THIS shocking picture, taken by Mexican photographer José Lavanderos, is of a peasant murdered by right-wing gangs in El Salvador in His body was found on 23 January, the day after the general strike by peasants and workers against the military dictatorship which runs El Salvador.
Hundreds of peasants and workers have died since that strike, murdered by the right-wing gangs and the army. The dictatorship survives only because of the millions of dollars of military. aid poured in by the United States.
This is the reality of Jimmy Carter's view on human rights. Remember this photograph the next time you hear Carter talking about his concern for human rights in Iran or Afghanistan.
José Lavanderos has taken even more horrific pictures which Socialist Challenge considered too shocking to publish — pictures of workers who had been hacked to death by machetewielding National Guardsmen.
But the people of El Salvador are fighting back. The photographs we publish on our centre pages this week show the armed defence pickets of the revolutionary organisations in action On the streets against the army.
They show demonstrations during the general strike and the spirit of resistance of a people determined to bring down the brutal regime.
The people of El Salvador are today a people in arms. The only guarantee of human rights in that country is their victory, just as the victory of the revolution in Nicaragua was the way in which the Nicaraguan people conquered human rights for themselves.
*The poverty and misery of the people of El Salvador, page 7. Their resistance illustrated, pages 8 and 9.
Photo: JOSE LAVANDEROS rocrest Ltd: for Socialist Challenge, 328/9 Upper St, London N1. Printed by East End (offset) Ltd: PO Box 82, Landon E2. gistered with the Post Office as a n spaper. Published by Reli
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The reality behind Carter's concern for human rights