situation in Central America - and the solidarity movement
Sergio Rodriquez, a leader of the
Partido Revolucionario de los Trabajamoralization among sections of the popu-
A.
The rightist parties are linked lation in the face of the violence of the to terrorist gangs. dores (PRT-Revolutionary Workers Party, Mexican section of the Fourth International), gave the following interview to Gerry Foley in Paris in mid-May. text has been translated and edited by
Question. In Mexico, what is your estimate of the situation in El Salvador following the March 7 elections?
The situation facing the Salvadoran people and the other peoples in the region is in many ways more dangerous after the election. do not think that direct U.S. intervention is as immediate a threat as it was before. The elections and developments following them have shown that the U.S. still has cards in the zone that it can play.
A direct intervention is its last card, and it would be an extremely costly one to play, not only because of the impact in
America but in the U.S. itself. The vote in the elections was higher than expected, in particular in the regions along the border with Honduras.
conflict.
Of course, there was a high level of intimidation. In the cities, for example, workers had to show proof that they had voted or lose their jobs.
At the same time, the elections showed both a disillusion with the government among sectors that still do not support the revolutionists and a sharper
The Christian Democrats were in fact defeated, and this meant the failure of the whole project to restabilize bourgeois rule in El Salvador by means of re-
The rightist parties linked to the traditional oligarchy now have a majority in the national assembly, and the reversal of the Christian Democrats' reforms, especially the Agrarian Reform-which did the interests of the oligarchy to some extent-is now posed.
We now have an undisguised civil What sort of base does the regime have for stepping up the counter-
These formations are now more tightly intertwined with the government. For example, many of the military officers who were sent to Miami for training are known to be linked to Orden or to ARENA. That is, they are not simply military men but rightist ac-
So, the regime has a base, although still a small one for confrontation with
How has the turn to a more violent civil war been shown since the elec-
There has been a very brutal of against precisely areas where the revolutionists are strongest, such as Morazon and San Vin-
The new government needs quick successes; it needs to crush some revolutionary centers. This is an all-out offensive, which means decisive battles in the coming months in El Salvador.
The first groups of rightists that were sent to the U.S. for military training have just returned. The government is pinning its hopes to a large extent on
In the offensive against Morazan such elite troops carried out large-scale atrocities and massacres. The expansion of the rightist elite units massive outrages. What about the situation in Starting before the elections, started to make a correction with respect to work in the urban areas. They decided to relaunch the mass revolutionary fronts, to reestablish their links with the unions, to try to regain the influence that they had lost over sectors of the masses.
But the turn toward more repressive government is a blow to this pro-
Almost the same day Mejia was put into the presidency, it was decided to extend the process of the militarization to the unions, and they jailed a number of the trade unionists, including leaders of a union as important as the electricians.
There will be much more repression. The government is one of the rightist murder gangs. That is what the "counterinsurgency" policy of the U.S. has led
The Christian Democrats are only a cover that the imperialists use for inter-
The World Forum of Solidarity with El Salvador was held in Mexico City about the same time as the Salva-
What has happened to the solidarity movement since?
Immediately after the forum, was begun building The World Solidarity Front and setting up the publication of the front, which will appear in at least three languages-English, French, and Spanish. The idea is to prepare worldwide days of action against U.S. imperialism. A first demonstration was held in Mexico City in April outside the U.S.
The main problem at the moment is the lack of active trade-union ment. We had hoped for a big representation from the trade-union movement at the forum. But the front is laying the bases for extensive solidarity work in a whole series of countries.
The solidarity with El Salvador in Mexico is very broad, so much so that it has a qualitatively than solidarity with previous Latin Amercan revolutions. In the case of the Cuban and Nicaraguan revolutions, support in Mexico came from the left parties, the students, and the teachers. In the case of El Salvador, it comes mainly from the unions. Even sections of the union bureaucracy linked to PRI, the official government party, have been forced to declare their solidarity with the struggle in El Salvador. But this has not yet involved the main body of the unions.
