Montes, second-in-command of the People's Liberation Forces, whom he saw as a rival. Acting out of deep-seated egocentrism, and finally out of hatred, he expressed the view that Ana Maria was undermining his own personal prestige.
Marcial increasingly distanced himself from the dynamic of collective thinking in our organization and leadership bodies, which never supported him in his attitude against Ana Maria.
While the collective leadership of the FPL-Farabundo Marti was linking itself closely to the ranks of our party, to the masses and combatants, carrying out alongside them the daily struggle of our people, Marcial distanced himself from both the leadership and the ranks.
He surrounded himself with a group of people who saw their relationship with him as a source of prestige and authority within our party. These elements formed a genuine cult of personality around Maradulating him, propagandizing his ideas, developing a genuine fanaticism toward him as an individual. This process, while it did not take hold within the overall membership of the FPL, did affect
In January and February 1983, the FPL-Farabundo Marti Political Committee, and later the Central Command, met to prepare for the Seventh Revolutionary Council, our party's highest body.
When the Central Command met, all of its members, with the exception of Marcial and Marcelo [Rogelio Bazaglia] approved agreements and measures that would enable application of our general strategic line to the new conditions that had arisen, thus assuring the advance of the people's war for liberation.
Salvador Cayetano Carpio, as a member and chief leader of these bodies, had the most ample opportunity to argue in favor of his point of view, but he did not do so frankly and honestly before the collective leadership. He never displayed the proletarian courage of presenting these views before the leadership bodies — the 24
Political Committee and the Central Com-
To the contrary, he used methods that were incorrect and worthy of condemnation. At the meeting of the Central Command he tried to confuse its members. Against Ana Maria he launched denigrating accusations that were in contradiction with the most elementary norms of revolutionary ethics, only ended up in his degrading himself
In light of such foul procedures, his unhealthy methods and intentions were rejected. Marcial was thus dealt a political and moral defeat by the entire Central Command, with the exception of
However, the Political Committee and Central Command did not yet understand the depth and genuine gravity of Marcial's ideological deformations. cordingly, the measures adopted by those boides were aimed at constructive efforts intended to encourage a context favorable to correction of his views and to strengthening the unity and cohesion of
- the Popular Liberation Forces-Farabundo Marti.
6. The collective leadership addressed and criticized Marcial in the most fraternal manner, seeking to encourage conditions in the party that would help him overcome the problem as a revolu-
The Central Command, in an expression of maturity building spirit, reiterated its confidence in Marcial as chief leader and founder of dence in his capacity to overcome his weaknesses and correct his deviations.
But Marcial no longer shared the collective interests of the party, of the revolutionary forces, of the working class or of the people. Marcial was no longer the leader of the people he had been known as in the past. Grave political, ideological and moral deformations, in combination with his recalcitrance in regard to the politico-military reality of the process and our party, ended up affecting his conduct and personality.
MUSOE Salvador Cayetano Carpio lost all perspective and respect for the FPL-Farabundo Marti, an organization that has earned the confidence of our people. Blinded by political ambitions and fanatical self-aggrandizement, he ordered and planned, along with Marcelo, the assassination of Ana Maria, thus stripping himself of his qualities as a revolutionary and leader of our people. To carry out the crime, he used a group of combatants placed under military discipline, in comlicity with the companera's security per
Discovered in his crime Marcial opted, in a final act of political cowardice, for suicide, attempting to evade his responsibility and save his reputation, already stained by the infamy he himself had cast
He preferred to die stubbornly maintaining his egocentrism and self-
Belore committing suicide, Marcial added a new intamy to his already incorrigible political cowardice. He wrote several letters, one of them to the Central in which he presented the events as a conspiracy by false revolutionaries against him and what he called his unimpeachable course as a genuine revolutionary.
Marcial thus left behind poison to continue harming the revolution and our organization, in an action that was equally a desperate and blind attempt to preserve his own image above all.
But his murder of Ana Maria is totally and absolutely proven.
The Seventh Revolutionary Council of the People's Liberation Forces-Farabundo Marti, held in August 1983 in Chalatenango, received conclusive proof of this. It studied the phenomenon in all its depth, in all its determining and conditioning factors, and adopted a unanimous resolution condemning Marcial for the crime.
Such events, deformation and deviations have no precedent in the life of tbe FPL-Farabundo Marti. However, as a te sult of the confusion, resentment, oppor tunism and the fanatic personality cut
Marcial, a few ex-companeros were taken by surpirse and have gone to
International Viewpoint 27 February 1984
bundo Marti states before the people of of the FPL and of the entire people to
They are seeking to split and divide the internal unity of the are deviate and harmful to the revolution and to our people and that benefit only the enemy.
This group holds the backward, sectarian, and antiunity positions put forward by Marcial. They deny the FMLN's role as the vanguard of the revolution and proclaim themselves the sole representatives of the working class. They deny the role that all democratic and progressive forces, together with our working class, can play in our process. deeply impregnated with an antiparty way of thinking and acting.
