PVC 1990 Delegation – Part Four: Meeting with the FMLN

The following notes have been edited to correct errors and to add explanations and updates. Parenthetical notes and remarks from the original are enclosed in parentheses. Present day [2022] updates are italicized and enclosed in square brackets.

1 October 1990 - late evening, meeting with the FMLN

After our walk around the community we return to the house which seems to be the common gathering place, and where we will be served a supper of scrambled eggs, fried chicken, and tortillas. The people stand around the table and watch as we eat. We feel embarrassed, knowing that the feast in front of us represents more than most of these people would eat in a whole day, yet knowing also that they are very proud to have the resources to entertain us this well and that they would be deeply hurt if we refused to eat and enjoy.

Word has come to us that there is a group of FMLN [Frente Farabundo Martí para la Liberación Nacional/Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front] soldiers in the area who would like to meet with the international delegation if we are willing. Of course we are willing! This is a rare opportunity which cannot be planned ahead of time. The guerrillas wait until it is quite dark and most of the women and children in the village have gone back to their own homes. Then quietly they come out of the darkness and surround the porch of the common house, where we have been eating and talking. A generator has been wired to a single bare light bulb suspended from the porch roof, and into the pool of light steps the guerrilla leader, who introduces himself as Nino. Most of the heavily armed men [and women, as it turns out] on the periphery of the light appear to be little more than boys in age, I am reminded that the campesinos refer to the guerrillas as "los muchachos" - the boys.

What a difference in atmosphere there is between this encounter with the soldiers of the FMLN and our previous encounters with soldiers of the government army! Comparing impressions afterwards we agree that we did not feel threatened or afraid, despite the heavy armaments carried by the guerrillas. Nino stood before us for nearly three hours, looking us straight in the eye, asking and answering questions. When the interview was over, there were handshakes and hugs all 'round. I can't imagine voluntarily hugging one of the "regular" soldiers. We don't even make eye contact with them if it can be avoided. It would be easy to romanticize the FMLN, and that is a trap which we want to avoid. Still, it is obvious that their whole demeanor is light-years away from that of the government army.

Nino begins by asking us if we are all religious. He believes that there is no difference between revolution and religion. We go around the table introducing ourselves, and he asks if any of us work for government agencies. When we say no, he asks how we know about El Salvador. We tell him that our government does not tell the truth about what is happening in El Salvador, that the interest of the government is not the same as the interest of the people, but that we get news from church and human rights organizations which put out newsletters.

Launching into an explanation of what the FMLN is about, Nino states that they would like to have a democracy like we enjoy. He says that it is good to bring up the concept of justice. This is very important, a pressure point in the negotiations. One of the problems is that the riches of the country are in the hands of the few, while five million live in misery. For example, a worker in the countryside will make about $2.00 per day. This is one reason why they are fighting. Image trying to support a family of six or eight on that kind of salary. They eat beans and tortillas, when they can afford them. All the coffee grown is for export. The profits go to the few, the very rich.

As for education, many children don't even get to fourth grade. There is 65% illiteracy in the country. More than half of the children die before they reach the age of five, because of malnutrition and a lack of medical attention. They believe that if the riches of the country were distributed more equitably, these conditions would be improved. So they are fighting for a better life. This is an internal matter; they do not follow blocs of thought (ideologies) from other countries.

Question: How did you know that we were here?

"We live among the people and knew when you came."

Question: We have heard that the military has become as rich as the oligarchy. Is this true?

"Now more than fourteen families are rich. The military is a new class of rich, enriched by your (U.S.) tax dollars." He makes a plea for us to return to the U.S. and change this. He believes that we can effect such a change because in a democracy the people make the decisions.

Question: Please expand on how religion and revolution are connected.

"Here is an example. In religion you have the Ten Commandments. These are very similar to the principles of the FMLN. They say do not kill, do not rob, do not have envy. These are my principles, also. In our ranks most are religious folk. If you study the Bible, you will realize that there is a conscientization of humankind, fighting for justice."

Question: What is your view of the negotiations?

"With negotiations the hope is to achieve peace, to come to the end of the conflict. To end conflict, we must get to the root of the struggle. We want to achieve democracy. We don't believe that we can reach this goal if the armed forces stay in the same structure. We propose eliminating both armies, the army of the people and the army of the rich. We cannot continue with two armies in our country and have peace.

