U.S. Military Assistance to El Salvador

Your editorial on El Salvador is correct in its focus on the abuse of military power. However, your own unquestioned assumption that the U.S. should “lay into” El Salvador, that our military advisers should even be trying to “professionalize” the Salvadoran armed forces, is the real root of the problem.

Why does the military still refuse to “answer to civilian authority?” Because 70% of all U.S. aid over the past 10 years has gone directly or indirectly to the armed forces on top of 40% of El Salvador’s own annual budget. After a decade of U.S. intervention in a country one-seventh the size of Illinois, the per capita income has declined 25%, only 20% of the employable population has permanent work, and the armed forces have quintupled in size.

For every single priest who has been murdered, thousands of workers and peasants have met the same fate. Torture, disappearance and assassination are commonly practiced by the army we support. Instead of laying into El Salvador, why not stop all military aid and channel humanitarian assistance through reliable international agencies? Conrad has it right. The cross of the Salvadoran people is made in the U.S.A.

JERRY A. IRISH

Claremont