Linked to this group of individuals in the recently emerged Revolutionary Workers Movement-Salvador Cayetano Carpio. With this group, they are seeking to elevate the figure of Carpio before our people, hiding and covering up what is now clear and proven: because of his ideological disintegration, Marcial ended up betraying the interests of the working class and our entire people, doing irreparable damage to the revolution.
In the face of all the slanders spread by this group about supposed deviations of the FPL-Farabundo Marti and of the entire FMLN, there is an undeniable fact that the entire world can see: the powerof the revolution; the striking political and military victories won by the people's forces; the critical political and military situation in which the dietatorship finds itself; and the unquestionable advances in the process of unification and consolidation of the FMLN.
Revolutionaries know well the practices and measures developed by imperialism and world reaction to destroy revolutionary movements. One of their primary objectives is to sow division among the vanguard organizations of the people. In our country Yankee imperialism and its domestic puppets have carried out innumerable efforts to divide the vanguard of our people, the FMLN, and each one of its member organizations.
No one is unaware that recently in Grenada a group of revolutionaries was used either directly or indirectly by imperialism to provoke division and confrontation within the New Jewel Move-
This created propitious conditions for Yankee imperialist aggressors to justify and carry out the invasion of Grenada, dealing a strategic blow to the
We call on this group [Revolutionary
Movement-Salvador Carpio] to exercise good sense and reflection, to understand that their attitude is harmful to the interests of the proletariat and of the entire world, that it benefits only the enemy. In face of the treacherous plans of imperialism, the oligarchy, and its puppet dictatorship, the attitude of every revolutionary must be to strengthen internal unity among revolutionaries and to consolidate the FMLN.
To conclude, the Central Committee of the People's Liberation Forces-FaraInternational Viewpoint 27 February 1984
El Salvador and the world:
That we are making clear to all companeros who have been confused or deceived that the ranks of our organization are open to all who wish to return and rejoin, to close ranks and unify around our efforts to defeat the enemies
That we condemn the brutal assassination of our companera Ana Maria, second-in-command of our organization, and that we hold responsible for that crime Salvador Cayetano Carpio (Marcial), Rogelio Bazaglia (Marcelo) and other
In like manner, we condemn Carpio's cowardly suicide.
3. That the irreparable loss of our unforgetable companera Melida Anaya Montes, champion and bulwark of the desire for unity of our people, has strengthened the combative morale of our organization, the decision to strengthen the development of unity inside the FMLN, and the decision to struggle re-
It has deepened our love for the people and our determination to win. It has deepened our desire to be free and to bring the revolution against imperialism and exploitation to a victorious con-
The FPL-Farabundo Marti is irrevocably committed to the working class and the people. Our strength, our conviction and our determination rest on the unshakable confidence in the unlimited creative revolutionary capacity of the proletariat and people and on absolute confidence in the people's victory.
The FPL-Farabundo Marti, as a revolutionary organization forged in the course of the heroic struggle of the Salvadoran people, is capable of purging itself and advancing firmly in forging the unity of the entire people and in the development of the revolutionary strug-
6. That the plenary meeting of the venth Revolutionary Council ratıli e strategic politico-militarv line of o organization and enriched it on the basis of the new experiences and requirements of the revolution.
The theme of the Seventh Revolutionary Council - "The entire people prepared to defeat the intervention of Yankkee imperialism" — a gathering dedicated to our second-in-command and to the other heroes and martyrs of the revolution, captures the spirit and readiness fight and defeat Yankee troops or those of other puppet countries of imperialism that may try to attack our soil.
At the same time we drew up guidelines aimed at contributing, alongside the FMLN, to attaining definite popular
Finally, we call on the working class, on all democratic and progressive sectors not to allow themselves to be confused by the campaign of slanders and lies propagated by the enemy and by all those who, directly or indirectly, are playing the enemy's game.
Join massively in the armed revolutionary struggle, help bring about the decisive and definitive battle against the enemies of the people!
Vigorously promote the struggle for immediate political, economic and social
Take all measures to prevent intervention by the Yankees or other forces in our country, and confront with determination any attempt at aggression against our country!
Strengthen the unity of the people around their vanguard, the FMLN, and close ranks against our class enemy!
Long live the political, ideological and organic unity of the People's Liberation Forces-Farabundo Marti!
Long live the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front!
War on imperialism, the oligarchy and its puppet dictatorship!
Revolution or death; the armed people
Proletarians of all countries, unite!
United to fight until the final victory!
Revolution or death, we will win!
For the Central Committee of the People's Liberation Forces-Farabundo Marti, signed by the following members of the Political Committee: Leonel Gonzalez, first secretary of the FPL and commander-in-chief of the People's Armed Forces for Liberation. - Dimas Rodriguez, second secretary of the FPL and second-in-command of the People's Armed Forces of Liberation
Companeros Milton, Salvador Guerra, Esteban Cabrales, Mayo Sibrian, Ricardo Gutierrez, Jesus Rojas, Valentin, Miguel
El Salvador, Central America, Decem-
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