PEREZ DE CUELLAR was all smiles. At the last minute the UN secretary had achieved a compromise where none seemed possible.
But will the agreements signed between the Salvadorean government and the revolutionary FMEN do the same for the embattled people of El Salvador?
The agreements mark the and of more than a decade of armed struggle government death squads, backed up by bilions of dollars in US 'aid. * is a mark of the popular support enjoyed by the guerillas that they were able to sustain the struggle for so long.
And there is no doubt that the terrible destructon played a big part in bringing the FMLN to the negotiating table. With the collapsed and the electoral defoat of their allies - the FuN- n nachbour. ing Nicaragua, the FMLN's room for manoeuvre declined dramatically.
These factors largely explain what brought the rebels to the negotiations - they feit that it was now or never for a negotiated solution. But as for the FMLN's basic aims of "Democracy, Freedom and Social Justice, the outlook is not good.
At best the agreements amount to a formula for moving El Salvador from military dictatorship towards liberal democracy. This is clearly the aim- as the FMLN puts it to continue the strug. gle on a new lever.
The agreements contain formulae that aim at curbing the worst excesses of the death squads and the worst weath. They also attempt to depoliticise the armed forces and police, removing those responsible for atrocities and, to some extent, integrating the FMLN.
Whether these aoreamer's wil bR implemented is, to say the least. doubtful. The apparatus of the government, the army and the poice are so The FMLN guerillas have survived only because of their popular support ridaled with death squad goons that it is hard to imagine UN observers having much effect.
it is not ne main point. Rather, is is thatthe USA will be bound NIMBY principle (Not In My Back Yard). And the amount of room available to make concessions to the workers and peasants - the lifeblood of liberal democracy - is close to ni.
As long as El Salvador remains in the pocket of the USA. a poverty through revolutionary struggle that the state can be forced to implement any. thing approaching 'social justice' The FMLN have been forced into a may curt some of the worst excessos of the past. As a tactical retreat it is What is essontial is that the robols continue their pollical struggle, in the knowledge that the accords have not resolved any of the fundamental proclems facing Lawn Amenca s poor.
That struggle wil not be resolved by El Salvador's borders. No. 14 Jan. 18, 1992
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