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Page 8 Portland Observer July 9. 1981 El Salvador murders Hv John Din/tes Pacific News Service Evidence based on first-hand ac counts o f the events surrounding the b ru ta l m urders last December o f fo u r A m erican m issionaries in El Salvador indicates that the murders may have been specifically ordered and ca rrie d o ut in a planned o peration by El S a lva d o r’ s U .S. - backed m ilitary forces. The evidence includes an intercep ted ra d io tra n sm issio n between Salvadoran security forces staking out the San Salvador airport fo r an u nide ntifie d woman who some o f ficials believe was one o f the m u r dered missionaries. The evidence, based on interviews with Salvadoran and Am erican o f fic ia ls and church w orkers in El Salvador at the time o f the murders, contrasts sharply with the theory o f the crime provided by U.S, govern ment o ffic ia ls . T hat theory holds that the murders were spontaneous acts o f violence and that m ilita ry personnel in v o lv e d , i f any, were enlisted men acting w itho ut higher orders. M a ry k n o ll sisters Ita F ord and M aura C la rke , U rse lin e sister D orothy Kazel and lay m issionary Jean Donovan disappeared Decem ber 2, I980, after being last seen at El Salvador’ s international a irport. T h e ir b u rn t-o u t T o y o ta van was fo un d along the a irp o rt road the next day, and the fo u r w om en ’ s bodies were exhumed from a deep, unm arked com m on grave in a remote area on December 4. The Salvadoran security forces were suspected in the w om en ’ s deaths a fte r it was learned that soldiers had been s to p p in g cars along the a irp o rt road the night o f the murders and had been present at the women’s burial. The U .S. governm ent pressed p ub licly fo r a fu ll investigation o f possible security force involvement, and in A p r il, after a six-m onth in v e s tig a tio n , six se curity force enlisted men were placed under “ provisional arrest’ ’ in El Salvador on suspicion o f participating in the crim e. A c c o rd in g to published reports citing U.S. and Salvadoran o ffic ia ls , fo u r o f the six men were manning the roadblock in the area where the crime was committed and two men were linked to the crime by fin g e rp rin t and ballistics evidence processed by F B I technicians helping in the case. The State D epartm ent o ffic ia lly praised the arrests as “ progress.. .showing the determination o f the government o f El Salvador to act against wanton violence, whatever its source.” Secretary o f State A lexander Haig, at a M arch 24 Congressional hearing, explained the deaths as ac cidentia), over-reaction by nervous soldiers w ho “ m isread the mere tra v e llin g dow n the road ( o f the nuns’ van) as an e ffo r t to run a roadblock...” Two m onths o f locating and in te rv ie w in g persons w ith d irect knowledge o f the events sur.ound- ing the women’ s murders, however, th is produced evidence o f fo re knowledge and planning that runs co un ter to such a th e o ry o f the crime. Perhaps the m ost suggestive evidence was p ro vid e d by fo rm e r U .S . Am bassador to El S alvador, Robert White, who was fired by the W h ite declined to give fu rth e r details, but said it is a “ legitim ate inference” that the message refers to Ita F ord , who he reasoned may have been singled out fo r execution because o f her w o rk d is trib u tin g fo od and medicine and p rotecting refugees in the ra d ic a liz e d Chalatenango province north o f San Salvador. Governm ent could fail W h ite said the intercepted message is "o n ly one report,” but is im portant as a lead because if more than one m ilita ry unit was involved in c a p tu rin g and executing the women, it would indicate a m ilita ry o p e ra tio n under the c o n tro l o f a superior officer or officers. W hite became convinced that the S alvadoran m ilita r y , despite promises o f a fu ll investigation, was stonewalling on the case to protect superior officers. “ I f all the case in volved was...savage enlisted men ac ting on their o w n ,” he said, “ there would have been no problem from the beginning (in punishing them). The message we were getting (from the Salvadoran o ffic ia ls ) was that this w ould crack the m ilita ry wide open, it co u ld even cause