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NewsMine coldwar-imperialism salvador Viewing Item | Salvador newsclips { October 22 1987 }
Salvador Divided over Aid to Police The New York Times, October 22, 1987, p. 11 by Lindsey Gruson
The debate on police aid here - as in other Latin American countries traumatized by police violence - grows out of bitter divisions stemming from state-sponsored terrorism, which ravaged El Salvador in the early 1980's.
The aid package, they say, is destructive because it rewards unrepentent torturers and members of the right-wing death squads.
The aid has renewed a contraversy that began over a decades-old United States program to aid foriegn police forces that has been widely blamed for abedding state-sponsored terrorism in the third world. Begun in 1952, it financed the training of thousands of police officers in 77 countries, including some with Governments that became known for brutal treatment of dissidents, such as those of Uganda under President Idi Amin and Iran under Shah Mohammed Riza Pahlevi.
In El Salvador, American aid was used for police training in the 1950's and the 1960's and many officers in the three branches of the police later became leaders of the right-wing death squads that killed tens of thousands of people in the late 1970's and the early 1980's.
"We're gettng back in the business of helping governments crack down on their own people," said Holly Burkhalter, the Washington representative for Americas Watch.
She said the aid package would lead only to an increase in torture.
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U.S. Sending Salvador Weapons and Supplies Valued at $5 Million UPI January 18, 1981, p. 7, New York Times
The Carter Administration has approved the shipment of $5 million and arms, ammunition and helecopters to El Salvador, the State Department announced tonight.
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26 SALVADORANS DIE AT BISHOP'S FUNERAL The New York Times, March 31, 1980, p. 1 by Joseph B. Treaster
At least 26 people were killed and about 200 injured today when explosions and gunfire set off a stampede during the funeral for Archbishop Oscar Arnulfo Romero, who was killed Monday as he celebrated mass in a small hospital chapel.
Archbishop Romero, who had criticized both the extreme right and the extreme left for widespread killing and torture in El Salvador, was one of the leading human rights advocates in Latin America.
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Rebels Kill 43 Salvador Troops and U.S. Adviser The New York Times, April 1, 1987, p. 1 by James LeMoyne
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Reagan Orders Inquiry Into Report U.S. Aides in Salvador Had Rifles The New York Times, February 13, 1981, p. 1
President Reagan ordered an investigation today into why five American advisers in El Salvador apparently violated United States policy by carrying M-16 rifles in what may have been a combat zone.
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U.S. Advisers Saw 'Torture Class,' Salvadoran Says The New York Times, January 11, 1982, p. 2 By Raymond Bonner
A 21-year-old who asserts that he is a former Salvadoran soldier says that United States Military advisers were present at two "traning sessions" early last year when two suspected guerrillas were tortured by Salvadoran Army Instructors.
According to Mr. Gomez, many guerrillas were people suspected of being guerrilla sympathizers were dropped alive into the sea from helicopters. On other occasions, he said, bodies were discarded along roads after the faces had been slashed so they could not be identified.
Mr. Gomez said that his paratroop unit received training from two United States advisers.
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Lawmakers Say U. S. is Misusing Aid to Salvador by Joel Brinkley The New York Times, February 12, 1985, p. 1
A report issued by the Arms Control and Foreign Policy Caucus, a bipartisan group, says economic and military aid, which will total at least $557 million this year, is worsening El Salvador's problems and prolonging the civil war. One reason, the report says, is that most of the spending has been military, despite Administration claims that most has been for economic and social development.
The United States has provided $1.7 billion in aid to El Salvador since 1980.
As an example, the report says the Administration asked for an additional $93 million last year on the ground that an "emergency" existed in Salvadoran arms supplies.
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