Uneasy Rightists Bickering in El Salvador : Duarte Centrists in Full Charge; D’Aubuisson Group Loses Key Ally

The right-wing political parties of El Salvador have been in bickering disarray since the recent Legislative Assembly elections that consolidated power in the hands of President Jose Napoleon Duarte’s Christian Democratic Party.

Publicly, the rightist parties are vowing to play the loyal opposition in the assembly they had dominated since 1982, but this is a role that clearly makes them uneasy.

The rightists represent the interests of a handful of people who have long controlled the power and wealth of this country, torn by civil war. Their leaders and supporters distrust Duarte because he has carried out land and banking reform programs aimed at redistributing some of the wealth and has promised, in talks with the leftist rebels, further reforms in the areas of justice and labor.

Military’s Stance Shifts

Traditionally, the rightist parties have been allied with the military, but the military has promised to support the U.S.-backed Duarte government. The armed forces opposed a rightist move to nullify the elections, and last week the defense minister, Gen. Carlos Vides Casanova, gave a strong speech calling for economic and political cooperation with centrist Duarte.

The rightist parties and their supporters in the conservative business community contend that Duarte’s Christian Democrats have “absolute power” and that any political failure will be the fault of Duarte and his party. But they are quick to point out that Duarte is still dependent on private enterprise to improve the economy, and that this private-sector backing enables him to carry on the war against the rebels.

Over the years, the rightists have shown the ability to form new parties and new pressure groups when their old ones fail, some political analysts here say.

“There is no question that the political institutions of the economic right are in disarray,” one analyst said, “but I would be cautious about saying that disarray means a reduction of real power. Their power is veto power. They have a pressure mechanism--an economic boycott.”

Internal Struggles

But in the aftermath of the assembly elections at the end of March, the right seems to be more interested in bickering than in exercising any power.

The Nationalist Republican Alliance, known as Arena, and the National Conciliation Party, or PCN, have ended the alliance they had formed in an effort to win a majority in the assembly. The centrist Christian Democrats won 33 of the assembly’s 60 seats and, although Arena received more than three times as many votes as the National Conciliation Party, the formula they had worked out gave Arena only 13 seats compared to 12 for the PCN.

Now, the National Conciliation Party is toying with the idea of an alliance with the Christian Democrats. The PCN ejected its leader, Raul Molina, after he joined Arena leader Roberto D’Aubuisson in seeking to nullify the assembly elections without consulting the party executive council.

D’Aubuisson, the most visible and most controversial figure on the far right, may be in trouble in his party, too. Arena plans a meeting within the next two months to determine what went wrong in the election.

There is some speculation that the mercurial D’Aubuisson, who is alleged to have had links with death-squad killings here, will be held responsible for the party’s poor showing at the polls and removed as one of its leaders.

“For a long time,” the analyst said, “Arena has been battling with the contradiction that D’Aubuisson was the biggest stain--and the biggest asset--in the party. It was all right when the contradiction was in the background, but now it has come forward.”

New Grouping Possible

Some here believe that the right will regroup around a new party--called Patria Libre (Free Country) being formed by Hugo Barrera, who ran for vice president last year on the Arena ticket headed by D’Aubuisson. Barrera left Arena after the election, and he has sharply criticized D’Aubuisson’s leadership, not only of the party but also of the assembly. D’Aubuisson was president of the last assembly.

“The gains we had made have been wasted,” Barrera said not long ago. “There was a lack of analysis, a lack of action. It’s one thing to get power and another to know how to sustain it. I don’t have the image of D’Aubuisson, but I am disciplined and organized, and I have much more credibility among the people around me.”

Barrera said he will not depend just on Arena defectors but hopes to attract people who are not now affiliated with any party. He said he doubts that D’Aubuisson will be deprived of the Arena leadership because the door to the leadership “is closed with three keys and five bolts.”

D’Aubuisson, however, dismissed Barrera’s new party as “insignificant.” He also said he believes that he will not receive the blame for losing the election because the entire Arena party made the decision to enter the pact with the National Conciliation Party.

Assembly member Armando Calderon Sol said he does not believe that Barrera, who is godfather to his son, is serious about forming a new party.

“It would be stupid to form another party,” Calderon Sol said, “and I don’t think he would do it. He’s an intelligent man.”

But Barrera said Calderon Sol knows he is serious; he just doesn’t want to believe it.

A Tattered Economy

There is broad agreement that Duarte--while trying to cope with political pressure from rightists, rebels and workers-- must assign a high priority to El Salvador’s desperate economic situation. Half the work force is either unemployed or underemployed; the foreign debt has reached $1.9 billion, and economic growth is 25% below what it was in 1980 when the insurgency started.

He is expected to begin by trying to make peace with the business community, which opposes not only his economic reforms but also his attempts to carry on a dialogue with the rebels--grouped under the political umbrella Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front and its political arm, the Revolutionary Democratic Front.

Calderon Sol, who wants among other things to see the nationalized banks returned to private ownership, said, “If he is going to move the country ahead, he is going to have to rectify the economic errors he has made.”

Juan Maldonado, executive director of the National Assn. of Private Enterprise, added: “He has to create a climate of security and respect in the business community. More reforms will just bring more destruction of the economy. We need real reforms, oriented toward free enterprise. Otherwise he is going to encourage capital flight, disinvestment, a brain drain, less production and more unemployment.”

There are limits to how much influence the business community can bring to bear. For one thing, Salvadoran financial institutions are controlled by the government. For another, about 80% of the U.S. economic aid to El Salvador last year was reportedly funneled through private companies.

Renewed Vigilantism Unlikely

Many observers say they do not expect to see any renewal of activity by the death squads that have been so active here in the past.

“I don’t see an upsurge of rightist terrorist activity as an expression of defeat,” one said, but he added that extreme right-wing activity, or government repression, could pick up again if labor unions and other special-interest groups start making demands through the political openings that Duarte has offered.

Already there are signs of unrest. More than 8,000 people took part in a May Day workers’ rally in the capital, some of them carrying placards calling for higher wages and “peace, democracy, dialogue and negotiations” with the rebels.

An army helicopter circled low over the heads of the marchers, and a week later Defense Minister Vides Casanova made it clear in a public address that he sees the economy as a battleground in the war against the rebels.

“The armed forces,” he said, “have a clear vision of the current economic situation, and perceive that the circumstances oblige us to look for national unity. That is our responsibility as Salvadorans.

“The armed forces are now a monolithic entity; internal antagonisms have disappeared and we have gained a unified spirit of discipline and direction. . . . We ask the political parties to do the same. Social peace is born of economic stability.”