No Sanctuary

From El Salvador, whose Theosophist-Dictator Maximiliano Hernandez Martinez suppressed a bloody revolt a few weeks ago (TIME, April 17), came the first news of the aftermath, and of new trouble for the Dictator.

The Graveyard. One casualty of the revolt was U.S. popularity. While the fighting was still going on, Colonel Tito Calvo, a rebel leader, drove up to the U.S. Embassy in a tank. He asked for Ambassador Walter Thurston, pleaded the ancient right of asylum. Thurston correctly told him that the U.S. recognized no such right. After the Colonel was seized and shot, Salvadorians blamed the U.S. for his death.

Thurston saw Martinez the day after the revolt, told him that the United Nations would judge him by his moderation. The dreaded Dictator did not reply. A few days later, the mother and sister of an arrested rebel begged the Ambassador to save his life. Thurston refused (with perfect correctness), adding that Martinez had assured him that there would be no executions. Screamed the sister: "Right now in the graveyard, men are being shot!"

She was right. That day eleven were shot. One, a civilian named Victor Marin, had been tortured all night to make him tell the names of his associates. He did not break down. When taken out for execution, both arms were broken, one eye gouged out, one shoulder dislocated, one knee smashed, his hand a bloody pulp. Asked a priest: "Victor, are you afraid of death?" "No, Father," he replied, "it is my body which trembles, not my spirit."

Ambassador Thurston seemed to have tried, so far as correctness allowed, to soften the Dictator's vengeance. But during the days of terror which followed the revolt, all El Salvador was sheltering fugitives. Priests lent their robes. Protestant ministers helped. The embassies of Costa Rica, Peru, Guatemala, Spain (and probably others) granted sanctuary. President Jorge Ubico of Guatemala, though a tyrant himself, allowed fugitives to cross his borders, gave them money to get to Mexico. But the U.S. Embassy closed its doors against them.

There were good diplomatic reasons. The U.S. had never signed the Montevideo Treaty of 1933 which recognized the right of asylum, long traditional in many Latin American countries, but now outmoded in most of the world. Salvadorians, chock-full of U.S. democratic propaganda, did not understand the refusal. They took it as one more example of U.S. support for dictators.

For the Dead. The revolt, largely military, failed because its officer leaders did not arm civilians. Now the civilians, aghast at the blood bath which followed, were taking .belated part. The country seethed with hatred for Martinez. Rich and poor all loathed and feared him. The people were on strike. They refused to buy Government lottery tickets, go to Government movie theaters. Druggists, doctors, lawyers, justices of the peace, hundreds of Government employes declined to work. Railroad workers struck. The schools, the National University were closed; both students and staff stayed away. Priests supported the movement. A mass for the souls of the executed drew huge crowds, was stopped by police.

The only newspapers appearing were those owned by the Dictator. No one bought them. But the country was flooded with typewritten sheets. When the April 17 issue of TIME arrived in El Salvador, the police expurgated it. At least one copy escaped. Its story of the revolt, translated, circulated underground among thousands who welcomed a true account of the bloodthirsty mystic in the Presidential Palace.

This week Maximiliano Hernandez Martinez conferred with his anxious cabinet. Twelve years, five months after he seized power, the Dictator agreed to "deposit the Presidency" in the hands of others.

Martinez pooh-poohed. Said he of the school strikes: "No children like going to school." But the military, impressed by the civilian stir, made as if to climb on the bandwagon. Martinez, impressed in turn, granted a partial amnesty. After 44 death sentences and many quiet executions, Salvadorians were not appeased.

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