PVC 1990 Delegation – Part Seven: CPDN/National Debate

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.

3 October 1990, 2:00 PM - The Permanent Commission of the National Debate for Peace in El Salvador (called CPDN or National Debate)

There are treasury police outside, so Chris and BD go ahead to check out whether or not entering will be safe. When we are given the signal, we go in as a tight, silent! group through a heavy wrought iron gate with an attendant, into a large, impressive-looking building. We are ushered through a reception area and seated on folding chairs in a circle in a large, airy room. The walls and ceiling are white, with royal blue trim and much use of black wrought iron. The floor is terrazzo tile. I point out to Linda that the roof has a sawtooth design very similar to that of the Mill Building [an old paper mill repurposed as a bank operations center, where she and I both worked at the time]. There are two other meetings going on in this room, and voices become loud at times. The sign on one wall says FEDECACES.

An international church worker gives us some background on the organization, which he explains was started at the initiative of the U.S. Embassy as a confederation of cooperatives. Later they went over to the UNTS (National Union of Salvadoran Workers). At this point the embassy went to them as said, "You have a debt to pay for the building. If you stay with UNTS, you must pay at the current exchange rate of 5 to 1, but if you leave UNTS you can pay at the old rate of 2.5 to 1. And if you don't pay, we will take you to court."

The building now houses the National Debate, which was started by Archbishop Rivera y Damas as a mechanism to have representatives from across the political spectrum sit down and talk with one another. The center to left responded positively, but the right, especially the religious right, launched a massive campaign saying that the National Debate is just a front for the FMLN. The Catholic hierarchy was rather chagrined and pulled back from the process.

PVC 1990 Delegation – Part Five: Morning in La Peña

 

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.

2 October 1990 - Morning in the village in San Miguel

We settle for sleep overnight in the common house, the eight women on four reed-mat beds in an inner room, and the men on mats on the porch. The room is damp and colder than outside; I think that I am the only one not wishing for a heavier covering than our flannel sheet. Gail and I share a bed against the far wall. I must have slept for a few hours; she claims that she has slept not at all. By quarter after four my need to use the bathroom has grown greater than any concern for disturbing the others. I whisper to Gail that I am getting up, and she decides that she will, also. We draw on the skirts and shoes which had been the only garments removed for the night, and I pin up my hair as best I can, tucking it under the Totes hat which serves as my protection from both sun and storm. Then with hands covering flashlights we make our way around the prone bodies of our comrades and out into the pre-dawn air.

The room had been utterly black, with no perceptible difference between eyes closed and eyes open. Outside we are greeted by a sky brilliant with more stars than I can remember ever having seen before in my life, and a nearly full moon making its way toward the western horizon. The "facilities" are across the clearing, around the bus, and into the woods – left turn for the men and straight ahead for the women, then pick your tree. A concrete latrine in this village will be a major improvement, once they get it built.

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.