From: nyt@nyxfer.UUCP
Newsgroups: soc.culture.latin-america
Subject: What Now for Salvadoran Army (1 of
Date: 15 Dec 92 22:20:00 GMT
Nf-ID: #N:g6uTVB4w165w@nyxfer.uucp:-1224432556:000:4099
Nf-From: nyxfer.uucp!nyt    Dec 15 14:20:00 1992


Subject: What Now for Salvadoran Army (1 of 3)
From: nyxfer!nyt (NY Transfer News)


Via The NY Transfer News Service * All the News that Doesn't Fit

From el diario/La Prensa 12/14/92

Translated and edited by Toby Mailman. "el Diario/La Prensa" is 
a Spanish language newspaper published in New York City.

                  What Now for Salvadoran Army? 

                   (First of a 3-part series)

In the last two years the Salvadoran armed forces have been 
on the bench of the accused, but now their guilt or innocence is 
not disputed so much as their ability to become an institution 
conscious of its true role in a democratic society.

According to opposition politicians the military dominated 
this country [El Salvador] during the last 60 years and only the 
peace agreements between the government and the guerrillas opened
up the possibility to initiate profound reforms to demilitarize 
the society.

General Mauricio Vargas, second in command of the armed 
forces high command and a member of the government's peace 
commission, said that it is not fair to blame the entire 
institution and that among his criticisms is a "lack of 
historical memory."

"We military people have made mistakes doing things, and the
civilians have made mistakes not doing things, so that we all 
have to examine our consciences because the problem is not above 
all military," he added.

The peace accords signed by the government of President 
Alfredo Cristiani and the Farabundo Marti National Liberation 
Front (FMLN), whose period of execution ends on Dec. 15, 
established, among other things, the reduction and purging of the
army, which provoked resistance and criticism from within the 
army.

"I give it merit for having been able to put up with 
everything, despite certain errors and abuses of authority, it is
adjusting to the peace process, which it supported, knowing that 
it is going to be `mutilated,' not defeated," said Sigifredo 
Ochoa, a retired colonel who is currently a parliamentary deputy 
representing the government party.

However, he acknowledged the need for a "cleaning...when one
feels bad one takes a purgative to feel better. This will serve 
as a trimming, in the end it [the armed forces] will come out 
stronger," he said.

Ruben Zamora, Vice President of the Legislative Assembly, 
said that "if there is a transition toward a profound 
demilitarization the armed forces will have made a trade-off, 
turning over political power in exchange for professionality and 
legitimacy."

The FMLN guerrillas, who at the beginning of the 1980s 
demanded the dissolution of the armed forces, now accepts that 
that is not necessary, but that what is important is to transform
them into an institution "called on to play a potential role in 
civil society, serving democracy," according to Leonel Gonzalez, 
of the FMLN's general command.

"It won't be easy, for more than 60 years the armed forces 
exercised their dominance and accumulated a mentality of power 
and impunity and a culture of wanting to impose itself on the 
society," he added.

All sectors agree that the purging will allow for the 
arrival of new officers who, in the face of a different reality, 
will more easily assimilate the transition process.

"It's important that the officers of this new army 
understand that their function is to serve society and not to be 
served by society, because to the degree that it can realize that
it will subsist," said Gerardo Le Chevalier, a Christian 
Democratic deputy.

 For Zamora the process of change the mentality of the armed
forces and the "re-definition of its new role in a new stage is 
as important as the transition process of the FMLN," which must 
change from a guerrilla movement to a political party

General Vargas insisted that "the past no longer counts, it 
is past and it has to be taken as a point of reference to build 
the future, not to sit on the bench of the accused, but to 
project the vision for tomorrow."
 

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