Putting Bite Into the Bark : Salvador Hasn’t Been Taking Us Seriously

Over the last decade U.S. taxpayers have sent more than $4.5 billion to El Salvador’s military to help it fight a bloody war against leftist guerrillas. With each new aid appropriation U.S. policy-makers shake their heads over the lack of progress toward peace and the frequently heinous behavior of El Salvador’s security forces. But the aid continues to flow, so far to no good end. That must change.

Political violence in El Salvador during that time has claimed more than 70,000 lives and uprooted 1 million refugees. The still-undefeated rebels, meanwhile, show signs of growing more terroristic each year the war is prolonged.

Both sides in the conflict will meet this week for a new round of peace talks. Just as important, Congress will debate a measure that could influence the negotiations’ outcome.

One bill would put the most stringent conditions ever on military aid to El Salvador: It proposes using $85 million in military assistance the Bush Administration wants for fiscal year 1991 to pry concessions from both the government and the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front.

The plan calls for withholding half the allocation unless the guerrillas violate a series of conditions. If the government violates a parallel set of conditions, the President can suspend the rest of the military aid.

Among the key conditions is an agreement by both sides to stop attacking civilian targets. The government would also press forward with its stalled investigation into the murder of six prominent Jesuit priests by government soldiers late last year.

Bush has countered with a proposed 15% aid cut, but without such rigorous conditions. His plan lacks the big-league clout of the far stronger measure backed by the Democratic leadership and some Republicans.

The Democratic initiative is novel in that it requires stringent concessions from both sides in the 11-year-old conflict. This is not the U.S. policy that the FMLN would have drafted. The guerrillas would prefer to see all military aid cut, right away. But if the guerrillas meet the bill’s conditions, it will give them a chance to pursue something they claim to want: a chance to safely participate in the Salvadoran political process.

By holding back half of El Salvador’s military aid until changes occur, the proposal avoids the problem that has for years stymied U.S. policy there: that our efforts to make the Salvadoran military give human rights as much priority as winning the war have had more bark than bite. In the words of Rep. Gerry Studds (D-Mass.), the military “will never change unless we shock them into doing so.”

Studds is right. It’s time for Washington to send a firm, clear message to the Salvadoran military: Curb human rights abuses and let the civilian government negotiate in good faith with the FMLN--or the United States will not continue military aid at the present level.