Salvadoran Activists Report Two Threats by ‘Death Squads’

In an apparent resurgence of threats by self-proclaimed “death squads” in Los Angeles, four Salvadoran activists have received two death threats recently from a group purporting to be a foreign arm of El Salvador’s most feared death squad, it was disclosed Monday.

“We take this seriously,” said Carlos Vaquerano, one of the four. “It is psychological war. But if psychological war is to work, they have to act on their threats sometime.”

He said the first threat was contained in a letter sent April 7 to four Salvadorans at the Central American Refugee Center (CARECEN), a nonprofit social service center. It was signed by the “Death Squad (operating) abroad, Maximiliano Martinez Hernandez,” an infamous death squad named for an army general who oversaw the slaughter of thousands of Indians in a peasant uprising in the 1930s.

The second threat came in a telephone call to the same center April 12, Vaquerano said.

The four men threatened are members of a board of Salvadorans associated with the nonprofit center. They lobby in support of refugee issues in the United States and occasionally conduct public demonstrations opposing the current U.S.-supported government in El Salvador.

The threats are the latest in a series of such actions that began in Los Angeles last July with the kidnap-rape of a Salvadoran activist who said her abductors had tortured her, interrogated her about her activities, and accused her of being a Communist. A few weeks later, a Guatemalan activist was kidnaped, but not injured, and warned to stop supporting Salvadoran activists.

After Father Luis Olivares, pastor of Our Lady Queen of Angels Catholic Church at Olvera Street, received a death threat by mail, the FBI announced it was opening an investigation into “the possibility of terrorist activity” in Los Angeles.

“We still have that going, but nothing to report,” FBI spokesman Jim Neilson said when asked about the investigation.

An investigation begun last July by the Los Angeles Police Department’s criminal conspiracy section also has failed to uncover evidence that Salvadoran death squads are operating in Los Angeles.

“We don’t have any suspects that in any way can be considered death squad members,” said Cmdr. William Booth, the department’s spokesman. “We haven’t been able to confirm that the threatening letters were sent by Salvadoran death squads.”

Reward Offered

The Los Angeles City Council established last summer a $10,000 reward for information about the threats, and appropriated $10,000 to help relocate some of the more than 20 people threatened in calls and letters.

Vaquerano said someone called the center five days after the April 7 letter and said, “I am from the death squad. If you don’t leave one by one I will come to kill all of you sons of bitches.”

“We tried joking at first because it helps calm your nerves, quiet your inner fear,” said Vaquerano, who said he had three brothers killed by death squads in El Salvador. “But you have to take it seriously, especially since the extreme right wing is back in power in El Salvador.”

In elections last month, ARENA, the extreme right-wing party believed to have been created to build political support for military death squad operations, gained a majority of seats in the national assembly.