In El Salvador’s civil war there were 75,000 dead (90 percent caused by the armed forces and right wing death squads) and almost a million in exile, if you apply the numbers to a ratio of the population of Iraq you will see why I do think the numbers of death in Iraq have been criminally minimized by the previous US administration. But I digress…
That jab to the former administration was taking into consideration that it was an “El Salvador option” what the Bush administration used in Iraq to pacify/control the nation. It does not make me feel so confident on the future of Iraq when I see the rampant violence and economic decay in El Salvador after so many years of right wing rulers that came out as the virtual winners of the civil war and were also the enablers of the “El Salvador option”. Now the former guerrillas of the FMLN party are in place to win in El Salvador in the next presidential elections on March 15.
However, very likely, the enablers of the “option” are still at it:
http://www.diariocolatino.com/es/20090129/nacionales/63234/
Translated:
“Colonel Edgar Tobar, Friendly member of the “Movement of friends of Mauricio”, was assassinated in the neighborhoods of his residence located in Lourdes, municipality of Colon, department of La Libertad. The incident happened at night at seven, yesterday near the Palo Alto Residential area. According to the first investigations this was an assault. The body of Tobar presented/displayed fifteen bullet impacts, half of these were directed to the head. According to a source near the “Movement of Friends” the crime was vicious and possibly the perpetrators are the members of gang.”
The buzz in Salvadorian forums is that the death squads are still there in the background and are very likely responsible for this and other killings of FMLN election volunteers, it is very rare to find military men in favor of the leftist party and supporters like that are risking their lives. Even so, according to many recent polls Mauricio Funes, the candidate of the FMLN, is headed to victory. It is very likely that the right wing will not take this lying down and the specter of election fraud or a coup d’état is still there.
I do hope that the Obama administration will come down hard against any coup plotters or against an election fraud, just like the Clinton administration did when they pressured the Bolivian army to back down after the coup there in the 90’s.
So, do you think all wanna be military gorillas (the name military rulers got when obtaining power with a coup or fraud) in Latin America are out of luck if they attempt to get support from the USA now, or could any right wing groups here still manage to give enough support to them to succeed?