Baptism of Fire

The guerrillas return in force

When a reported 70% of Salvadoran voters defied death threats from guerrilla forces to participate in national elections last March, the U.S. and the leaders of El Salvador's major parties interpreted the turnout as a stinging repudiation of the left-wing insurgency. While the rebels fell back to ponder the fate of their crusade, the Salvadoran high command exhorted them to lay down their arms and "join the fight the people want, the struggle for peace." But the unspoken truce did not last long. After a two-month lull in the fighting, the guerrillas launched an offensive in northern Morazan department, claiming to have killed 200 soldiers in five days, and seized two towns before retreating under intense bombing raids by the government's new A-37B Dragonfly jets. "The guerrillas' latest offensive has not been a sterling success," said a top U.S. official last week, "but it has certainly been a big nuisance."

It has been at least that. The rebels captured the biggest prize of their arduous struggle when they shot down a helicopter near the Honduran border carrying Deputy Defense Minister Colonel Francisco Adolfo Castillo, 45, and the military commander of Morazan department, Colonel Salvador Beltran Luna, 45. The two officers were flying over rebel-held territory on a reconnaissance mission when their craft was struck by automatic-weapons fire. Beltran Luna was killed in the crash, but Castillo survived and was taken prisoner by the guerrillas. Several days later, Castillo was interviewed during a broadcast on the rebels' clandestine radio station, Radio Venceremos. He assured his family that he had recovered from injuries incurred in the crash and was being treated well. But Castillo frustrated the propaganda ploys of the guerrillas by brusquely insisting that the army still controlled the country.

The resurgence in fighting suggests that the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN), the umbrella organization that links El Salvador's five different guerrilla groups, has replenished its arms supplies and has returned to the battlefront more organized and determined than ever. The front has apparently patched over the internal quarrels that prevented it from seriously disrupting the March elections. Moreover, the guerrillas have been able to neutralize the Salvadoran army's best combat units through more sophisticated assault strategies. "Before, only one faction of the left could attack at once," said a U.S. official. "Now there is more planning and attack by several units."

Also disconcerting to the U.S. was the weak performance of Salvadoran infantrymen who had just returned from 14 weeks of training by U.S. 82nd Airborne Division instructors at Fort Bragg, N.C. Many of those troops were pinned down by the rebels in Morazan until the Dragonfly jets forced the guerrillas to abandon their positions. U.S. military advisers in El Salvador have been trying to persuade army troops to move in five-man patrols as they comb the countryside. Instead, the Salvadorans travel in vulnerable column formations along main roads. Says a frustrated U.S. aide in San Salvador: "The key to counterinsurgency is employing the same tactics that the guerrillas use: night fighting, small patrols, avoidance of roads and open spaces. But it is just not sinking in." Guerrilla Leader Eduardo Solorsa, 32, who fought the U.S.-trained troops, last week scoffed at them as "young people from the cities who do not know the territory. Their efficiency will be limited."

The Americans are also distressed by the strategic planning in the Salvadoran high command. U.S. advisers stress that army troops should concentrate on making secure such vital zones as the cotton farms and cattle ranches of Usulutan, the western pasture lands and the capital itself. The Americans also insist that the army should make every effort to consolidate control of the nation's highways, where guerrillas have robbed motorists and burned some 80 vehicles in the past two weeks. Instead, the Defense Minister, General Jose Guillermo Garcia, decided to commit crack regiments to chase after guerrillas in Morazan. "It was a stupid, macho decision," said a Western ambassador in San Salvador. "They have to clean out the vital areas of the country before going up into that wasteland."

The guerrilla assault in Morazan led the Salvadoran army to escalate the civil war through blanket bombing by Dragonfly jets and closer coordination with Honduran military forces. A military officer in El Salvador confirmed that the two armies were seeking to trap fleeing guerrillas along the border. Solorsa claimed that Honduran forces had actually crossed the border and fought the guerrillas.

As the fighting continues, Defense Minister Garcia and Constituent Assembly President Roberto d'Aubuisson, the winner of the March elections, remain at odds over the country's course. In defiance of U.S. wishes, D'Aubuisson has tried to obstruct El Salvador's two-year-old land-reform program. Garcia has argued that the U.S. Congress may reduce much needed military and economic aid to El Salvador if the land-reform program is not maintained. But Congress has grown increasingly skeptical about the right-wing government's desire to transfer land titles to peasants. The next test of the congressional mood will come at the end of this month, when the Reagan Administration must submit a report certifying that El Salvador is making progress in improving respect for human rights and in extending economic benefits to the country's poor. sb

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