the government to fa ll.” W hite contends he has reported all he knows in cables to the State Department, and that it is now up to the department to release the in fo r mation or use it in the investigation. An FBI o ffic ia l assigned to the in v e s tig a tio n , w ho requested a no nym ity, said that he has never been informed about the intercepted message by the State Department. The critical message The ra d io message fits in w ith other events at the airport that day. The M a ry k n o ll o rd e r had fo u r sisters assigned to El Salvador, in cluding the two who were killed, Ita Ford and M aura C larke. A ll fo u r had gone to a week-long M aryknoll regional meeting held in Managua and were due to a rriv e back in F.l Salvador December 2nd. A rran ge ments had been made that they w ou ld be picked up by D o ro th y Kazel and Jean Donovan, who lived in the a irp o rt area and had a 12- seater Toyota mini bus. Ford and C larke were unable to get reservations on the T A C A flight 318, the first flight into FI Salvador. T h e ir tw o colleagues, Sisters M ad eline Dorsey and Theresa A le xa n d e r, d id get seats on the flig h t and went ahead, a rriv in g at the Salvadoran a irp o rt about 4:45 P M . They were picked up by Donovan and Kazel and driven to the nearby tow n o f l a L ib e rta d , where they had le ft th e ir jeep. Donovan and Kazel then returned to the airport to await the later flight. Also on the first T A C A flight was Sister M arie R ieckelm an, a M arykno ll psychiatrist who had at tended the M anagua meeting and was continuing on the Miam i. In an interview in W ashington, she said she and nine o th e r in -tra n s it passengers were made to remain on board during the 40-minute layover, and th a t d u rin g the w ait three u n ifo rm e d S alvadoran soldiers boarded the plane to ask about the passengers’ destinations - a highly unusual occurence even in L a tin America countries ruled by m ilita ry governments. Rieckelman said she was the only American woman on the plane and that the soldiers scru tin ize d her “ What we would consider legiti mate activity, in E l Salvador would be perceived as helping the enemy.” Reagan A d m in istra tio n in January after handling the investigation for the firs t m o n th . In a recent in te r view , W h ite revealed th a t several weeks a fte r the m urders, a “ high ranking C hristian Democrat in the Salvadoran g o ve rn m e n t" came to him with a radio transmission inter cepted the day o f the murders. The transm ission had been provided to the governm ent o ffic ia l by a m ilita ry source opposed to the ram pant violence by the security forces. The transmission, said White, was a conversation between tw o security force units in the area o f the in te r n a tio n a l a irp o rt several hours before M a ry k n o ll sisters Ford and Clarke are known to have arrived on a flig h t from Managua, Nicaragua. It contained the sentence, “ No, she d id n ’ t a rriv e on th a t flig h t; w e 'll have to wait for the next.” closely and instructed the stewardess to question her twice about where she was going. Ford and C larke had meanwhile taken a later High* and arrived in El Salvador about 7 PM , according to a irp o rt w o rke rs w ho rem em ber seeing them get into the Toyota bus with the two other women. Accord ing to form er Am bassador W hite, the intercepted radio transm ission to o k place in the in te rva l between the a rriva l o f the tw o flig h ts from Managua. Travelers from the airport to San Salvador that evening reported their cars were stopped by a m ilita ry roadblock and searched. A t about 10:30 PM , peasants near the village o f Santiago Nonualco, about a half- hour's drive from the airport in the o pp o site d ire c tio n fro m San Salvador, saw a w hite T oyota bus pass their houses on the rough road, They then heard a sh ort b urst o f m achine gun fir e , fo llo w e d by three or four single shots. They saw the van drive back the way it came Ford, Clarke, Donovan and Ka/ I were not missed until the next after noon when they failed to appear for appointments in San Salvador. M eanw hile, other related events were occuring the day o f the m u r ders three hours to the n o rth in C halatenango. M a ry k n o lle rs Ford and C la rk e had lived there in a parish house th a t d o u