The U.S. Doesn’t Need This Man
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Pedro Andrade, a former Salvadoran guerrilla, says he has requested political asylum in the United States because he fears for his life if he’s sent back to his native land. But the families of four Marine guards and two U.S. business executives who were killed in cold blood in 1985, allegedly by Andrade’s order, insist that he be deported. The decision is easy. Andrade should leave.
But that’s not enough, nor should it be, for the families of the slain Americans. They want and deserve clear and honest answers as to what happened 12 years ago in war-torn El Salvador. They should know who worked out the deal that brought Andrade and his family to the United States in 1990. The victims’ families say no satisfactory answers have come from the State Department, the Central Intelligence Agency or the Justice Department. None appear to take responsibility for having brought the former leftist guerrilla commander here.
Andrade denies he participated directly in the killing of the four off-duty Marine guards, two American businessmen and seven Salvadorans who were seated at an outdoor cafe in San Salvador when guerrillas sprayed them with automatic weapons fire. But six of Andrade’s former guerrilla comrades incriminated him as the mastermind behind the cowardly attack.
Andrade was never prosecuted. Instead, he claims, the Salvadoran police kidnapped his wife and children in a successful effort to turn him into a CIA informer who would report to the U.S. Embassy in San Salvador. The information he passed along, according to some sources, was very valuable. It may have also caused the deaths of more than 200 of his former comrades. In exchange, U.S. officials gave him a visa and paid for relocating him and his family in the United States.
As it stands today, the State Department and the CIA blame each other for the Andrade deal. William Walker, who was then the U.S. ambassador to El Salvador, says the CIA had the idea and the budget to finance Andrade’s relocation. The CIA says it was State’s idea.
Last March, an immigration judge ordered Andrade deported. The Salvadoran appealed and asked for asylum. Many deserving people are currently seeking asylum. Pedro Andrade is not one of them. Let him find a country that will tolerate someone with his past.
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