U.S. to Beef Up Police Forces in Central America

The Reagan Administration is planning a major expansion of aid to Central America’s internal security forces, renewing official U.S. ties with police units that have long been accused of death squad assassinations, government officials said Wednesday.

Responding to the killing of four Marines in San Salvador last month--and to fears of more such attacks against El Salvador’s U.S.-backed government--the Administration plans to ask Congress for at least $53 million in equipment and training for police forces in four Central American countries, these officials said.

Resumes Relationship

The CIA also has moved to increase its help to Salvadoran internal security units, resuming its suspended relationship with the country’s once-feared Treasury Police, the officials said.

Such aid would have been highly controversial only two years ago, when the Treasury Police and other such forces were accused of murdering thousands of Salvadoran civilians. But Administration officials say they are satisfied that the Salvadoran police forces have genuinely reformed, and thus they foresee little difficulty in winning congressional approval for aid.

“They’ve cleaned up their act,” a State Department official said of the Salvadorans. “A lot of the garbage in the middle and upper ranks are gone. . . . We think we can get what we want, if we don’t ask for too much.”

‘Clearly in the Mood’

A congressional opponent of the Administration’s plans reluctantly agreed. “Congress is clearly in the mood to be willingly stampeded,” said California Rep. George Miller (D-Martinez), who argues that the aid may be unnecessary. “We have lost our willingness to even scrutinize what the Administration is doing.”

The aid proposal, details of which are still under discussion, includes at least $53 million for equipment and training for the police forces of El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Costa Rica--an amount that could grow in later years, officials said.

It would be the first such large-scale program since 1973, when Congress ended training of foreign police forces after charges that it tied the United States to human rights abuses. The plan also would reverse a ban on most U.S. security aid to Guatemala, which was cut off in 1977 because of massacres of civilians.

The aid would buy vehicles, radios and technical equipment for police forces, pay for training of special anti-terrorism units and expand the programs of a new regional police training institute in Costa Rica, they said.

The Administration already has taken a series of actions in response to the June 19 murders of the four Marines, two other Americans and seven Salvadorans, who were gunned down as they sat at sidewalk cafes in San Salvador.

The CIA has increased the size of a counterterrorist team that is working with Salvadoran authorities on the case and has provided its station in San Salvador with new equipment to improve interception of rebel radio communications, officials said.

The State Department has offered a reward of up to $100,000 for information leading to the arrest of the gunmen and has speeded up aid to the Salvadoran government’s Special Investigative Unit, which is working on the case.

Close Look Sought

Democrats in Congress say they want to give the new proposal a close look without blocking it entirely.

“We want to make sure we don’t turn over $50 million to the people who were responsible for killing tens of thousands of Salvadoran civilians,” Miller said. “We want to see if restrictions should be put on it. We want to see the evidence that this money will be linked to an effective program to combat terrorism.

“There’s no evidence that they can’t deal with this threat under existing laws,” he added.