b le d as a warehouse fo r the food and medical supplies they distrubted to refugees. Father E fra in l opez, the parish priest w ith w hom the tw o nuns w o rke d , had g ro w n up in C halatenango province and begun o rg a n iz in g peasant co op erative s there in 1964. "T h e government and the lan do w ne rs called us c o m munists because we made the people aware o f th e ir rig h ts so they co uldn 't be so easily m anipulated,” Lopez to ld th is re p o rte r. He w it nessed the process by w hich peasants organized into popular o r g a n iz a tio n w hich e v e n tu a lly merged into the guerrilla movement. W hen Ita l o r d a rriv e d in C halatenango in A p r il, 1980, and M au ra C la rk e liv e m onths la te r, many o f the villages had been strip ped o f young people, Father Lopez said. I hey had e ith e r jo in e d the guerrillas, become refugees in order lo stay neutral, or been killed by the g o v e rn m e n t-lin k e d death squads seeking potential guerrillas. “ O u r g u id e lin e was to help whoever was in need, w ith o u t con sidering w hether they were o f the rig h t or the l e f t , " said la th e r I opez, now in exile in the U.S. But there had been threats. On Novem ber 3, a sign appeared on the parish d oo r p ro c la im in g , “ A n yo n e w ho enters this house w ill die. We know they are a ll c o m m u n is ts ." The message was signed by the M auricio B o rg a n o v o A n t i - C o m in u n i s t B rigade, named a fte r the S alvadoran lo re g in m in is te r assissinated by leftists in 1977. Several weeks la te r, a n o th e r strong in d ic a tio n o f m ilita ry and para-m ilitary interest in the religious workers al Chalatenango occured at the p re s id e n tia l palace in San Salvador. Carlos Paredes, then the deputy minister o f planning (now in exile), recalled in a recent interview that d u rin g a m eeting in the Blue Room at the palace he listened lo a h a lf-h o u r p re se n ta tio n by S alvadoran Defense M in is te r G u ille rm o G arcia. I he ta lk , which included the testimony o f a weeping 10 ye ar-o ld b oy, was inten de d to prove that the nuns and priests in C halatenango were c o lla b o ra tin g w ith the le ftis t g u e rrilla s and en couraging people to join them. N o evidence has ever been produced that w o u ld tend to c o rro b o ra te these d e n u n ic a tio n s against the nuns. In fo rm e d Salvadoran and U.S. o fficials inter viewed for this report, including the Slate D epartm ent's James Cheek, w ho handles the case fro m W a s h in g to n , and B ishop A r tu ro R ivera V D am as, under whose auspices the C halatgenango food d is trib u tio n and refugee w ork was o rg a n ize d , said they are sa tisfied that the murdered women were not political activists. B u t, said C heek, “ W hat we would consider to be legitim ate ac tiv ity , in FI Salvador would be per ceived as helping the enemy.” W ar on c h u rc h It was only about two weeks after Defense M in is te r G a rc ia ’ s denun ciation o f the nuns at the presiden tial palace, on the day o f the m ur ders, that F ather Lopez, the C halatenango p rie s t, received a th re a te n in g le tte r in the m a il. He said the le tte r made him decide that he and the nuns were in too much danger - ten priests and the S alvadoran p rim a te . A rc h b is h o p R om ero, had already been m u r dered in the m o u n tin g rig h tis t h o s tility against re fo rm -m in d e d clergymen. Late in the day he drove to San S a lvad or and asked to be relieved o f the post and close the refugee center. T hat n ig h t. F ather Lopez said Ricardo (a pseudonym), a member o f his parish sta ff, was approached at a movie house in Chalatenango by an unkn ow n man who showed him a piece o f paper and said, “ Here is a list o f the people we are going to k ill -- and today, this very night, we w ill begin.” On the lis t, F ather Lopez said, were the names o f Ita F ord and Maura Clarke, his own name, that o f a priest w ho w orked w ith him and other parish workers. That same n ig h t, F o rd , C la rk e , Kazel and Donovan were murdered. The next day, December 3rd, still unaware that Ford and C larke had indeed been m u rde re d , la th e r Lopez went to ta lk to the Chalatenango garrison commander. C olo ne l R icardo A rb a iz a . “ He harangued me fo r an