Rebels’ Offensive Born of Desperation, U.S. Officials Contend

Bush Administration officials on Sunday labeled the weekend offensive by leftist guerrillas in El Salvador “a move of desperation” that shows their weakness rather than new military strength.

Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney said: “There’s a bit of a view that the attack on the city (San Salvador) basically is a move of desperation by the guerrillas, that the FMLN (the guerrilla force) is under a lot of pressure from the Salvadoran government and that this is an effort to try to dramatize their posture.”

The attack by the FMLN, or Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front, led to some of the fiercest fighting in the 10-year-old conflict, which already had claimed at least 70,000 lives. Among the reported casualties this weekend was an American schoolteacher, Secretary of State James A. Baker III said. All other U.S. residents and diplomatic and military personnel have been “accounted for,” he said.

But U.S. officials appeared to reject the idea that the offensive poses a major threat to the U.S.-backed government of President Alfredo Cristiani, whose private and official residences were among the FMLN’s first targets.

“I think the government of El Salvador can handle it,” Cheney said on NBC-TV’s “Meet the Press.” He said he does not foresee a need for involvement by U.S. military advisers based in El Salvador.

Speaking on ABC-TV’s “This Week with David Brinkley,” Baker noted: “I don’t think it (the violence) threatens to destabilize the government of El Salvador, because I think the government of El Salvador can handle this militarily and defensively.”

Baker added, however, that the weekend fighting “is a major offensive action by the FMLN.”

Baker said the attacks, which occurred throughout the country, appeared to be aimed at disrupting negotiations with the government on a political accommodation. The FMLN withdrew from peace talks last week to demand protection for opposition groups after 10 people were killed in the bombing of a leftist union’s headquarters.

On Wednesday, the FMLN pledged to renew the conflict when it failed to win guarantees from the government.