Police Are Skeptical in Latest Flurry of ‘Death Squad’ Talk

A death-threat letter targeting three political activists has once again raised the question of whether right-wing death squads from El Salvador are terrorizing Salvadoran refugees in Los Angeles.

Both the alleged victims and police say the case frustrates them and those involved on both sides acknowledge the situation has as much to do with politics as solving crimes.

At a press conference Thursday, refugee Carlos Vaquerano held up a threatening letter he said he received Tuesday, the first such letter believed received by a refugee here since last April.

He talked of a recent break-in of his car and said he fears it might be related. He said the vandals, whoever they are, now have his home address from stolen registration papers.

“I am not going anywhere alone,” he said, standing with clergymen of the Interfaith Task Force on Central America.

The task force produced a 10-page list called “Incidents of Political Harassment of Organizations Working with Central American Refugees” as well as copies of the threatening letter.

One organization that did not immediately receive a copy was the Los Angeles Police Department. Detective Supervisor Patrick Metoyer said that his investigation has been hampered all along by having to go through attorneys before speaking with Vaquerano and the other targeted refugees. The letter Vaquerano received also named two other Salvadorans.

“Since when is a person who is a victim required to have an attorney?” Metoyer asked. “Why would the person be hesitant to speak to those responsible for his protection?”

“I get the feeling that everything is being orchestrated,” said Detective Steven Spear.

Spear, who has worked on the case for more than a year, said he is not ready to call the letters a fraud or a publicity stunt, but he said it appears there are political motives at work.

Task force members, who criticized the lack of progress by police on the case, do not deny having political goals.

Mary Brent Wehrli, the task force’s executive director, said death squad activity in Los Angeles represents American policy coming home to roost. Other task force leaders said U.S. aid actually helped fund death squads, which they describe as unofficial arms of the Salvadoran security forces.

The question of local death squad activity first gained widespread attention in July, 1987, after a young Salvadoran immigrant was allegedly kidnaped and raped. She said her assailants, still at large, bragged of belonging to a Salvadoran death squad.

Spear said it is possible that her attackers claimed to be members of a death squad to frighten the woman into silence. He said the Police Department’s criminal conspiracy and anti-terrorist units as well as the FBI have uncovered no evidence suggesting death squads have found their way across the U.S. border.

At the same time, Spear said he understands the refugees’ fears and their reluctance to cooperate with police based on their past experience.

Vaquerano said he took the threats seriously because of what happened to his family and friends in El Salvador.

He said that eight years ago in El Salvador, he left his brother and some friends in a village park barely five minutes before a death squad kidnaped them.

Vaquerano said the death squad members poured acid over the student activists and removed their fingernails one-by-one before shooting them. Vaquerano, then 20, left El Salvador for Los Angeles, a decision that some 300,000 Salvadorans also have made, most within the last eight years, according to the task force.

Vaquerano still speaks out for social change in El Salvador, which he said may explain the threat against his life. The crudely lettered threat, translated from Spanish, warned that “For each strike of the FMLN (a guerrilla organization) in El Salvador, you will pay here, you sons of bitches. You will all die.”

“I don’t care who is perpetrating these crimes, whether it’s a death squad or local individuals taking advantage of these refugees,” Spear said. “If there is a suspect out there, I want to put him in jail.”