Confrontation Between U.S. Envoy, Salvadoran Colonel Raises Hackles

A near-violent confrontation in which a Salvadoran army colonel ordered his troops to aim a loaded antitank weapon at U.S. Ambassador William G. Walker has led to the expectation by the American Embassy here that El Salvador’s military leaders will send the officer out of the country--or face a damaged relationship.

Walker has refused to discuss the incident. But according to various sources here and in Washington, it took place May 2 in the eastern province of Sonsonate and involved Col. Jesus Caseres, the volatile commander of the area’s military garrison and a military-school classmate of the armed forces chief of staff, Col. Rene Emilio Ponce.

Walker was returning to San Salvador that afternoon from a visit with an American priest who runs an orphanage in Sonsonate City.

The ambassador was riding in a white Cadillac limousine with escort vehicles in front and behind. As is customary, Walker’s three-vehicle convoy was traveling at a high speed on the two-lane road.

At one point, a Toyota sedan followed by a pickup truck with several uniformed men riding in the back approached Walker’s convoy. Although the ambassador and his security detail did not know it, the Toyota was being driven by Col. Caseres, and the truck carried his bodyguards.

Because the windows of the colonel’s car were darkened, the officer could not be seen. Walker’s security chief was not reassured by the presence of the uniformed men because Marxist guerrillas operating in the countryside often wear captured Salvadoran army clothing.

When the Toyota and the truck tried to pass, security men in the ambassador’s so-called chase car, a panel truck trailing Walker’s limousine, waved them off. And when the Toyota moved again to pass, the ambassador’s security agents opened the back doors of the panel truck and aimed weapons, including automatic assault rifles, at the car.

At this point, according to Salvadoran sources, Caseres told his men to pass “at any cost.” The American security chief then decided to let the vehicles go by without opening fire. However, Salvadoran sources said that Caseres was furious about the episode and ordered a roadblock set up that stopped Walker.

Caseres has told local newspapers that he did not know it was Walker’s convoy and apologized when the Americans stopped. He said that the ambassador’s security men nevertheless pointed weapons at him at the roadblock.

Other sources, who were not at the scene, said that the two men exchanged bitter words and that it was Caseres’ soldiers who aimed weapons, including an antitank rocket, at the ambassador before tempers cooled and the Americans were allowed to continue.

Want Him Sent Out of Country

It was learned that while Walker told the military high command only that he expected some kind of action to be taken against Caseres, it was nevertheless made clear that the Americans expect Caseres to be relieved of his command and sent out of the country. In turn, the ambassador is said to have promised to keep the matter private to avoid the appearance of pressuring the armed forces leaders.

The military has denied being pressured, but sources say that Caseres, who has embarrassed other officers by his attitude and by actions interpreted as repressing legitimate political dissent, will be named this country’s military attache in Chile.

Such a development is considered promising by the Americans, but it is known they will not be satisfied until Caseres is actually ordered to live in Chile. Often, officers appointed to attache posts are permitted to remain in El Salvador and collect the extra pay that comes with an assignment out of the country.

Their caution reflects pressures on Ponce from senior officers who resent Walker’s attitude in particular and also what they see as general American interference in their affairs and the way they are fighting the country’s nine-year-old civil war.

Salvadoran sources say the issue is so sensitive that rightist President Alfredo Cristiani and former Foreign Minister Ricardo Acevedo Peralta, a moderate, have both asked the ambassador to relent.

Sources say that Walker has not directly threatened to hold up any of the $85 million in annual U.S. military aid to El Salvador but that he has left Ponce with the understanding that a failure to punish Caseres would only strengthen elements in Congress who are seeking limits on American assistance to this country.