Low Intensity Conflict: Central America

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Julio Quan

Julio Quan, originally from Guatemala, now works in Costa Rica. He was instrumental in the November 1988 consultations with the Nicaraguan government on social defence. The following are excerpts from an interview with Julio, as well as comments he made during various workshops on low intensity conflict and on applying social defence in Third World countries.

I think it's important to first discuss what we are confronting and what we are defending. The strategy we're confronting in Central America is Low Intensity War (LIW) or Low Intensity Conflict (LIC)? Where does it come from?

Nonviolent forms of struggle are not alien to Central America. Nonviolence has been with us for centuries, though we may not call it by the same name. There was an enormous amount of propaganda during the Second World War in Latin America for one or the other side. We were inundated with Allied propaganda. In those days radio was common, so it was easy to communicate. Newspapers weren't useful since most people couldn't read. When we saw the struggle against the fascists in Germany with all its lack of freedoms, we discovered that it was exactly the same struggle we were having. When they portrayed Hitler or Mussolini, they were describing our own presidents. So all the propaganda against the Axis was propaganda against our own way of life. That's why you see after the Second World War most of the tyrannies in Latin America went down one by one.

We had two nonviolent revolutions in Guatemala and El Salvador in 1944. People organised, and between March and June, two of the worst tyrants in Latin America [Ubico in Guatemala and Hernández Martínez in El Salvador] went down due to mass civil disobedience, especially in urban areas. Many people, for the first time in their lives, participated in a political and nonviolent way. Of course, getting rid of the government is not the same as implementing a new one that is just. In Guatemala, three generals took power, so people had to fight violently in October of the same year. Within six months, we had both a nonviolent and a violent revolution. In El Salvador, the military took over power and stayed there until 1979.

The basic question is how to build a social movement to get rid of an unwanted government, while at the same time creating the basis for another government that will implement the necessary changes.

From that moment on in Central America a new myth started to develop: the fear of communism. For 10 years Guatemala had a democracy, and mild but important changes took place. For the first time, women and Indians (indigenous people are 60 per cent of the population) had rights and there was land reform. This coincided with the Cold War and suddenly we became a threat to the USA. Our ruling class has always been weak and so needed outside support to maintain power. In 1954 we were invaded by the US helped by members of our ruling class.

Manyfoci began to develop in the country -- a foco being a small group of people fighting together, regardless of their social class, from an easily defended place, in order to spread the idea of the necessity of change. That created fear among the ruling class. President Kennedy came along and a strategy was developed: a modernisation of our economy without changing the social-economic structure and counter-insurgency. The foco theory meant there were various armed groups that were going to get together which meant they had to be eliminated.

From selective assassination to prolonged people's war to genocide

And so we got the "selective assassination". With death squads -- which in Central America is the army without the uniforms -- the possible creation of foci were stopped by eliminating the leaders. Many were assassinated and fear was everywhere. In 1980 alone, about 100 of my university colleagues were killed and 500 of us left the country.

Archbishop Oscar Romero is another example. Why do you assassinate someone like him? To instill fear. But it backfired. It doesn't matter if it was a leader like Romero or a university professor. These people have friends and it affects them. You become very upset with what is going on, and the revolutionary process is not diminished. When people thought they were going to die anyway, they said "I might as well die killing (defending myself)" and they joined the revolution, in what was called prolonged people's war -- a strategy first developed in China and then in Vietnam against the US army.

With prolonged people's war, the counter-insurgency strategy had to change. Genocide was the result. They just wiped out regions, villages, and so forth. What the USA had learned in Vietnam, they began applying in the Third World, especially in Central America.

How do you fight against genocide? You must fight with arms. There is nothing that I know in nonviolence that allows you to directly fight against genocide. So we fought indirectly and many of us left and went elsewhere to create solidarity movements.

But this strategy came to an end too. There is a moment where it is not possible to continue the genocide. Strategic military studies say "We can kill so many people. But if we kill more, the economy will be affected." And then the strategy shifted to one in which they tried to control the hearts and the minds of the people. That is more dangerous because it combines selective assassination, psychological, economic and other strategies in controlling people.

One of the strongest elements of LIC is ideology through psychological operations. In Central America, we have the "electronic church". New Christian sects come and through the use of TV and radio try to create instant salvation and an instant resolution to everything. This ideological security works against transforming people's consciousness.

This shift towards an ideological and political control over people began in the '60s and '70s, at the same time that more international attention was being focused on the government's policies. At one point Guatemala refused aid from US president James Carter because they knew they'd get aid from South Africa, Taiwan, and Israel. LIC became the most important strategy adapted by our military, along with the help of these countries. Since the '80s then, social change struggles in Central America have confronted this LIC strategy which aims at controlling the hearts and minds of the people.

If LIC's aim is at a false consciousness based on lies, then nonviolence is exactly the opposite: nonviolence is based on the truth and the creation of a real consciousness of the people. So what we weren't able to do during the '70s and the genocide, we were now able to try in a new form of nonviolent struggle.

The role of nonviolence in these cases is what we call social defence: every segment of society must develop the mechanisms by which they can defend themselves against aggression, which is not just physical aggression, but psychological and economic.

How do we go about implementing this type of social defence?