Without exaggerating, we can see the beginnings of radicalization in layers of the Mexican working class and peasantry, and the Central American revolutions play a very important role in their consciousness.
8
What impact has the Malvinas In the beginning, there was a very sharp discussion over this. reaction of the Salvadoran FMLN was to take its distance both from British imperialism and the Argentine dictatorship, without making any distinction between them. However, it later shifted to a position of clear opposition to Britain.
The conflict had some important One is that the Argentine junta took its military advisors out of Salvador.
to discredit the InterAmerican Reciprocal Aid Treaty. This is the mechanism that makes possible a U.S. intervention in any country in Latin America.
So, the British intervention has led indirectly to the majority of the Latin American States denouncing the InterAmerican Reciprocal Aid Treaty, which is a very positive development.
However, for the moment, the Malvinas has, to some extent, diverted attention from the question of building solidarity with El Salvador.
There is another problem that is much bigger and more fundamental. We are afraid that the Malvinas case has helped the U.S. government gain more support among the American people for the idea of intervention. This is because it is hard to get people to understand why they should defend Argentina when it has the kind of government it does.
That is why a discussion is necessary on the Malvinas. It is important to clarify people's minds about imperialism, about the meaning of national liberation struggles, resistance to imperialism.
It is not a matter of democracy verWe have explained in our solidarity work that the democracy that exists in the imperialist countries is largely based on the leeway that the capitalists in those countries get because of profits of colonial domination. What impact has the coup in Guatemala had on the revolutionary process there and solidarity with the Central American revolution?
A. The coup took the Guatemalan revolutionists by surprise. In fact, it was the logical outcome of the divisions in the oligarchy shown by the elections. While the revolutionists were advancing in unity, the ruling classes were fighting among themselves. The army did not want to take any chances.
So, the coup was preventative in character. It was designed to forestall a greater crisis in the bourgeois ranks.
The revolutionists are still discussing what attitude to take to this government. It has launched a hard repression. But at the same time, it has been making offers-offers of a partial nesty, of discussions with some sectors of the revolutionists.
Immediately, Communist Party came out in support of the solution offered by the military. And this party has an important weight in the trade unions in Guatemala City.
This creates certain problems for the solidarity movement in Mexico because there is unclarity about the government and there was no mass response to such a violent coup.
Moreover, this has a broader impact on the region. For example, at the time of the Salvador elections, 2,000 Guatemalan troops were stationed on that country's border.
The military coup revives the possibility of a regionwide counterrevolutionary project based on the Guatemalan army, which is a force not just for internal repression but for intervention in the
Q. How did the Mexican government respond to the coup?
It brought out the contradictions in political maneuvers of our ruling
Right after the coup, Mexican President Lopez Portillo condemned it as disrupting a process of developing democ-
Then, Mexican generals issued a statement supporting the putschists, saying that the coup was the last resort because communism was on the advance and that Mexico should be happy about it because it kept Communism from our
It is rare for the government and the army in Mexico to differ publicly. It looks like the beginning of a polemic between the bourgeois politicians and the military, because the military are not in favor of the sort of positions the government has taken toward Nicaragua and El
The Mexican army has also staged joint maneuvers with the Guatemalan army on the border, supposedly practicing how to deal with an external intervention.
Q. What role is the Central American revolution playing in the PRT's campaign for the Mexican elections?
We talk a lot about Central America in our campaign. film about the Salvadoran revolution at our rallies, and organize round table discussions afterward to discuss the lessons of the Central American revolution, the relationship between mass organization and armed action, the question of the mass revolutionary fronts.
Our campaign helps give a political sharpness to the sympathy that exists in vanguard layers of the masses with El Salvador, as I said. concrete example of a mass movement
An example that is easy for Mexicans to identify with because there is mass organization and a certain de-
Yes, in Mexico that is very important.