The MacNeil/Lehrer Report; 6186; El Salvador Film

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ROBERT MacNEIL [voice-over]: While Congress hears about President Reagan`s plan to send military aid to El Salvador, terrorist killing there continues to take a daily toll of lives. Tonight, a film report.

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MacNEIL: Good evening. The Reagan administration today won preliminary approval in the Senate for its plans to increase military aid to El Salvador. The Foreign Operations Subcommittee of the Senate Appropriations Committee approved a $5-million portion of the $25-million military aid package requested by the President to help the Salvadoran government fight leftist guerrillas. Fighting between the government and guerrillas was reported in several parts of the country. At the same time, eight more deaths were reported overnight in the capital, San Salvador.

Between 12,000 and 16,000 people are estimated to have been killed in the past 14 months. There`s continued debate over how many of the killings to attribute to the leftist guerrillas, and how many to the security forces. It`s widely claimed, among others, by the recently-fired U.S. Ambassador Robert White that the bulk of the killings are carried out by right-wing elements within the security forces. That`s also the conclusion of a documentary report made by a British television team which we show tonight. This report contains scenes of dead bodies which may be distressing to some of you. We show it because it graphically portrays one aspect of the current reality in El Salvador -- a reality undisputed by any political faction -- that there is a wanton cost in human life. The documentary was made two weeks ago by Thames Television. The reporter is Julian Manion.

REPORTER: El Salvador is now a textbook guerrilla war. a tunnel of violence with no apparent exit. The army moves cautiously through the streets. The left wing has failed to spark a mass uprising, but in their strongholds in the poorer districts of the capital the junta soldiers are hated and feared. Nights in San Salvador is when the terror really starts. There`s a curfew at 9 o`clock but that`s still two hours away when the ambulances were called to the first scenes of violence, (sirens) A bomb has gone off in a bank, and we arrived at the same time as the first army patrols. The explosion is probably the work of leftist guerrillas who are determined to keep up the pressure in the towns while their armed units fight it out in the countryside. This time there are no , casualties. At the city hospital, the first victims of the night -- three men who say they drove past an army roadblock without seeing it and were machine-gunned. One man has been shot through the right shoulder. His friend on the stretcher was hit in the head. The 9 o`clock curfew is still half an hour away, but the ambulances keep coming. The worst part of the night is still to come.

After 9 PM, San Salvador ceases to be a city of random violence and becomes a city of murder. Armando Paz is a man who takes a close interest in the night killings. He is the last human rights worker still active in the country. We filmed him secretly visiting the empty offices of the Human Rights Commission. The rest of the Commission fled the country in January after two of their members were murdered. Armando was the only one who stayed behind. Armando comes out with the documents and photographs he went to retrieve -- evidence of the thousands of brutal murders that have taken place since the civil unrest began. Much of the evidence was gathered by Armando himself since he joined the Human Rights Commission as their official photographer last year. Visiting the empty office is taking a risk. The security forces have declared the human rights movement to be a Marxist front and for weeks now, Armando has been on the run. He sleeps in a different house every night. The Armando Paz file accuses elements of the EI Salvador armed forces of a systematic policy of mass murder. It begins at a place called the Devil`s Gateway, a spectacular rock cliff just outside the capital. It`s here, according to Armando, that right-wing murder squads have dumped literally hundreds of bodies in the last two years, the corpses just tossed into the ravine below. Scattered in the area we found dozens of human bones. Above, the buzzards circled anxiously. It`s near this spot that Armando himself was nearly executed when an army patrol found him at work.

ARMANDO PAZ (through interpreter): The soldier told me that I was going to die, and told me to get down on my knees. As I didn`t move, the other soldier hit me making me fall on my knees. The officer in charge lifted his rifle and put the muzzle against my head, and stroked my forehead with it. I really felt I was going to die. And as he held the rifle against me, I closed my eyes. I heard a shot which only left me dazed, and I thought well, if I`ve died at least I haven`t put my family or other human rights workers in danger.

REPORTER: These days, Armando finds his evidence well inside the city limits. We followed him one morning, and almost at once found a group of four murder victims dumped quite openly on a piece of open ground. The bodies were crumpled like so much garbage. Left there in the early hours of the morning, rigor mortis was already setting in. A few passersby began the grizzly job of moving them. Others just looked on, few daring to speculate about the killings. But nearby, we found a leaflet identifying the victims as communists. According to Armando, this was a classic example of the right-wing death squads at work. On the road above the killing ground the cars gathered and with them, the funeral cars that have become a symbol of the civil war.

In El Salvador death is the only growth industry. The murder figures for January were bigger than December; the figures for last month bigger once again. The funeral vans compete for business. They wait for the victims to be identified, and then take them back to their families who will generally pay the firm to bury them. The van pulls away with one of the victims on board. The driver won`t deliver the body immediately; instead he`s off to scout the city for more corpses. Less than a mile away, the bodies of two more of the nights victims -- lying at a street corner. The two men had been killed by pistol bullets fired at point-blank range into the chest and the back of the head. Armando examined the victims hands and found what he said was evidence of what had happened before the execution. Wire had been used to tie the thumbs together. On the second victim, Armando found what he regarded as evidence that the killers had connections with some branch of the security services. Clearly standing out on the man`s arms were the deep imprints of metal handcuffs. The morning we filmed had been one of the worst of the week.

