Levine Faces Hostile Group at Forum

More than 600 people, most of them vigorously opposed to U.S. policies in Central America and military aid to El Salvador in particular, turned out for a town meeting on the subject called by Rep. Mel Levine.

For three hours Friday night, the Santa Monica Democrat faced off against the activists at Lincoln Middle School. Levine had promised to hold such a meeting when demonstrators occupied his local office several weeks earlier.

The activists, united under the coalition group Days of Decision, attacked Levine as being afraid to take a stand on the issues and of not doing enough to cut off the military aid to El Salvador.

Levine told the activists that many of them had deliberately distorted his record, a record he said proved that he has been a congressional leader in opposing U.S. policies in Central America and in trying to achieve an end to the war in El Salvador.

Arnoldo Ramos, a representative of the Faribundo Marti National Liberation Front, the leftist organization that is at war with the Salvadoran government, told Levine that the United States should work with his group, not the government in power, because, “it is possible to demilitarize a civilian, but it is impossible to civilize the military. . . . We are the one force in El Salvador most willing to implement U.S. policy.”

“I have always been with you,” Levine told the crowd several times, which responded each time with boos and hisses. He said cutting off all aid immediately would lessen U.S. influence in the region and could allow more violence to continue.

At least 60,000 Salvadorans have been killed in the last 10 years, many of them by right-wing death squads supported by U.S. dollars, the activists told Levine.

In response to one activist, Levine said he agreed with her that the fighting in El Salvador needs to stop, but added: “We have a significant tactical difference in how to stop the war.”