Andres Perez is an ex-member of the CCS (Central Campesina Salvadorena), a peasant organisation affiliated to the CGT (Confederacion General de Trabajadores — General Workers Confederation). He fled El Salvador after the general secretary of the CGT, Jose Luis Grandez Preza, accused him of being an FMLN [Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front] guerrilla and paid assassins 5000 colones to have him killed. Andres Perez now lives in Melbourne. He was interviewed by Jose Gutierrez.
Andres, what was your role in El Salvador?
I began to work with the Catholic Church as a religious leader of a peasant community in Zacatecoluca. However, very soon I realised that El Salvador needed social change, but that these social changes could not be achieved only through religion. It was then when I decided to join the CCS, an organisation that included about 60 other organisations. The CGT was affiliated to the CLAT (Central Latinoamericana de Trabajadores), and the CLAT to the CMT (Confederacion Mundial del Trabajo).
What were the main demands of the CCS?
It was to obtain lands for many peasant families who did not even have a place to live. The objective then was to demand land from the government and at the same time the opportunity to develop housing projects, schools and health clinics.
However, we encountered a lot of problems with the leadership of the CGT. We were affiliated to the CGT because we thought that the CGT would help us to get more support for our projects and demands, but we found out that the CGT was funded by the CIA. To be fair, not all the staff were involved.
A small group of people were funded by the US embassy, but there was another group that was against this situation. We couldn't really do much about it, and in the end this affected us badly. I was also against the US embassy's involvement in our peasant movements.
One of the things that affected me personally was to have made statements saying that it was up to us Salvadorans to run our own affairs and that no-one from outside El Salvador should come to tell us what we ought to do in our communities.
The general secretary of the CGT, Jose Luis Grandez Preza, summoned me to tell me that I shouldn't be saying those things, that I shouldn't say anything against the North Americans. I asked him why? He told me: "Look, they have the control of the armed forces, and you may get into big trouble".
Tell me about Jose Luis Grandez Preza.
Jose Luis was also a regional member of the CLAT. I can also say that he was a CIA agent. His objective was not to help the people, but to spy on the communities. He always asked me for a report of what was happening inside the CCS. I sometimes had to tell him the truth, but most of the time I just lied to him because I knew where these reports would end up.
He left the army in 1975 and became involved in trade union affairs and then progressed to become a member of the CTS (Central de Trabajadores Salvadorenos). However, he was expelled from that trade union because people there accused him of acting against the interests of the working class. It was then that Jose Luis founded the CGT, with the financial support of the US embassy.
[The CCS led a seizure of rural property in November 1988 to settle 300 landless families]. We took over the property without any weapons and settled the people on it. It was then that Grandez Preza said I was a guerilla.
I consider that there should be social changes and that the people should benefit from these changes, but I never took up arms to shoot anyone. The reality was that the CIA considered that the CCS leadership's political thinking and actions were too progressive and this was a threat to them.
When did the CIA involvement begin?
It was after the coup d'etat of October 1979, when the so-called "agrarian reform" process began and new peasant and many other organisations emerged. CIA agents infiltrated these peasant organisations, offering them essential things, for example, transport and money.
The leaders were offered larger gifts and sums of money. For instance, Grandez Preza was offered a monthly wage of 5000 colones from the US embassy. He received 5000 colones from the US embassy and another 5000 from the government's Ministry of Development. The US embassy also gave him money to pay for two bodyguards.
How did the CIA infiltrate the peasant movements?
The US embassy has different spies in charge of controlling different groups and situations. The American Institute for Free Labour Development (AIFLD) is a CIA front. They try to "help" the people with something, with anything, but then the real objective is to know what people think, what people want and to control to what extent people are going to practise their ideas.
The AIFLD is in charge of teaching labour issues. Many people in the CGT were given the opportunity to travel to the United States for a trade union seminar or conference. The US embassy paid all expenses.
But, in all these organisations, there has also been a group who didn't want to have anything to do with the military. There are some people who have suffered the same fate as myself, or worse. Of course, if I hadn't left, I would be dead by now.
The organisation to which I belonged, CCS, was also divided. One faction remained autonomous, independent, trying to survive, and another faction sided with the CGT, with the North Americans, because they paid the wages. Grandez Preza had offered them a monthly wage of 800 colones and vehicles for the cooperatives.
The people who disagreed with Jose Luis had no money, vehicles, nothing. This is why many labour organisations have split and remain divided.
What was the reaction of the government and the army to the organisation and militancy of the CCS?
At the time, the government was in the hands of the Christian Democratic Party. There were some individuals within the government who had a genuine desire to help the people, but there were many more negative people who sided with the bourgeoisie.
They always said that the CCS was a leftist organisation, but this was only because we were against the bad policies which affected the people.
All the time I was inside the union I worked so that the people were given their piece of land to work, to grow food and build their houses and meet the needs of the peasants. I also believed that we could carry out development projects. For example, a small tailor's business where each tailor could own his or her own machine and then they would make clothes for sale. This was my main objective in working with the CCS, but the government and the CIA didn't let me work in peace.
In January 1989, another companero, Mercedes Lira Bonilla, was murdered by the army, because, apparently, this companero had a certain task to carry out and he didn't do it. This companero was supposed to be my best friend, but I found out that he was my "friend" because that was his job.
His job was to spy on me, to control what I did, what were my ideas, etc. Later on the organisation learned that the army killed him because he had not carried out certain army missions. The leadership of the CGT accused me of that death, they said that it was my fault. At this point, the army came looking for me at my house but by that time I slept somewhere else.