hour, accusing me...and the nuns. He said we were in c itin g the p op ular m ovement in places like l os Ranchos (one o f the villages where the nuns delivered food), that we had attacked the ar my (w ith p ro p a g a n d a ).. that they had captured Czech grenades in a raid in the Los Ranchos convent. “ I was very nervous. I thought they could kill me at any m om ent...I th o u g h t i f they believed a ll those things about us, even i f they d on ’ t act them selves, it was m ore than s u ffic ie n t to cause the degenerates they work with to k ill us.” That evening, the w h ite T oyo ta mini bus was found burned with the license plates rem oved along the a irp o rt road. The next m ornin g a C atholic priest fro m near Santiago Nonualco called church authorities to re p o rt that villa g e rs had seen soldiers b u ryin g fo u r women who looked like foreigners. A group o f church w orkers and U.S. embassy personnel, including Ambassador W hite, soon arrived al the burial site to exhume the bodies, a ll o f w hich showed signs o f execution-style shootings, and two o f which showed evidence o f sexual attack W hite learned that a passing m ilkm an had discovered the bodies the p revious m o rn in g , and that a g ro up o f N a tio n a l G uard soldiers and civilians had arrived soon after to dig a trench in w hich to b ury them. W hite reported the names ol the fiv e soldiers and three o f the civilians to Washington. Evidence withheld I he A p r il arrests o f the Six S alvadoran se curity fo rce men is s till somewhat o f a m ystery, ac cording to the I BI. I he I BI agents, who had been brought in to the in vestigation al W ashington's urging, said their work was rapidly circuit! — The Granma New evidence on missionary deaths suggests official plot scribed in El S alvador to purely te chn ical analysis o f fin g e rp rin ts and ballistics tests. “ There is no way we can say this was a good or bad inve stiga tion ,” said an FBI source assigned to the case. I wo FBI o ffic ia ls said they did not know that evidence led to the arrest o f the six men. In fa c t, the suspects’ fingerprints and ballistics in fo rm a tio n fro m the m en’ s rifles were not subm itted to iiie FBI for co m p a riso n tests u n til at least a week after public disclosure o f the arrests. O n ly then was it established that one o f the m en’ s fin g e rp rin ts matched prints found on the burnt Toyota bus and that another m an’ s rifle produced ballistics data match ing cartridges found near the burial site. I he men are in inform al barracks arrest, according to news accounts from I I Salvador, and a Salvadoran judge is examing the evidence to see if t hey can be changed. Former Ambassador W hite con tends that Salvadoran a u th o ritie s knew fro m a few days a fte r the murders who was m anning the a ir p o rt ro a d b lo c k and c o u ld have arrested the men im m ediately. He (old this reporter he does not doubt that some o f the men in custody m ig ht have been in vo lve d in the m urders, but he is convinced that the soldiers w ill not be punished for tear they w ill reveal who else was in volved. “ I seriously doubt that there are o n ly six guardsm en in v o lv e d . I f there were, there w o u ld n ’ t have been enough incentive for the cover up to have taken place. An arrest o f six enlisted men to a lla y p u b lic opinion is a very simple thing to ac com plish... It has to be follow ed up by tr ia l and exposure o f those in vo lv e d , e ithe r befo re or a fte r the fact, either in the act or in the mis prision.” copyright Pacific News Service 1981 Reagan budget dooms progress Ry Cleo Franklin On F rid a y , June 16, 1981, the Democratic controlled House voted 217 to 211 to cut as m uch as $145 b illio n th ro u g h fiscal 1984. These cuts w ill trim scheduled spending in the next fisca l year a bo ut $39.4 b illio n and w ill allow the President to reduce or k ill m ore than 200 dom estic program s ra n g in g fro m fo o d stam ps to e d u ca tio n and h ea lth . To assure N o rth e a ste rn Republican votes, the W hite House promised more money fo r conrail, student loans, m edicaid and mass transit operating subsidies. To win support o f Southern Democrats, the W hite House apparently promised it w o u ld n ’ t oppose new sugar-price supports. The W hite House had