Elliott Abrams: the teflon assistant secretary

Washington Monthly, May, 1987 by Eric Alterman

No massacres

In early 1981, Haig drew the line against furtherMarxist advancement in El Salvador. The Salvadoran government, led by the tattered remains of a reformist coup and in the midst of a civil war with Marxist guerrillas, was helpless to control a military on a rampage. Hundreds of people were being murdered each month for political reasons in a country the size of Vermont. The U.S. Senate, confronted with reports of these massacres, passed legislation requiring the presi dent to certify that the Salvadoran government was making progress toward controlling human rights abuses before Congress would grant him his requested military assistance. Reagan eventually circumvented this inconvenience using a pocket veto, but the certification hearings in the interim were highly embarrassing.

In July 1982, Abrams admitted to the HouseForeign Affairs Committee that "human rights violations in El Salvador continue at levels that could easily dishearten us.' That year, Tutela Legal, the human rights office of the archdiocese of San Salvador, attributed more than 6,000 political murders of noncombatants to the army, the security forces, and their allied paramilitary groups. While this was indeed an "improvement' of more than 50 percent compared to 1981 figures, there were also fewer potential victims after the tens of thousands of killings in 1980 and 1981. But, Abrams testified, the Salvadorans now had "a government freely elected, committed to democratic reform, including further free elections, and attempting . . . to make significant improvements in the human rights situation.'

By early 1985, Abrams and the administrationwere declaring victory for their El Salvadoran policy. There had indeed been improvements. Death squad massacres had been reduced considerably. The 1982 elections resulted in a new constitution, and the election in 1984 brought to power Jose Napolean Duarte, a leader who had clear popular support. But Abrams and the administration oversold their success. No members of the death squads were ever brought to justice. The elections--with their mandatory voting, clear plastic voting boxes, and soldier escorts--were hardly pristine. And when the press reported human rights problems, Abrams dismissed them as fabrications. Appearing with Aryeh Neier on "Nightline' in February, Abrams insisted to Ted Koppel, "I'm telling you there were no massacres in El Salvador in 1984.' When Neier asked about reported massacres in Los Llanitos in July and near the Gualsinga River in August, Abrams countered, "They never happened,' insisting that such reports were often guerrilla propaganda. Yet remains of victims of the first massacre were observed and survivors were interviewed by correspondents from three major newspapers, the Catholic Church, and Americas Watch. "[R]eporters who went to the scene and looked at what took place, they were simply being propagandists for the guerrillas. Is that right?' asked Neier. Responded Abrams: "I would have to tell you that the U.S. embassy is in a better position than a newspaper which has a one-man bureau, to investigate what is going on in El Salvador.' When asked by Koppel if the embassy had investigated reports, Abrams's confidence seemed to drop: "My momory is that we did, but I don't want to swear to it because I'd have to go back and look at the cables.' Neier says embassy officials have told him the investigations never took place; the State Department has never offered proof to the contrary.