Mixed Signals

Confusion over a tough speech

In an unusually blunt address two weeks ago, U.S. Ambassador to El Salvador Deane Hinton angered conservative Salvadoran businessmen by warning them that U.S. military and economic aid could be cut off if the country did not improve its record on human rights. Last week the Administration issued conflicting signals on whether the speech actually represented U.S. policy. "The President himself had questions about it," a senior White House aide said privately. "We drew him [Hinton] up pretty short."

Trouble is, there is little evidence that Hinton was reprimanded for giving the speech, which blamed a local "mafia" for the murders of some 30,000 Salvadoran civilians and at least six Americans over the past three years. The State Department said that the Hinton talk, which had been cleared in advance, represented a brief change in tactics but not in policy. Officials explained that since the election of Provisional President Alvaro Alfredo Magana last April, the U.S. has repeatedly told El Salvador's leaders that continued U.S. aid depended on the fulfillment of three conditions: 1) an improvement in the human rights record, 2) a continuation of the U.S.-backed land reform begun in 1980 and 3) a return to full civilian rule by 1984.

The message apparently did not register. Salvadoran human rights organizations claim that more than 400 civilians were murdered in September alone. Also, the U.S. was becoming impatient over the failure of El Salvador's legal authorities to try a local army officer who has been accused of ordering the 1981 murders of two U.S. land-reform experts and a Salvadoran labor leader. So the State Department decided to go public with its warning. Says a senior policymaker: "The situation called for a clear, public enunciation of our policy." State Department officials insist that they have heard no whisper of discontent from the White House about Hinton's performance. Hinton also denies that he has been chastised by his superiors in the Administration. "We have a policy of private diplomacy and we only go public from time to time," he said last week. Indeed, some Salvadoran businessmen may have overreacted to Hinton's speech. Said he: "Many Salvadorans have said to me, 'You know, it is too bad that you, an American, have said this, but Ambassador, you're right, and we're going to do something about it.' "

Why, then, the mixed signals? Apparently to please some right-wing supporters in the U.S. who were outraged by Hinton's directness, while placating Congress, which must ponder in January whether El Salvador has made progress on human rights and social reforms.

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