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

Free World Vignettes
El Salvador, pushed by American advisers, has failed,” though “the price
of success has been very high,” including “sadistic butchery” and one
million homeless Indians. The journal suggests that El Salvador “could
copy” the techniques used in Guatemala with profit. A few months
earlier, the same journal had thoughtfully observed that “What liberal
Americans can reasonably expect is that a condition of military help to
Guatemala should be an easing of the political persecution of the
centre—which played into the hands of the extreme left in the first
place.” The others evidently deserve their fate. 71
The same “strategic hamlets” model is to be applied in El Salvador as
well. Col. Ochoa announced the formation of “auto-defense units that
will involve the whole community, including women, in the defense of
the community,” noting that “plans similar to his have worked in
neighboring Guatemala.” “No one will be paid for their services,” he
said, though when the “communities are organized, they will receive
government services and jobs.” Funding is to come from USAID and the
Inter-American Bank. Like his Guatemalan counterparts, Ochoa cites the
Israeli Kibbutzim as an example; elsewhere, he has credited his training
in Israel for his achievements. The whole account is straight out of
Orwell, but as in Guatemala, the results will not be amusing for the
enslaved population. 72
Classics in Politics: Turning the Tide Noam Chomsky
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