cries@mtxinu.COM (09/02/89)
/* Written 5:57 pm Aug 30, 1989 by cries in ni:cries.regionews */
/* ---------- "ElSal: I/view Col. Emilio Ponce" ---------- */
THREE VOICES FROM EL SALVADOR - PART 1
(cries.regionews from Managua August 30, 1989
123 lines 5553 bytes)
The agreements reached at the Central American presidential
summit meeting in Tela, Honduras in early August have made
their imprint on the region, giving new life to and
accelerating processes underway since the first summit
agreement was reached in August 1987 in Esquipulas,
Guatemala. In the case of El Salvador, the Tela meeting
appears to have opened up the possibility that a resolution
can be found to the ten year old conflict. In the following
interviews, three protagonists with divergent points of view
comment on Tela's impact and on other aspects of the
Salvadoran situation, including the recent beginnings of an
anti-ARENA alliance between the FMLN and Christian
Democratic Party.
From "Pensamiento Propio" #63, Sept. 1989.
Interviews by Gianni Beretta.
******************
COLONEL EMILIO PONCE
Head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the Armed Forces
**Q. What is happening with the war now?
**A. The FMLN today doesn't have the military capacity it
had in 1983. The only thing that can be acknowledged is an
advance in the technology of terrorism. But this shows their
weakness since it only takes a few dozen men to do
terrorism. The truth is that the FMLN can no longer justify
its struggle because there isn't a military dictatorship
here anymore. They're the ones destroying the economic
infrastructure of the country, thereby increasing poverty
which, according to them, is the root of the conflict.
But history is leaving violent methods behind. The FMLN is
out of step with Salvadoran reality and international
reality, too, especially what's happening in the Soviet
Union and Poland. The Armed Forces are carrying out
defensive actions to guarantee the security and tranquility
of our people who are being attacked by the FMLN. But it's
well known how impossible it is to control terrorist
activity.
**Q. What is your opinion of what happened at Tela?
**A. The government began a political-diplomatic offensive
against the FMLN at Tela. We're in favor of a political, not
a military, solution to the war. At Tela, the five
presidents spoke clearly about dialogue and an end to
hostilities. It was a public condemnation of the FMLN, a
real blow which discredited them.
**Q. What form should the dialogue take?
**A. We understand it as a search for mechanisms that would
assure the integration of the insurgents into the democratic
and institutional life of the country. True, talks could end
up in negotiations, but they'd be within a constitutional
framework, and wouldn't be to discuss power sharing.
**Q. But last January the FMLN said it would take part in
the elections as long as they were postponed and conditions
were created for a free and clean contest...
**A. The communists are very efficient at fooling people.
Abroad, they say they want a dialogue, and inside the
country they do the opposite with their terrorism.
**Q. At Tela, Honduran President Jose Azcona shot down
Cristiani's attempt to equate the contras and the FMLN...
**A. We shouldn't speak of symmetry, but it's a fact that
the FMLN has its sanctuaries in Nicaragua. It's true, too,
that they're in El Salvador but they don't have any chance
of taking power via the armed route and their survival
depends on aid from outside. [Nicaraguan President Daniel]
Ortega himself, during the presidents' private meetings at
Tela, admitted to supporting the FMLN. According to our
sources, this year some 2000 AK-47 rifles have entered the
country from Nicaragua via Honduras, of which we've captured
550.
**Q. The FMLN says it has bought hundreds of Chinese AK-47's
from the contras...
**A. We've found that the rifles are North Korean and East
German models. As well, we recently got hold of a manual for
Soviet-made C2M Arrow anti-aircraft missiles, similar to
SAM-7s. They're probably already here and the guerrillas are
only waiting for some kind of political authorization from
Managua in order to use them.
**Q. You were head of the Chiefs of Staff in the last months
of former President Duarte. How do you explain the PDC's
[Christian Democrats] stance of criticizing the idea of
symmetry so much and refusing to be part of the dialogue
commission proposed by Cristiani?
**A. Political competition between the parties hasn't ended
and they're already thinking about the 1991 parliamentary
elections. So it's natural for the PDC to counterpose itself
to the ARENA government.
But it also must be said that Duarte worked for two years
within the framework of Esquipulas II without achieving a
thing. The dialogue he held with the FMLN turned out to be a
propaganda trap. The current government, on the other hand,
dealt a strong political blow to the FMLN at Tela.
**Q. The recent meeting in Mexico between the opposition
parties and the FMLN appears to be the beginning of a
convergence of forces against ARENA...
**A. When the PDC was in power, there was common ground
between the FMLN and ARENA. In any case, since Tela,
meetings like the one in Mexico no longer make sense because
the government now has the initiative.
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