In Central America, It’s Still the Military That Settles Political Disputes

During a week of political controversies in U.S.-supported Central American nations with elected civilian governments, a single civics lesson stood out: The military is the final arbiter in civilian political disputes.

Involved were squabbles in El Salvador and Honduras, both of which receive substantial U.S. aid as well as sizable doses of official “tutoring” aimed at fostering democracy.

Here in El Salvador, a right-wing challenge to National Assembly elections was resolved swiftly, after a rare public expression of military opinion.

The Honduran controversy, a complicated political fight for advantage in November’s scheduled presidential election, is still unsettled--but all eyes are on the armed forces in the expectation that they will at least fix the limits of action, if not settle the whole mess.

Of the two episodes, El Salvador’s was interesting because, for the moment at least, the military has broken with extremists of the right represented by Roberto D’Aubuisson, a one-time army major whose name has often been linked with death squad activity.

D’Aubuisson and his followers fared badly in Sunday’s elections for the 60-seat National Assembly. Unofficial results showed that a coalition led by D’Aubuisson’s Arena party lost its majority of assembly seats to the Christian Democrats of President Jose Napoleon Duarte.

D’Aubuisson cried foul, just as he did last year after losing the presidential race to Duarte. This time, however, he petitioned El Salvador’s Central Electoral Tribunal to throw out the entire result.

Legally as well as practically, annulment of the election was possible. D’Aubuisson’s coalition holds a majority on the three-member tribunal.

But the former major failed to anticipate swift opposition by the military. His petition even alleged that the armed forces cooperated in a Christian Democratic vote grab.

“We trusted in the apolitical stand of the armed forces,” the petition said.

Military Strikes Back

The military struck back.

“The allegations are not sufficient to throw dirt on the prestige of this institution (the armed forces),” said Defense Minister Carlos Vides Casanova during a press conference.

Vides Casanova, who was accompanied by the entire high military command in a television broadcast of the press conference, made it clear that the armed forces are tired of a succession of elections in which their role is one of chasing guerrillas around the countryside to keep them from disturbing the vote. An immediate new election, as called for by D’Aubuisson, was unwelcome.

“The sacrifice we have made supporting the four voting periods (since 1982) has forced us away from the conquest of purely military objectives,” Vides Casanova said.

‘Everyone Having Good Time’

“Everyone is having a good time during the elections, going on television insulting each other, but meanwhile, we are putting up the dead.”

The defense minister offered a bold exposition of the armed forces’ role in Salvadoran politics.

He said that the army could intervene if a political party transgressed the bounds of the constitution. It is unclear who, in Vides Casanova’s view, would be the judge of what is legal and what is not, but the defense minister clearly sees the armed forces as a broker between politicians and the public.

“We don’t care if one party has one more or less deputy (in the assembly). Our promise is with our people,” he said. “It’s time politicians start thinking about the good of the country.”

Warning on Protests

Vides Casanova also issued a warning about public protests over the vote issue.

“If both sides go out into the street, the armed forces will have to impose order,” he said.

The defense minister stopped short of saying that the military would overrule a decision of the electoral tribunal. But once he had spoken, there was little doubt of the outcome.

A few hours later, the tribunal emerged from a meeting and rejected D’Aubuisson’s petition. Council members would not acknowledge that Vides Casanova’s declarations influenced them, although one rightist member conceded that the military leader’s press conference put them in a “delicate situation.”

Politicians Jockeying

Meanwhile, politicians in Honduras are jockeying for position in the campaign to succeed President Roberto Suazo Cordova, who is entering the final months of his four-year term and cannot legally be a candidate for reelection.

Suazo Cordova wants to pick his own successor and has the means to help do so because judges friendly to him control the nation’s Supreme Court. The chief justice holds the swing vote on the Honduran Electoral Tribunal, which in turn can determine the outcome of the nominating conventions by its rulings on the validity of the credentials of delegates to those conventions.

Last week, Suazo Cordova’s opponents in Congress, some of whom are aiming for the presidency, voted to dismiss the Supreme Court for alleged corruption and replace it with a court of its own liking.

The resulting confrontation led to the jailing of the lawyer that Congress named to be the new chief justice, to the emergence of two “Supreme Courts” and to the threatened arrests of up to 50 congressmen.

Two Letters Dispatched

Suazo Cordova and his chief political rival, Congess President Efrain Bu Giron, both sent letters to the armed forces top commander, Gen. Walter Lopez, urging him to support their positions.

Lopez pledged neutrality. But, like Vides Casanova in El Salvador, he defined the army as the caretaker of democracy.

“We have to offer all-out support so that the system can survive,” Lopez said. “That’s why we have stayed outside of this situation. Besides, it is one of the wishes of our people to see that the democratic system work as it should.”

Behind the scenes, the military was active, according to diplomatic and military observers.

They permitted the arrest of the lawyer named by Congress to be chief justice because Congress had overstepped its authority by dismissing the entire court, the observers said.

When Suazo Cordova made a move to try jail 50 congressmen, the army, on the basis of legal advice, decided that congressmen enjoy immunity from prosecution for criminal offenses. So no arrests were made.

The Honduran conflict has not ended. Several candidates for president are likely to emerge from competing conventions of the same political parties. Hondurans expect that the military will eventually have to rule on who are the “legal” candidates.