Once again, the driver of a funeral van told us of another group of victims and headed for it, lights flashing. With no emergency services willing to deal with the murder victims, the funeral vans have almost become a kind of public service. On yet another street corner, perhaps the most horrifying sight of the morning: a young woman, apparently pregnant, once again savagely murdered by close-range gunfire. Armando went through the crowd. At first there was speculation that the victims were informers killed by the left. Then it turned out that one of the women had left-wing connections. Once again, it seemed the killings were the work of right-wing death squads. Armando talked with some of the relatives of the dead women. He found the sister of one of the victims who told us what had happened.

VICTIM`S SISTER (through interpreter): A little girl said that there were three men who came to their door and shouted that they would kick in the door if she didn`t get up. They said they`d count to five, and if she didn`t get up, they`d shoot everyone in the house. When they counted to four she got up and opened the door. The three men asked her her name, and when she said who she was, they asked her to go away with them. And when she said she wouldn`t, she was just dragged away.

REPORTER: The identity of the nighttime killers is difficult to establish. What is not difficult to see are the many different groups of armed men who patrol the streets in the name of the security forces. It`s alleged by human rights organizations that many of these men owe their real allegiance to the far right both in and outside the government. The last U.S. Ambassador to El Salvador has testified that in his opinion, the extreme right wing are responsible for more than four-fifths of the murders, left- wing assassins killing the rest. The police and the other security forces say they are just trying to control the situation. But Armando Paz thinks otherwise.

Mr. PAZ (through interpreter): The greatest number of human rights violations occurred once the junta first took over power in this country and established itself as the government. The increase was enormous. Although even under the previous government -- that of President Romero -- when he was in power, human rights were trumpled underfoot. As soon as the present junta were in power, violations of human rights reached monumental proportions. I see this terror as being something thoroughly organized and planned quite deliberately to some purpose. For example, the security forces have a special telephone number which you can ring anonymously. Everybody knows this number as it`s constantly being given out on radio and television by the authorities. So, if someone wants to inform on another person, he simply picks up a telephone and calls the security forces without even having to give his name. It`s a very easy number to remember, and there`s a telephone number just like that in the three military districts of the country -- San Miguel, San Salvador, and Sant`Ana.

REPORTER: The death of Armando`s father has provided him with a very personal reason for hating the right-wing death squads, for his father was among the list of people executed in January. Armando has not been back to his father`s house since the killing. Today, he revisits it for the first time. It was from this place that Armando`s father was taken by men in air force uniforms to be executed half a mile away. The killers apparently claimed he had left-wing connections. Armando denies it. Like so many others, the body was dumped on a piece of waste ground. For Armando, these are the most terrible photographs from his file.

Mr. PAZ (through interpreter): When I first started working in connection with the human rights movement, my work mostly involved identifying the dead. What with seeing so many bodies and so much death in and around the city of San Salvador where I lived, it affected me psychologically, completely making me lose all my sensitivity. I just ended up with no feelings. So much so that when my father died, I felt almost nothing: no grief, no sadness.

REPORTER: Saturday morning in Soyopango. the suburb of San Salvador where the three women were murdered the day before. Today, the families are collecting flowers for the burials which will take place in the afternoon. The flowers and the cross will be the only simple memorials for the families of all the victims are poor. One of the dead was a 45-year-old maid called Maria who had six children. Stumbling among the crosses. Maria`s family and friends struggle to carry her to a fresh-dug grave. There is no priest attending the funeral but the mourners follow the Catholic ritual. Faith may not stop the murders, but perhaps it can give comfort. Comfort is badly needed for these people are now in the grip of a wave of terror that makes even Northern Ireland look tame by comparison. Almost everyone here now has to live with the knowledge that they, too. could be on the murder list. Most tragic of all is that there is literally no one to whom these people can turn for protection. The murder squads roam the city every night but the leaders of the junta say it`s a problem they can`t control.

Col. ABDUL GUTIERREZ, Armed Forces Chief (through interpreter): The difficult thing for us is to attempt to control the situation. And really, we`re not in as bad a position as we were some weeks ago. I mean, I don`t know if you`ve seen a lot of bodies around today; I`ve just no idea. Apart from the people who are, for example, being shot during the curfew, it`s very, very rare for there to be any bloodshed during the night.

