The Salvadorean regime has been trying to convince international opinion that the guerrilla has been annihilated, and yet the FMLN has just launched a strong offensive in several the COURTS vinces. Would you explain how this situation has been achieved?
At the beginning of 1981 our revolution underwent a qualitative advance and our war entered what we term the phase of increasingly intense military and insurrectional battles for siezure of power. phase, a whole stage. tried to misrepresent this, saying that we had begun a 'final offensive Following the January 1981 Offensive the Reagan government and the Pentagon implemented a policy that aimed to destroy the Salvadorean revolutionary movement within two three months. failure in spite of the Reagan government's provision military aid at every level to enable its puppet army to achieve this strategic objective.
During the course of 1981 the army, with the support of Pentagon advisers, launched no less than 46 major military offensives, each involving Derween soldiers. Some of our zones had to resist ten or twelve of these offensives, which they call operations'. These operations besides aiming to destroy the have the objective of eliminating the civilian population.
And the reality is that tens of thousands of women nave once meer men gases and from the bacteriological Wing against our liberated zones.
climbed to 34,000. pronew mobile brigade, troops as casualties.
the After successfully This is a whole The enemy has military actions?
from the army.
Ins was a total their co-ordination, each other enormous This was Thousale ing, acquiring revolutionary army. *cleaning-up guerrilla also Morazan province. children bombs, Trom • LABOUR MOVEMENT conference on El Salvador to be held 14 weapons that the enemy has been usBy the end of last year the army had trebled its numbers of combat troops from a force of 11,500 it has rifles Nevertheless the great majority of these troops have had to be stationed in fixed positions, with the result that the army's mobile forces have become small and very in- MI6 effective. By the end of last year their the 'Atlactl brigade, had lost one third of its resisting the enemy offensive, when and how did the FLN take the initiative in December 1981 was the month when the FMLN took the initiative away The forces that make up the FMLN had been improving both between and in terms of timing. increasing the attrition against the enemy, especially in the first three months of this year when the army's troops were at the same time suffering acute demoralisation because the strategy for destroying the guerrilla was not working. Quite the reverse, our forces were improvthe structure of a In the first three months of 1982 we attacked fixed enemy positions in various places: from San Fernando and San Ignacio in Chaletenango province to Perquin and San Fernando in brigade This destruction States. of small enemy positions meant that our forces had improved their operational ability, annihilating increasing June. ly greater numbers of enemy soldiers and capturing larger quantities Our forces are fighting with the we have captured from enemy. In all honesty we can say that our principle source of arms, our sole supplier at this stage, is the Reagan government. We are fighting and G3 rifles, American mortars, that they sent to the puppet government. Every month we make a balance of our actions and of the number of arms captured from the enemy and it is now never less than one hundred arms, including mortars, machine-guns various calibres and 57mm and 90mm cannons.
December 1981 the improvement of co-ordination and the experience of a whole year's fighting produced a qualitative improvement in our troops. At the end of 1981 our fighters had acquired a much greater military ability. Our leaders, from breton commanders up an gaining manoeuvres, more skill in directing battlefield tactics.
While at the same time the North American government was announcing that the Salvadorean army had been perfected...
In the first months government repaired the brigade, and formed the brigade, while the Ramon was trained in the Reagan's military aid also modernised the navy and the communications system, provided the army with greater air power including Huey helicopters which are designed for airlifting troops. The debut of the three mobile brigades took place in forces, whose co-ordination at a naof tional level has been constantly improving, have been increasingly tak ing the initiative leading up to these the attacks in October.
What is the fighting ability of the North The FMLN, all of the forces that compose it, all of its members, all of fighters, qualitatively. At the moment we are entering a stage of greater combat mobility and a level of accumulation of of forces that enables hard. Last year we could only dream of annihilating a company of troops in transit, and yet in June this year we destroyed a company reinforce Perquin and San Fernando. We captured 43 soldiers and many arms in an ambush that was brilliantly executed.
Currently we have achieved a level of firepower and a sufficient number of revolutionary troops to enemy companies that are defending heavily fortified positions. On 10 October, in less than 24 hours, the comrades annihilated an enemy company in El Jicaro while simultaneously force of 25 National Guard and paramilitaries, all heavily armed, was attacked in Las Vueltas. rades destroyed one and a half companies.
Atlactl Belloso United What is the significance capture of these positions?
The capture of El Jicaro and Las Vueltas is very important because it extends the territory controlled by the revolutionary forces right up to the gates of the provincial capitals and also deprives the strategic positions.
The puppet army, directed by imperialism, continues insisting that it will 'destroy the guerrilla' they are saying With this aim they are employing new tactics to improve their operational scope: more mobility and more air transport.
Within a few days the Reagan government is going to provide them with over 20 warplanes; helicopters, six Cessna 43 aircraft that can carry provised airstrips, as well as reconnaissance aricraft. They have trained Vice- pilots in the US Southern Command base in Panama to use namalm. and at present the Salvadorean airforce has many bombs of this type. The US has already weeks ago were used in operations on Vicente provinces.
Despite all of this our forces and but to defeat it.
dent that our have improved liberation, us to strike travelling to nam when their destroy revolution.
our war The comThe Central cannot dependence, democracy.
Salvador?
on basic interests.
the imperialist develops enemy of two but now within two years'. tion.
SCHOLE eight Huey 56 soldiers and use im who independence sent gunboats that three other freedom. ot Usulutan and San soon. our people are proving that they have sufficient strength not only to resist the present levels of US intervention Despite the enormous aid of imperialism we know that the puppet army is being worn down. We are confipeople are building some truly powerful forces. Forcer that are going to be able to make a strategic advance in the military and insurrectional sense, that imperialism will be unable to defeat and that will enable our people to achieve their democracy and a just And if the US intervenes directlyi We know that in the final instance imperialism could do the insane and in vade El Salvador, as they did in Viet puppets could no longer hold back the people. Imperialism is also creating the conditions to attack the Sandinista popular Honduras is being converted into a base for aggression in But at the same time we know that an isolated phenomenon. The popular liberation war in El Salvador is part of a process of revolutionary struggle involving all Central American peoples. This is a huge movement with a very different quality to a few years ago Nicaraguar revolution has been a turning point in the history of America and imperialism capular struggle for liberation, hi any contain sovereignty and How do you see the possibility of negotiation between the regime and the revolutionary forces in E We are sincere when we say that our war has to end with a political settle ment, because every war ends in this way. Every negotiation must be based the satisfaction of our people's They are not defeating us. We are little by little, step by step, defeating manoeuvres In the political and military fields. And we are winning this war. I am not saying that we have already won, but that as conditions are being created - conditions that are increas ingly more favourable - to turn the balance of forces in favour of the peo ple and their political and. military forces. Of this we are certain, and this is the reason for Reagan's desperaBut we are immersed in a Central American process, and we know that Reagan has a plan for the whole we know that policy is to regionalise his aggression. In this framework our revolutionary struggle - and all of the Central American peoples can be absolutely confident of this - • will perform its role with honour in the framework of our modest and hard-working peoples desire their freedom and The Salvadorean people with their heroism, aided by the struggles of the peoples, will achieve their The events of recent days reaffirm the will, the commitment and the hope that this will happen Socialist Challenge 7 January 1983 page