Whatever Happened to Radicalism? Voices from the George Vickers Papers

George Vickers: I know it's a difficult time, but…

María Julia Hernández: Yes.

George Vickers: What can you tell me, tell us about the situation over the last six months? I don't remember... I was here in January, I don't remember whether I saw you on that trip or not, it was a very quick trip.

María Julia Hernández: Sí. Well, our situation of human rights now in El Salvador is as I told you I think since October of 1987 we discovered that we were going to go worse than 1986, 85. And the problem is some elements that coincide in order to put pressure on people and to capture, disappear, and assassinated them. For example in October we experienced more victims of death squads and they, we found the corpse tortured and abandonded in some areas, in specific areas. And with the full characteristics of the death squads'… actos. And, well, they persecuted the human rights monitors and killed Herbert Anaya Sanabria in that month too. And we ask ourselves why this begins again. Little by little because not so... but it's consistent, consistent.

George Vickers: Is it increasing still?

María Julia Hernández: Yes. Well, we analyze that the situation is a very complex situation and we may point out some elements. For example, we notice that Esquipulas II* offer open spaces, political spaces. And maybe because the fear of political spaces to be open, and the plurality of ideas to arise again, maybe some people didn't want this and they wanted to show that you have to be careful in order to express yourself. It's true that the expression is open than before, but not for everybody.

*A framework for peace in Central America signed by the leaders of Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua on August 31, 1987.