Salvadorans Balk at American Plan to Use Airport
By DAVID GONZALEZ
SAN SALVADOR -- The United States has touched a nerve in El Salvador by seeking to set up a military logistics point for its war on drugs in a country where American advisers, intelligence and money not long ago helped fuel a devastating civil war.
The Salvadoran government agreed in March to allow American reconnaissance planes to use a military portion of the nation's international airport at Comalapa for refueling and maintenance as part of a regional network to monitor the routes used to smuggle drugs from South America to the United States.
But the agreement has become caught up in a larger debate over the role of the military here -- both El Salvador's own and that of the United States -- in fighting organized crime and drug trafficking in a country where murder, kidnapping and drug-related crime have become hallmarks of life since the peace accords ended the civil war eight years ago.
The crime wave has increased pressures for the Salvadoran military, which for years before and during the civil war was used as a political repression force, to play a role in shoring up domestic security, something the country's new constitution forbids. At the same time, the encroaching role of the United States is seen by some as infringing on national sovereignty.
Approval of the accord has been held up in the National Assembly by members of the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front, or F.M.L.N., the political party of the former guerrillas who were sworn enemies of many American policymakers during the 1980's, when El Salvador's civil war became part of the larger hostilities of the cold war.
Supporters of the accord say the American presence now would help deter the drug trade that has increasingly relied on routes along El Salvador's Pacific coast and helped fuel an explosion in crack cocaine use and related crime.
Legislators from the F.M.L.N., who form the largest single bloc in the Assembly, say the accord turns over to the United States monitoring and enforcement tasks that rightly belong to El Salvador's own police and military. In addition, the 10-year renewable agreement, they say, is too broad and does not guarantee that the American role will not grow.
"To have a United States base here would be a provocation because our democracy is not yet mature," said Blanca Flor Bonilla, an F.M.L.N. legislator and member of the Foreign Affairs Committee. "The democracy we started with the peace accords is weak. There are fears in military terms."
American officials say they do not consider the facility a base, since it would not have barracks, commissaries or other features of a permanent military installation. But they acknowledge that it would be a linchpin of the American government's anti-narcotics strategy after the closing last year of Howard Air Force Base in Panama, which handled in its day some 2,000 counternarcotics flights per year.
Existing facilities in Ecuador, Aruba and Curaçao have been used to fill the gap left by Howard's closing and have about 15 ground support personnel stationed at each, with crews and aircraft rotating through in short-term stays.
The Americans carry side-arms as part of regular security measures, but officials have insisted that they keep a low-profile and not take part in on-the-ground operations or make arrests. Any information about drugs entering other countries is passed on to local authorities for them to make arrests and seizures, American officials say.
American officials have favored the facilities because they cost less to operate than a full base: about $18 million a year versus $75.8 million a year at Howard. And spreading the facilities over the Caribbean and Central and South America, they say, has allowed for greater coverage than when the planes flew from the single base in Panama.
The new facilities, which in military parlance are known as forward operating locations, reflect a deeper change in American relations with countries in the region.
"When we had Panama, it was a crutch for us," said an administration official. "We could do whatever we wanted and not worry about working with other countries. This F.O.L. prepares us for the reality in the region that there are problems we can no longer handle by ourselves."
But seeking that aid has proved tricky in Central America, where the United States was deeply involved in trying to turn back leftist insurgencies in El Salvador, Nicaragua and Guatemala through the 1980's.
Discussions with the Costa Rican government over locating a facility there failed earlier this year. Salvadoran officials offered to place a facility here, saying they wanted to contribute to regional security. But they also believed it would help them combat their own problems of drug abuse and crime.
El Salvador has seen an explosion in crack consumption over the last 15 years as traffickers started paying their Salvadoran accomplices in cocaine, rather than cash. Salvadoran authorities say that seizures of cocaine have increased, including the discovery of nearly 800 pounds aboard a private plane in June.
"The reality is the narco-traffickers have so much money that they have technology that, due to our limited resources, we could never have," said José Antonio Almendariz, a legislator of the National Conciliation Party and president of the Assembly's Defense Committee.
"The United States has that technology," he said. "Yet there are people who say, 'Why do you have to use our few resources to help the United States fight drugs that are heading there?' That might have been true 10 years ago, but we see consumption in our own country."
Opponents of the accord worry that it fails to specify the number of American troops allowed here. They also bristle at general references that allow American personnel access to any government institutions needed to carry out their mission.
Rodrigo Avila, the nation's former chief of police who is now a legislator, countered that the accord presented no such threat.
"This is a support operation and not about war or anybody coming here with tanks," said Mr. Avila, a member of the Nationalist Republican Alliance party, or Arena.
"I am not in agreement that U.S. troops should come in here and do what they want, but that is not in the spirit of the accord."
American officials acknowledge that the agreement is broad, but they say that it needs to be flexible in case troops have to move elsewhere quickly or need equipment or supplies not readily available here.
The F.M.L.N. has indicated that it may support the agreement if changes are made and, if not, insists that it can block it. But even that is uncertain since lawmakers have yet to determine if the accord is a routine matter that requires a simple majority to pass or a treaty, which would need a three-quarters majority of the congress. The F.M.L.N. has enough votes to deny a three-quarters vote, but it could not stop a simple majority.
While a selling point of the American facility has been its possible help in reducing crime, observers say it is unclear how much of an impact it would actually have. Others criticize the government for seeking outside logistical help from the United States before first addressing issues like police corruption and judicial inefficiency at home.
In recent weeks, a presidential commission has been investigating police involvement in crimes like robbery and kidnapping, and recently submitted a list of 216 officers for expulsion.
"The first thing the country should do is improve public security organizations," said Abraham Abrego of the Foundation for Studies on the Application of Law.
But for El Salvador, the larger issue is what role the military should play in addressing internal security after a dozen years in which it took part in a war that left some 60,000 Salvadorans dead.
The military is currently conducting joint patrols with the police in rural areas, and the head of the police recently called for American support with helicopters and flight crews for 15-day operations against drug traffickers and organized crime.
Opinion polls show support for some of these measures in the face of growing insecurity.