Page 23 - Marlie Burton Roche : Landscape and Bread
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In 1984 the democratic- In the meantime, the FMLN was forming its forces into
revolutionary forces began small-scale mobile units and dispersing them to all parts of the
to receive some international country. Guerrilla bases where established in twelve of the
recognition as they secured fourteen provinces of El Salvador. The insurgency forced wealthy
more and more control in the landowners to pay higher wages to farmhands and a war tax to
countryside and, even though the revolutionary army. By 1987, nationwide traffic stoppages,
they were still not an effective sabotage campaigns against the economy, and thousands of small
political presence in the cities, lightning ambushes on government forces, became the order of
the governments of Mexico and the day, creating chaos for the military and for the government.
France officially recognized
the FDR-FMLN alliance as a With 65% of eligible voters refusing to vote, to a large extent
politically representative body. because the FMLN called for a boycott of the fraudulent election,
At the same time, the United Christiani, of the ARENA party, gained the presidency in 1989.
Nations and the Movement He immediately negated the limited reforms of the previous
of Non-Aligned Countries government. Banks were privatized. Austerity measures, blatantly
denounced the gross violations advantageous to the wealthy 2% of the population, were made law
of human rights being and the Supreme Court ruled that lands previously annexed as part
perpetrated by the government of agrarian reform were to be returned to the wealthy landowners,
forces and urged both the FDR- a law that devastated the lives of thousands of peasant families.
FMLN and the government As well, ‘antiterrorist’ legislation was passed which effectively
of El Salvador to consider a decreed El Salvador a police state. But ARENA’s actions and
negotiated political solution for intransigence towards any proposals for a political settlement of
the conflict. the war became the impetuous for the inception of the Permanent
Committee for the National Debate, a massive organization
1984 was also the year that comprised of seventy-four organizations, including Churches,
the United States government small businesses, and trade unions. The organization represented
massively backed Duarte’s well over a million people. The Permanent Committee for the
presidential electoral victory National Debate, as well as local, regional, and international
and even though the election pressure, forced the Christiani government to consider a policy of
was replete with fraud, it was peace, and United Nations-sponsored meetings between the rebels
presented by the United States and the ARENA government of El Salvador took place in Mexico
as a crowning success of U.S. City and San José, Costa Rica.
policy. In actual fact, Duarte’s
inadequate reforms and the war The rebels came to these meetings with explicit proposals for the
component of U.S. policy ended democratization of Salvadoran society and complete observance
up deepening the systemic of human rights as precursors to FMLN demobilization. ARENA
polarity in Salvadoran society. was demanding rebel disarmament prior to talks. The result was
LANDSCAPE & BREAD MARLIE BURTON-ROCHE 19