"We have had seventy thousand deaths in our country, a product of the bombings and repression of the armed forces. If the FMLN disarms now, the armed forces will kill the people. If we are equal as armies, however, we can negotiate. From the time of Duarte, we have been asked to turn in our arms. If we do so (before negotiations achieve reform of the army), the army will go back to the scorched earth policy, as it was between 1979 and 1984. The only way to solve this is for both armies to disappear. But the government army won't go along with this idea because they believe that the U.S. will continue funding them, and they believe that the FMLN is weak."

Question: Where do you find hope?

"For many years we have been defending against the army, and we will continue to do so for as long as is necessary." Again he asks us to change our government's policy. "The FMLN does not want to be the new power in El Salvador. We are willing to disappear, to enter the political process as one party among many, once justice is achieved."

Question: Are women involved in the FMLN?

"Yes, they are, because they are conscious of the need for struggle. In fact, there is one young woman with us tonight."

Question: Are you aware of the bill to cut aid which is pending in the U.S. Senate?

"Yes, we are very aware of this bill." He had the exact count of Senators in favor, opposed, and undecided. We tell him that one of our Senators is one in the undecided category, and that we are working on him to support a cut in the aid.

Question: May we meet one of the women in your group?

After some discussion Nino calls to one of the soldiers, and in a minute a young woman in full military gear is standing beside her leader. She tells us that she is twenty years old and has been with the FMLN since she was eleven. She is married and has a daughter. Her husband is also fighting with the FMLN. She is petite and strikingly pretty. Her demeanor while she is talking with us is very serious and rather uncomfortable, as if she does not like having this attention focused on her. After answering our questions she retreats to the edge of the porch, where she visibly relaxes, talking and laughing with one of the young male soldiers standing there.

Nino wants to return to discussion of the Senate vote, which he declares is very important. "The war cannot continue without U.S. aid. The El Salvadoran army is an assassins' army, and the ARENA [Alianza Republicana Nacional/National Republican Alliance – a conservative, right-wing political party in El Salvador founded in 1981 by retired Army General Roberto D’Aubuisson] government is an assassins' government. They have killed the six Jesuits, the four religious women, Romero, three hundred teachers, many others." [After the Peace Accords were signed in early 1992, NPR broadcast interviews with several of the negotiators, including Nino.]

Question: What help do you get from the churches?

"We receive no funding from the churches, but we do have their moral support. We have some pastors as combatants, as well as some people from Base Communities."

Question: What is your military rank?

"The FMLN is not organized according to rank. We have zones, about thirty square kilometers in area, with one leader per zone. There are four fronts, one western, two central, and one eastern."

Question: Which of the five organizations in the FMLN do you belong to, and do all five agree on what would cause you to launch another offensive?

"I come from the ERP. Let me give you some history of the FMLN. Twenty years ago generalized injustice prevailed in our country. There were clandestine organizations, small groups which decided to work against injustice. So five different groups grew up in this way, focused on different injustices. In 1980 these five groups merged to form the FMLN. There is no disagreement or contradiction among them."

Question: Were you surprised by the violence of the government bombings in response to the November offensive?

"We had hoped that they would not do this. We did not believe that they would be so assassin-like. We had hoped that they would respect the lives of the civilian population. During the early days of the offensive, the people were supporting the FMLN, but the terror of the bombing stopped the popular support for the offensive."

Question: The U.S. press said that the FMLN was using civilians as shields. Will you comment on that?

"On the contrary, when the government army came into the countryside, they stayed in the homes of the poor, because they knew that the FMLN would not attack poor homes."

Question: How conflictive is this area at the present time?

"The last army incursion into this area was about fifteen days ago. If the army comes in tomorrow, we will disappear in order to protect you, so that you would not be in danger of being caught in the conflict.

"It is very important that you tell the people of the United States that we are not communists, and that we want democracy. The cold war is over. This lie (that the FMLN is communist) has no validity. The government wants to keep the lie going in order to maintain the oppression. If the triumph is on the part of the FMLN, what threat can we be to a country as large as the United States?"

We tell him that our government does not fear them militarily, but it fears the idea that a poor people can take over a government and run it for their own benefit rather than for the benefit of the rich. There is a discussion about the danger of such ideas. One of the villagers offers the opinion that what the U.S. fears is the population growth of Latin America. [Given the opposition in the U.S. in recent years to migrants from Latin America, this observation seems remarkably prescient.] We thank Nino and his soldiers for coming to talk with us. Good-byes are said, and they drift back into the darkness as quietly as they had come.

Copyright © 2022 Marian L. Shatto