Noam Chomsky - Turning the Tide U.S. intervention in

Patterns of Intervention
5.2 Duarte’s Role
Classics in Politics: Turning the Tide Noam Chomsky
174
osé Napoleón Duarte joined the junta in March 1980 as reformist
elements were eliminated at the outset of Matanza II and became
its president in December in an effort to provide the perpetrators of
the “war of extermination and genocide” with some legitimacy after the
murder of four American churchwomen. He too certainly understood
what was happening. He later conceded that “the masses were with the
guerrillas” when he joined the junta and the US-organized war against
the population began. Now, mimicking his State Department mentors,
Duarte describes the guerrillas as “an invading army,” another
manifestation of “the international red peril.” Official party documents
signed by Duarte show that a few weeks before he joined the junta, the
leadership of the Christian Democratic party met with the army
command to protest 19 cases in which Christian Democrats had been
murdered, kidnapped or jailed by government troops, demanding the
removal of officers responsible. The army leaders were enraged, and
Duarte “agreed on the spot to retract the letter.” Two weeks later, the
Christian Democrat Attorney-General Mario Zamora was murdered by a
death squad, and “two weeks after that, Duarte agreed to join a junta
which other Christian Democrats had abandoned days before in protest
over the violence, and which included officers Duarte himself had
accused in party meetings of being death-squad leaders.” 62 J
Duarte also
sided with the right-wing military leaders against Col. Adolfo Majano,
the reformist officer who had led the October 1979 coup and was
described by the press as “the symbol of American policy in this
country.” Majano, who was disliked by the Carter Administration, was
finally removed from the junta in December 1980 as Duarte became