The Orgy of Violence Goes On

Strikes, battles and executions in a week of bloodshed

One of the most densely populated countries in Central America, El Salvador has been caught up in a deadly spiral of violence that threatens to tear the country apart, much as it did neighboring Nicaragua. So far this year, at least 700 people have been killed--more than in all 1979. Last week was a particularly bloody one. It began with a call for a 24-hour general strike by leftists who hope to bring down the country's ruling junta. Troops and police battled guerrillas in a daylong orgy of violence in the capital, San Salvador, that left, by official count, 53 dead, with unofficial estimates running well over 100. The heaviest confrontation took place at the national university, where four leftist organizations have their headquarters. The soldiers did not invade the sprawling campus, which is off limits to government forces, but ultra-rightists did slip onto the campus at night to plant small bombs and rake buildings with machine-gun fire.

And that was only the beginning. A dozen guerrillas were reported killed after attacking an army patrol near the airport. Ten bodies of people who had been kidnaped and executed by right-wing death squads were found on the shores of Lake Ilopango. Twelve others, including five high school students, were gunned down by machine-gun fire from a passing car in random violence.

Ever since the overthrow of Military Dictator Carlos Humberto Romero by a group of junior army officers last October, the civilian-military junta has been powerless to halt the violence. In an attempt to prevent civil war, the present governing junta of two colonels and three civilians, including the respected longtime leader of the Christian Democratic Party, Jose Napoleon Duarte, ordered up a two-pronged plan of radical reform. To the shock and dismay of the country's small oligarchy, it called for a first-stage expropriation of 70% of the nation's most productive land from large estates, many held by absentee landowners; the confiscated properties would be turned into state-run rural cooperatives. At the same time, a series of decrees nationalized the banking system, giving the state 51% interest in each of the ten banks and laying down the guidelines for eventual employee ownership of minority shares.

The reforms have been staunchly backed by the Carter Administration, which two weeks ago acted to forestall a right-wing military coup against the junta. Part of a $50 million U.S. aid package has been earmarked to help get the program off the ground. Still, the reforms have been criticized both by the right, which called them "Communist-inspired," and by the left, which said they were merely "cosmetic." Archbishop Oscar Arnulfo Romero, an outspoken opponent of the regime, fears that the junta will use the reforms as an excuse to crack down even more ruthlessly on leftist sympathizers among the peasants. The junta, meanwhile, anticipating violence, announced a "state of siege," suspending constitutional rights, and deployed troops around banks and the largest farms scheduled for expropriation.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.