Pentagon officials immediately called it coldblooded murder. Twelve other GIs had died in cross-fires, accidents or urban terror attacks during the decade of U.S. involvement in El Salvador; this was different, they said. “There’s no doubt they were executed,” said a senior Bush administration official. A U.S. forensic team on Saturday reported that one crewman died of wounds suffered in the “survivable” crash; the others could have lived had they not been shot in the head at point-blank range. The president already was on the verge of deciding whether to release $42.5 million to the Salvadoran military. Congress has forced him to withhold the money because of Salvadoran government foot-dragging in prosecuting the 1989 murder of six Jesuit priests. But last week leading congressional critics joined in denouncing the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN). “When I heard this, I went sick,” said Massachusetts Rep. Joe Moakley. The guerrillas and their commander “should be tried for murder.”
The guerrillas clearly were feeling the heat. First, a clandestine broadcast claimed that the U.S. soldiers died in the crash. A second rebel communique claimed that two Americans survived the crash but died later of their wounds. Then the high command in Mexico City claimed the helicopter fired first. The Huey came down in an area held by a rebel faction called the People’s Revolutionary Army, known for its ruthless policy toward mayors and suspected government informers. But the chopper might have stayed clear of danger had the FMLN not recently raised the ante in its struggle for power. The Huey was flying at treetop level along the Pan American highway to avoid SA-14 missiles allegedly sold to the guerrillas by Nicaraguan Army officers. During its nationwide offensive last year, the FMLN for the first time used the SAMs to down Salvadoran Army planes. Lt. Col. David Pickett, one of those killed, believed his best tactic was to fly low and risk being hit by groundfire. Least injured in the crash, he apparently was hit by rebel fire as he tried to crawl or run, then executed.
Will Washington retaliate? Some in the administration will want to seize the moment to restore U.S. aid; others think leverage is needed to make the Salvadoran Army fight better and clean up its human-rights act. Bush has other options. After the FMLN assassinated six Americans in 1985, the CIA gave the Salvadoran government its best intelligence on the guerrilla faction that took responsibility. The group was decimated by arrests. If the agency devotes similar energy to chasing down those who shot the U.S. pilots, the guerrillas may have done themselves more harm than their government foes alone could have.
