By Jose Gutierrez
Some years ago social psychologist Ignacio Martin Baro wrote that in El Salvador government officials had imposed an "institutionalised lie" upon society, which he defined in general terms as "the systematic screening of reality".
According to Martin Baro, this screening of reality took various forms: it began with the creation of an "'official story' which ignores crucial aspects of reality, distorts others, and even falsifies or invents still others". This is imposed by an aggressive propaganda campaign supported by all the instruments of ultra-right wing reaction.
The second form is an imposed silence upon facts the state cannot conceal and which challenge the institutionalised lie; such facts are simply ignored and forgotten. For example, former National Guard intelligence officer and death squad leader Lieutenant Isidro Lopez Sibrian made statements which clearly link some ARENA leaders to the death squads. But President Cristiani - and, incidentally, Thomas Buergenthal, a US attorney who conducted the investigation into the human rights violations committed by all sides during the 12 years of civil war - ignored his statements.
The third form is that most reporting of the Salvadoran reality that unmasks the state's repressive measures is considered "subversive activities", and the reporter is indicted. For example, journalist Antonio Velado Rodas was targeted for death squad assassination. He rightly pointed out that the main individual responsible for what happened to him was President Cristiani.
Another form is the concealment of the high levels of corruption within the government, even though in the year he wrote this article (1988), Martin Baro was referring to the Christian Democrats, now running for the 1994 elections.
Five years later, we are witnessing the same phenomenon. The most blatant and cynical expression of the institutionalised lie appeared in November when President Cristiani and other government officials and ultra-right wing analysts denied the existence of the death squads.
After the murder of seven FMLN members and many more people from the popular movement, the fact is that the death squads have not been dismantled, and they are still operating from the intelligence units of the Salvadoran army.
As the New York Times now reports, Vice-President Francisco Merino and the mayor of San Salvador, Armando Calderon, are deeply involved in running this death squad apparatus. However, President Cristiani expresses confidence in his vice-president, and the main death squad leader, the magnate Orlando De Sola, takes Joaquin Villalobos to court for "defamation".
It's also surprising that Cristiani was not named in the reports; certainly in my research I have seen a document and a memo in which he appears implicated.
However, as Cristiani is the current president of the republic, he cannot be touched. He reminds me of how President General Maximiliano Hernandez Martinez could not be touched either. Yet everyone knew he was guilty of the 1932 massacre in which 30,000 people were killed.
Remember the Jesuit priests? Cristiani promised them that they would not be harmed; they trusted him and then they were murdered. The Salvadoran people lost Father Ignacio Martin Baro and five other priests and two women. Perhaps after the March elections when Cristiani loses power, the CIA would do us the favour to release a few more documents.
The declassification of 12,000 documents by the State Department, the CIA and the Pentagon last month created political havoc for the ultra-right in El Salvador. This certainly contributes to establishing the basis for the uncovering and dismantling of the complex death squad networks and for the establishment of genuine democratic institutions.
But now the biggest obstacle would be to overcome the institutionalised lie as top government officials keep denying, ignoring, distorting, falsifying and inventing the facts. This reached its peak when, disregarding the diplomatic efforts by the UN secretary adjunct for political affairs and peace operations, Marrack Goulding, to resolve the current crisis in El Salvador, President Cristiani denied that an independent commission to investigate the death squads had been created.
But the purpose of the official visit by Goulding was precisely to set up such commission. Goulding proposed the creation of a commission to investigate the death squads led by the Office for the Protection of Human Rights and the Human Rights Division of ONUSAL. When he left the country, Goulding stated that agreement to set up the commission had been reached.
But once Goulding had left, Cristiani resorted to the institutionalised lie again, stating that no commission had been set up and that the investigation into the death squads could only be carried out by the state's executive branch.
Now the next government step would be to forget all about investigating the death squads. Cristiani, Merino and Calderon will keep denying their existence. Meanwhile, more FMLN members and civilians will die at their hands, as they have for the last 30 years.
The ultra-right's main objective is to discourage the participation of the broad majorities of the people in the elections and thus win with a low voter turnout, which is favourable to the ultra-right.
It is now up to the United Nations and the Clinton administration to pressure for the creation of the Commission to Investigate the Death Squads. In order for this investigation to be successful, they will have to act quickly and decisively. Otherwise they will risk becoming mere accomplices of the ultra-right and its instruments of state terror.