Relationship between ti The other interesting thing was that the fighting tended to be done by people who were local to that area — they hadn't been imported. Some of th commanders tended to be middle class and imported from urban areas. camps in ehe heartland fill went to four Salvador and the people there were from the local areas you any evidence of US involvement in the struggle?
No direct evidence of US being deployed the ground. Advisors doubtedly travel the country, and move Iroml army base, but whether they're denloved in the front line open to doubt.
On the other hand while I was there there were planeloads of hardware coming in daily, which I saw landing at-the local military airfield Salvador.
The US aid is in the form of infantry cullicul equipment, helicopters and intensive training - and training. outside the countrv too at the School of the Americas.
school Panama I found cadets under: heavv trainme in what is described y Matthews
Quite
direct "decently' But Run- bat. think critical, obviously.
guerillas San no longer you think of this? artillery areas of the country in which there militan as "human which there were around have previously cleared sive' have rights' methods of operation.
what inis means is obscure, but apparently it's lecluring on now to laid a village and respect the individuals that you find there.
don't think Americans are involved in comthe US involvement's in tactical advice weaponry and training. But it's One of the propaganda lines of the Duarte regime is that during its last offensive the suffered solutely crushing defeat and very remote areas. What do There's no question that the guerillas do control substantial some of them quite near San Salvador.
We visited a stronghold sixty mues.Irom san dalvador Il were four major .... total of in 1000 guerillas, in an area which the army claimed to The guerillas' 'final offentalking to guerillas themselves, seems to been sort temperature-testing operation. It could have succeeded, the guerillas were themselves adequately trained organised.
The guerillas don't seem to me to be well enough equipped to defeat the army because of the weight of equipment coming in on the other side. neither is it at all likely that they can themselves be defeated.
So it's struggle doing to be long own feeling is that if things stay as they are it's likely to be a very protracted struggle Duarte himself has very littl power whatever The junta of which he is president is basically a military machine and entirely dominated by the army and the Minister of Defence, General Garcia. On its fringes it is linked with the right wing death squads.
The junta is at war with the left, and to pretend, as does the US administration that the junta is in the 'middle' between left and right is absurd. Duarte is in a sense just a 'respectabilising' force used as a kind of front for It's still possible that there could be a right wing coup to get rid of Duarte. If that hap pent for neena might be port to the junta • might removed. But as things stand a the moment it's going to be a protracted struggle. NEARLY 1,400 supporters the Workers Party Mexican Fourth International, tended a rally in Mexico City on 5 April to demand that the jovernmen 'RT ballot rights for th July 1982 federal tions.
Among the crowd . were thẹ WULKCIS. peasants workers who • had throughout the night to attend COT the rally, shanty town dwellers fighting evictions, teachers and university workers, and dozens of activists from the Revolutionary Communist Youth members in 1980 founded In addition to leaders of the PRT, the rally was addressed by Rosario Ibarra de Piedra. leader of the National against Repression movemen. Ibarra de became active in the fight human rights in Mexico after the April 1975 police kidnapping and subsequent pearance of her Piedra Ibarra.
Bloc The PRT has announced that if it wins ballot status it will present Ibarra de Piedra as its candidate for president in 1982. The party has other parties and organisations on the left that they form an electoral bloc in support of her candidacy.
The central focus of such a campaign, the PRT says, would be the campaign to fight repres sion and rights in Mexico.
the PRT's legalisation and ballot rights was voiced miner David Workers Revolutionary Hugo Blanco, (PRT), section of the gress a atLopez Portillo continued grant the requirements elecenthusiastic striking car and farm travelled government-ordered • Party, and the well-known Peruvian revolutionar who was electer last year to the Peruvian Con the candidate of his party, also called the PRT It will be difficult for the Mexican governmich lo jusul.
denial of ballot rights to the PRT. The party has fulfilled the electoral laws submission 65,000 signatures, activity as a "political association? for well over a year, and representation of a distinct position in the country's political spectrum.
The PRT is preparing for