to give away as much as $9 b illio n to gain about $20 b illio n in cuts over three years. In a meeting o f the House Budget Com m ittee after the Reagan budget was a pp ro ve d , C h a irm a n James Jones (D -O kla.) protested: “ We are here to complete a shameful charade o f p o litic a l process gone m a d .” R e fe rrin g to the Reagan budget package, Congressman Jones said, “ No one person here knows what is in the massive d ocum ent befo re us.” The 1 '/i-inch thick Republican bill was fu ll o f penciled-in additions and crossed-out deletions, and even in c lu d e d the name and o ffic e telephone n um ber o f a w om an staffer at the Congressional budget office. JOBS Both the House and Senate bills wipe out the $3.8 b illio n public ser vice jo b s p ro g ra m , w h ile c u ttin g back s u rv iv in g parts o f the C o m prehensive E m p lo y m e n t and T ra in in g A c t (C E T A ). It is estim ated th a t 300,000 em ployes n atio nw ide are facing te rm in a tio n under C E T A . U rb a n M a yo rs and other defenders say C ETA has built a bridg e fo r the unem ployed between chronic welfare dependen cy and the w o rld w ork But c ritic s note that not a ll C E T A jo b s have gone to the p o o r. M rs. John E h rlic h m a n , the w ife o f R icha rd N ixo n ’ s Domestic A ffa irs Advisor, was awarded a $10,000 a year C E T A jo b w ith the Seattle S ym p h o n y . In the 1960s Black u nem ploym ent fe ll fro m 10.7 percent to 6.4 percent. In the 1970s it increased fro m 6.4 percent to 11.3 percent. W hat is more relative to the w hite unem ploym ent rate, Black unem ployment fell more in the 1960s but rose m ore in the 1970s. The d e c lin in g econom y has cut Black fa m ily incom e. N a tio n w id e , fo r exam ple, 43 percent o f Black families in 1979 had money incomes under $10,000. In a speech to the N A A C P N a tio n a l C o n v e n tio n President Reagan projected that nearly three m illio n add itio na l new jobs w ill be created by 1986. I o n ly have one question; the same question asked by B e n ja m in H oo ks (E xe cu tive D irector o f the N A A C P ): What do Black people do u ntil 1986? A F L -C IO President Lane K irk la n d to ld the C om m unications W orkers C o n v e n tio n in B oston th a t “ W o rk in g people s h o u ld n 't be fooled by the fancy mirages projec ted by right-wing economic fakers.” He went on to say that Reagan’ s econom ic p ro g ra m raises “ social d is a s te r" and budget cutbacks are being made by “ deeply antiw orker” officials. H0U8ING During fiscal year 1982, there w ill be 162,000 subsidized housing units. And program spending projected to be $500 m illio n d u rin g fisca l year 1982. HEALTH The House and Senate disagreed on how to reduce m edicaid costs. The Senate version w o u ld a llo w future payments to rise 9 percent in fisca l year 1982 over 1981. The House b ill rejects a ceiling and re com m ends te m p o ra ry cuts on M e d ic a id e xp e n titu re s. One recom endation is that more states should consider effective hospital cost c o n tro l program s. B oth b ills tighten up medicare regulations and also w ill trim paym ents to in dividuals and hospitals. NUTRITION Food stamp spending w ill be cut $1.4 b illio n or 11 percent less than the levels set by the C a rte r A d m in istratio n. The 11 percent cut is proposed in the House B ill. The Senate bill w ill cut $1.9 billion. It is estimated that one m illion o f the 23 m illio n recipients w ould lose their food stamps. Both the House and Senate b ill w ill cut a bo ut $1.5 b illio n , or 35 percent fro m school lunch and other n u tritio n programs in fiscal year 1982. PENSION ANO WELFARE The m in im u m Social S e curity benefit o f $122 a month is deleted in both the House and Senate measure. The change w ill a ffe c t ap proxim ately 1.8 m illio n people who paid Social Security taxes for only a few years. Benefits fo r students age 18 to 21 w ho are dependents o f Social S e cu rity recipients w ill be phased out. A bout $1 b illio n w ill be cut from a m a jo r w e lfa re p ro g ra m , and to fa m ilies w ith dependent c h ild re n . E lig ib ility requirem ents and ac c o u n tin g procedures w o u ld be tightened and more recipients would be required to offset at least some o f their benefits through public service jobs.
