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.