When I talk to people in Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador about social defence, they look at me like I was crazy. "Defending what society? This society that exploits us? No thanks, we don't want to defend this society." That is why I have my own definition for Third World countries: it is the creation of a democratic-based power for economic, social, political, ideological, and ecological security. Civilian-based defence as Gene Sharp defines it is not for us. It may be useful once a society has become "homogeneous" and we have to defend ourselves. The role of nonviolence in these conditions is what we call social defence, not civilian-based defence.

The role of nonviolence needs to be carefully analysed and studied in the Third World. We need our own "weapons" in our nonviolent war. These will also vary with different cultures. The tactics must be carefully chosen. And this can't all happen in a vacuum. Not until all these complementary tactics, strategies and action are well thought out and organised can people start doing the little bit that each one of us is capable of doing. It is essential to realise that we can do very little, but that that little bit is absolutely essential as a part of a very large strategy.

We won't go anywhere if people continue to act and struggle only on the personal level. On the contrary -- when people try things and they are not successful except at that level, they get discouraged and say "this doesn't work". It's not only the ruling class and the army that we are struggling against, it's the doubts within us that ask "does this work? How can it work against machine guns?" The doubts about nonviolence's effectiveness is the most difficult obstacle to overcome. It helps to read the many examples about situations where nonviolence has been successful. But it is important not to take the examples out of context. They should be analysed within their historical, political, cultural contexts.

Attempt at social defence in Costa Rica and Nicaragua

I began working in 1982 to establish social defence for Costa Rica. At that time, it looked like there was no contradiction between what society (the people) wanted and what the authorities wanted -- which is why I chose to try applying civilian-based defence there in the context in which Sharp defines it.

However, Costa Rica (which has no regular army), became the political centre for the US against Nicaragua, just as Honduras became the military centre, and began receiving money and training from the US. The idea was to establish military forces in Costa Rica to attack Nicaragua. The ruling class was afraid the revolution would spread into Costa Rica, so they took up the US offer. Costa Rica has a strong ruling class because they manage through the church, education, and mass media to form the social consciousness of the people.

I began to talk to Costa Rican grassroots groups and political parties in order to introduce the idea of social defence. But of course the struggle was against the US and the ruling class who wanted militarisation to defend their own interests. So it was extremely difficult to find inroads for social defence within Costa Rica.

The next country we tried was Nicaragua. In the beginning it would have been easy for Nicaraguans to defend themselves through social defence because the government and the grassroots movements were united. But the contras began to attack and the people of Nicaragua knew how to defend themselves with arms, so our efforts diminished at the same rate as the contras became stronger. Our efforts weren't necessarily rejected, but as an outside force (I'm from Guatemala, not Nicaragua), our intentions were questioned more and more. People began to ask, "What do these people really want? Are they trying to undermine us?"

But in 1987 with the peace talks beginning, the Nicaraguan government invited us to come and talk to them. A group of experts, including Jean-Marie Muller, met with many groups. One day I wanted to make an appointment with the Interior Minister, Tomas Borge, but his secretary said he was extremely busy. She asked me to tell her in one minute what this civilian-based defence was all about. I remember so clearly Jean-Marie Muller's face. I had worked so long at convincing him to come all the way to Central America, and now I had to explain years of struggle in one minute.

So I said, "Tell the Minister that civilian-based defence is something we are going to give to the people of Nicaragua so in case, you, the Sandinistas, do not fulfil their needs, they can kick you out of power." One minute later she came back and said we had his full support and were going to get his personal aide to participate with us. And they did participate. A real revolutionary understands these kinds of things!

Since the elections in Nicaragua, the University for Peace has had a representative in Managua and they have asked that we continue with the project. About 10 per cent of the population has weapons and they know how to use them. But now the Sandinistas have a chance to establish a democratic system in Nicaragua. Democracy doesn't just mean having a democratic government: it means having a democratic opposition that is going to make the system work. I'm convinced they'll win the next election hands down. Projects like civilian-based defence and empowering the people will help the revolution in Nicaragua.

The situation today

The most important nonviolent struggle right now is the one at the political level. The Central American Peace Plan calls for formation of reconciliation commissions in each of the countries and for a national dialogue. There have been very few chances for grassroots leaders to talk and exchange ideas before this. A network of communication has now been created between groups in Central America. They've been able to make demands -- political, economic, social -- and talk about strategies. We're trying now to collaborate with grassroots groups in that struggle. With Peace Brigades International (PBI), we try to introduce these kinds of concepts to the peasants and workers. This is a tremendous responsibility right now: we are not yet at the stage of organising people.

The Central American Peace Plan is a government plan, but today we are also talking about a "People's Plan." It is already in the minds of the people and we don't have to work at introducing ideas so much -- they come to us. PBI already has more requests than it can handle.

I don't talk of pacifism: I talk of nonviolence or non-military forms of struggle. Peace without justice just won't work in Central America. We have malnourished kids (80 per cent of Central American kids are malnourished with the exception of those in Costa Rica) yet we export millions of pounds of meat to the international market. People want schools, help, justice. The Central America Peace Plan has opened up the possibility to solve the conflict at that level. But without a People's Peace Plan, it won't work. We have to work at the grassroots level.

There are over 600 NGOs registered in Guatemala alone. It is difficult to know which ones are pushing LIC without even realising it. So we must create a network. We don't want charity -- we want justice and we're going to fight for it violently or nonviolently. When I see people picking up arms when they have no other alternative, I do not condemn them. But I know that when they do so, it is another excuse that our military and the powerful in our country have to smash them. The power of nonviolence has to be learned by the majority of the people.

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