The death of commandante Marcial
Jean-Pierre BEAUVAIS The tragic death of Salvador Cayetano
"commandante Marcial, a few days after that of his deputy, commandante Ana Maria, was in every respect a grave blow to the Salvadoran liberation forces. Marcial was not only the founder and leader of the Fuerzas Populares de Liberacion (FPL), the main component of the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN). He was the best known, and above all the most popular, of the Salvadoran revolutionaries.
"My school in combativity, the most elementary form
There were neither labour laws nor a labour code. Everything had to be got by our strength. wrest every law allowing the existence and activity of the trade-union movement from the bosses and the government by struggle, by the violence of the masses, by unity between all trades, he recently explained to the journalist Martha Harn-
Born just after World War I, Marcial was of a different generation from most of his comrades in arms. While still an adolescent he took part in the popular and peasant insurrection of 1932. The Salvadoran oligarchy, supported by the United States, crushed this at the cost of tens of thousands dead. A bakery worker, he founded the first union in his trade at the end of the 1930s. He became a central figure in the young workers movement of his country, and in 1947 joined the Salvadoran Communist Party (PCS). He finally became the general secretary of this party, without giving up his trade-union activity.
THE REVOLUTION WILL BE
SOCIALIST OR IT WILL NOT BE
A REVOLUTION
The victory of the Cuban revolution in 1959, and the successes of the fighters in Vietnam, then had a decisive influence on him. He became convinced that any strategy in which the action of the workers and people's organisations was dependent on an alliance with sections of the bourgeoisie, be they "liberal' or 'democratic, could only lead to defeat. "The Salvadoran revolution will be socialist, or it will not be a revolution,' he said, taking up the famous saying of Ernesto 'Che' Guevara on the nature of the Latin American revolution. Within this perspective, he was an advocate of the nec essity of armed struggle'.
Forced into a minority within the PCS by the sections most directly linked with the Soviet Union, and prevented from taking up a real debate, he broke with the PCS at the same time as an important nucleus of cadres, most of whom were
He founded FPL along with them in 1970. This inof trade-union fighters no small factor in the rapid growth of which defined itself as both a political and military formation — among the ex-
Salvador Cayetano Carpio is a shining example of a revolutionary. his inspiration from a half-century of the of the international workers movement, and indissolubly linked with the advances of the Salvadoran people in their long march towards national and social liberation.
He has disappeared at a time when, on the ground, the FMLN forces have continued to score points against the troops of the dictatorship, who are demoralised by the divisions among their chiefs. death also coincides with new efforts by the imperialists to build up means for increased intervention to contain progress of the revolutionaries.
With new and difficult political and death has created a considerable void within the leadership of the FPL and FMLN. But the circumstances, following the death of commandante Ana Maria, bring the risk of still more grave consePRESERVE AND REINFORCE UNITY
"The assassination of our commandante Ana Maria was planned and carried out by the one named Marcelo, who at the time was a member of the central command of the FPL. In doing this he lent himself to the manoeuvres of the CIA...In committing this act of high treason he sought to satisfy resentment and resolve political and ideological differences with comrade Ana Maria.'
The official statement of the FPL leadership in Salvador was explicit. The tragic end of Ana Maria, and thus that of Salvador Cayetano Carpio, was a result of internal matters within the FPL.
Beyond that, and in the absence of more precise information - in particular
Commandante Marcial (DR) on the character of the 'political and ideological difference' - it is, at this stage, useless to speculate. And it would be irresponsible to draw hasty conclusions from the outside. The task of clearing up what happened falls first to the cadres and the fighters of the FPL and FMLN. This is important for them themselves, for the Salvadoran people, and for all those who are mobilised and active in solidarity with them.
The essential political fact is undoubtedly that a major crisis has now opened the organisation which, until now, has been the principal component of the FMLN. The origins of this crisis probably do not date from only yesterday and its development will be particularly difficult to master, given the conditions in which it has come to the surface.
These conditions include a civil war, in which the scope and intensity of the confrontations, their considerable cost in human lives, have not, for two or three years, led to a decisive and lasting shift in the relationship of forces between the
The conditions are also those of lack of a tradition of democratic de. bate within the organisations. However, while immersed in the struggle, faced with the strategy of imperialism, they have to confront and resolve particularly difficult problems of tactics and orientation.
At the moment, the situation viously difficult. On the one hand, dif ferences exist between the components of the FMLN on how much emphasis to give to attempts to open a process of negotia-
At the same time, and most importantly, Reagan is preparing
It will be waged both milithrough a considerable increase in spending; and politically, through the holding of new elections. cumstances, the primary task for revolutionaries in Central America is obviously to preserve and reinforce the unity within
The task of revolutionaries in other areas of the world remains more than ever to help strengthen and extend the solidar(Rouge No 1061, April 29-May 5, 1983)
H.
The Central Command will con-
It also appeals tinue these investigations.
to all the militants at the base of the organisation, to all the leaderhip bodies, to the Revolutionary Council, to the Cen-