UPDATE / THE JESUIT CASE : No Progress in Salvador Murders Even as U.S. Aid Hangs in Balance

Watching the Salvadoran and American governments grapple with last year’s murder of six Jesuit priests is like looking at a series of French Impressionist paintings of a cathedral. The shifting light of the passing day appears to change the view, but the reality, the cathedral, remains the same.

In the investigation into the case of the Jesuits and the two women who died with them in a barrage of automatic rifle fire from Salvadoran military forces during an offensive by leftist guerrillas last autumn, reports of progress, rumors of impending breakthroughs, promises of cooperation pass by daily, giving the impression of movement. But, at the end of each day, the reality remains: The truth of what really happened is no closer to disclosure today than it was the night of last Nov. 16.

In January, eight soldiers were arrested, including Col. Guillermo Benavides, commander of the military zone where the killings occurred. Legal observers here say there is no likelihood of a trial before next year and, given current evidence, almost no chance of convictions.

The latest signs of a change are reports that ranking military officers not involved in the killings and acting out of fear that the lack of progress in the investigation will endanger massive U.S. aid are about to either disclose the truth or force the army high command to end what is widely believed to be a cover-up.

These reports were mentioned this month by Rep. Joe Moakley (D-Mass.), chairman of the House Special Task Force on El Salvador.

The Accusation

Moakley, who accused the Salvadoran high command of obstructing justice, said these dissident officers have created pressure “for an end to the conspiracy of silence and lies that, from Day One, has characterized the military’s attitude toward this case.”

However, diplomatic sources say these officers, if they exist, could be part of an effort by hard-line, right-wing politicians and jealous officers to discredit army leaders, particularly the chief of staff, Col. Rene Emilio Ponce, favored by President Alfredo Cristiani and the U.S. Embassy to be the country’s next defense minister.

Such people, one diplomatic source said, “would go to any length to capture the military.” He indicated that anti-military officers and politicians are linked to Roberto d’Aubuisson, president of the ruling government party and reputed leader of right-wing death squads.

Yet, these same diplomats, who say that Ponce’s elevation to defense minister is a key to breaking the military’s resistance to solving the Jesuit killings, don’t quarrel with the gist of Moakley’s main theme: that the high command, including Ponce, knew the truth early on.

Why then the expectation that Ponce’s appointment as defense minister would end the cover-up?

“The consequences of not moving in the next few days are very serious,” one diplomat said. “If something doesn’t happen by the end of November, God help them.”

The Threat

More immediate than divine retribution will be a serious reduction, if not elimination, of the current $85 million in annual U.S. military aid for El Salvador. A House bill calls for holding back half of the aid unless Salvadoran guerrillas reject a cease-fire or refuse to continue peace negotiations. All the aid would be withdrawn if the government refuses to carry out a “serious and professional” investigation of the Jesuit case.

Final Senate action on the bill is scheduled for before Sept. 30, when the current aid program expires.

“Cristiani and Ponce are (aware) they are losing support, and it’s getting worse day by day,” the diplomat said. “It is increasingly difficult to find anyone in Congress to support (renewed aid) . . . .”

But signals from Washington are mixed. The U.S. government has refused on grounds of national security to provide the Salvadoran court with classified documents of its own that deal with the case. U.S. officials have also indicated there will be resistance to, if not outright rejection of, the investigating judge’s request to question an American officer who has indicated he knows something of the circumstances of the killings.

But, even if these obstacles were cleared, experience presents a clearer picture of reality than statements of diplomats, officials and colonels: No officer in this country, where thousands of people have been killed by military and civilian death squads, has ever been tried, let alone convicted, for murder or other human rights abuses.