REPORTER: In El Salvador tragedy comes with a touch of comic opera. The ruling junta still has a taste for Latin ceremonial, and so a new political landmark is celebrated with a unique blend of Mussolini and Gilbert and Sullivan. The pageantry is designed to highlight the country`s alleged progress towards democracy for the junta`s leaders have announced that a general election will be held next year. The country`s last elected government was overthrown by a military coup in 1979. and the present junta was set up including both military men and civilians. The current president is the moderate Jose Napoleon Duarte. At today`s ceremony. President Duarte is appointing a special commission to prepare the elections. Duarte himself was the first Salvadoran politician to win an election, and was later arrested and tortured by the army. His moderate credentials are strong but critics say that he`s now become a respectable figurehead for an ugly military machine. It`s this controversial junta that American officials are now seeking to portray as a progressive bastion against communism.

JAMES CHEEK, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs: Well obviously, no revolutionary situation is pleasant for anyone. It`s not easy for the United States, particularly a country with our own tradition, to go into a situation like this; in fact, that is what I was trying to bring out in earlier response, is one thing we have to establish is that we are relevant to these revolutionary situations; that we are not going to be frightened away from them, and as long as we have some hope and there exist some forces of moderation and decency willing to try democracy and the free enterprise system as well, the United States. I think, no matter how unpleasant the circumstances of the conflict, should be in there supporting those people. We`re supporting a national group, not injecting ourselves into El Salvador.

REPORTER: But behind the State Department`s bland exterior in Washington, an extraordinary controversy is brewing over the Reagan government`s program of military aid to El Salvador. It`s a controversy that`s being investigated by congressional committees on Capitol Hill, committees that star the last U.S. Ambassador to El Salvador, Robert White, openly attacking the Reagan policy.

ROBERT WHITE, former U.S. Ambassador to El Salvador: The security forces in El Salvador have been responsible for the deaths of thousands and thousands of young people. And they`ve executed them just on the mere suspicion that they are leftists or sympathize with leftists. Are we really going to send military advisors in there to be part of that type of machinery?

CONGRESSMAN: Well, isn`t this a -- well, just one more question, Mr. Chairman, and I`d be happy to yield. Isn`t this a fundamental reason why the government has been unable to secure popular support among the people of EI Salvador who have no political ax to grind one way or the other?

Amb. WHITE: Sure. The greatest disadvantage this government has weighing it down are the excesses of the security forces.

Sec. CHEEK: I don`t agree with that. In fact, the most disturbing aspect of the assassinations in El Salvador are those 10.000 who were essentially murdered last year mostly - -- most of them -- is that no one really knows exactly who did it. and everyone has their suspicion of, "Well, it was the left. The right. Oh no, it was the government." All we know is that first of all, our assistance -- military assistance -- goes to the army, and most observers, the ones you talked to as well, do not lay this assassination business at the doorstep of the army. These essentially are conscripts. They push it to the security forces -- police and national guard -- and the government admits that there are these renegade elements within these forces which they are determined to get under control. And we certainly hope they can. We are not working with those forces. We in fact -- our assistance is to strengthen the one military force in the country about which there is some reasonable assurance that they are not very involved -- if at all -- and are [not] likely to be.

REPORTER: American aid has undoubtedly bolstered the government forces in the field. But inevitably comparisons with Vietnam are being made, and sometimes seemingly confirmed, in the bush war outside the capital. Thirty miles north of San Salvador, the commander of a government armored unit calls in air strikes to dislodge a force of guerrillas. The air strikes miss the target by half a mile but the armored troops mount up and prepare to chase the guerrillas in the bush. The ground attack goes ahead as planned -- small, yellow-skinned soldiers in their oversized American helmets running to keep up with the armored column. Ahead of them, sporadic gunfire as small groups of guerrillas snipe at the army, and then try to melt away. The operation is supposed to encircle a group of up to 100 leftists. Instead it`s inconclusive. In eight hours of skirmishing, two or three will be killed on each side. At night, the army will return to base. But in spite of this old, familiar pattern, the Salvadoran commanders and many American generals in the Pentagon are convinced that this is a war that can be won.

Sec. CHEEK: The government readily admits that it has a problem. Now, here is an armed force that up until less than a year and a half ago was essentially used as an instrument of repression, [and) is now suddenly trying to become the friend of the people instead of their enemy. And that`s not going to be easy, and it admits that it has this problem and is trying to correct it. We see the difference between the repressive forces of the right and the terrorism of the left, and the government is that there`s hope in the case of the government that it will be able to deal with this problem and get out of the business, whereas we don`t feel -- particularly in the case of the extreme left -- that it would ever stop repressing the people of El Salvador, or even seriously attempt to. I think it`s important in principle that the United States -- all western democracies -- and that our free enterprise system prove that it can survive in these revolutionary situations, and that it can provide the answers, the better life, that people seek.

REPORTER: Last Sunday, another young man decided that his definition of a better life did not include staying in El Salvador. Armando Paz packed his bag and took a taxi to the airport to get a plane out. With him he took hundreds of documents and photographs he`s collected in his work for the Human Rights Commission. Armando had thought a long time before deciding to leave, but the daily threat --

MacNEIL: That report on El Salvador was made by Julian Manion of Thames Television in London. That`s all for tonight. We will be back tomorrow night. I`m Robert MacNeil. Good night.