[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 57 (Wednesday, May 11, 1994)]
[Senate]
[Page S]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[Congressional Record: May 11, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
PRESIDENT CRISTIANI, A TRUE HERO
Mr. DURENBERGER. Mr. President, I wish to call my colleagues'
attention to an op-ed in this morning's Washington Post about a truly
heroic figure, Alfredo Cristiani, President of El Salvador. Against
daunting odds, President Cristiani forged a peace agreement that once
and for all put an end to that country's terrorist guerilla insurgency
and laid the foundations for alleviating the injustices that provided
fertile ground for civil conflict.
With the power and constancy of his will and determination to achieve
peace and build a better future for his country, President Cristiani
overwhelmed his early detractors and the persistent, irredeemable
forces of the status quo who sought to derail him. Always calm, always
steady, Alfredo Cristiani never lost sight of the prize he committed
himself to reaching.
President Cristiani's example inspires us all to exhibit unrelenting
courage in the pursuit of just and noble objectives. He weathered many
storms that blew his way during his 5-year tenure in office, and has
emerged even stronger for having stayed the course of peace and
prosperity that he promised the people of El Salvador in his inaugural
address in 1989.
In their recent elections, the people of El Salvador voted by more
than 2-to-1 for the President's party, creating a flood of support for
continuing along the path Alfredo Cristiani has charted for his
country.
With peace now achieved and economic growth continuing, the
President's successor, Armando Calderon Sol, will concentrate on fully
removing the last vestiges of injustice and alleviating the deprivation
that still remain in El Salvador. The task is a challenging one, but
with Alfredo Cristiani, as his inspiration, I have great confidence in
Calderon Sol's potential for success.
El Salvador may not be the biggest or most important country in our
hemisphere, but Alfredo Cristiani's leadership through the country's
wrenching experiences with war and peace proves beyond any doubt that
one person can make all the difference in the world. He is a man of
truly historic proportions, and it honors me deeply to consider him a
friend.
Bernie Aronson states it well in this morning's op-ed: ``Many forces
created opportunity for negotiations, but Alfredo Cristiani was the
catalyst and glue that held the peace process together. His legacy is
secure.''
Indeed, Mr. President, Alfredo Cristiani's place in history and in
the hearts of his countrymen is forever secure. I ask unanimous consent
that Mr. Aronson's article be printed in the Record, and I urge all my
colleagues to read it fully.
I yield the floor.
There being no objection, the article was ordered to be printed in
the Record, as follows:
[From the Washington Post, May 11, 1994]
The Man Who Saved El Salvador
(By Bernard Aronson)
To answer the perennial question--Do political leaders or
historic forces shape history?--consider the achievement of
Alfredo Cristiani, who ends his five-year term as president
of El Salvador June 1. When Cristiani ran for president five
years ago, he was a little-known businessman representing the
rightist party known as ARENA. The conventional wisdom was
that his election would polarize the country's politics and
lead to a new onslaught of right-wing violence.
When I first met him back then, I was struck by how little
candidate Cristiani resembled the stereotype. He spoke
quietly, with moderation and common sense. In his inaugural
address, he announced his preeminent goal: to end El
Salvador's bloody civil insurgency through negotiations.
During Cristiani's first year as president, FMLN hit squads
systematically assassinated prominent right-wing figures,
including several members of Cristiani's cabinet. In January
1990, I sat next to him in a huge outdoor amphitheater for
the inaugural ceremonies of the new Honduran president.
``Last night was the first night I got a decent rest in
months,'' he said. He meant that the night he had spent in
Honduras was the first night he slept without fear of
assassination.
Six weeks earlier, the FMLN had launched a massive
offensive on San Salvador. The first night, guerrilla sappers
tried to overrun Cristiani's home, the home of his vice
president, and that of the president of the national
assembly, in an attempt to decapitate El Salvador's
leadership. I spoke with Cristiani every day during the 13-
day-long offensive. While thousands of guerrillas streamed
into San Salvador and the country's survival hung in the
balance, Cristiani spoke in the same measured, calm tone as
always. In fact, in five years of his presidency, I never
heard him raise his voice.
Once only, he made reference to the pressure he was under.
It was April 1991, a critical moment in the peace
negotiations. The FMLN was insisting that the process of
reforming the Constitution be changed to allow a single
national assembly--not two successive assemblies--to amend
the Constitution. The proposal provoked a political
firestorm, particularly from ARENA partisans. The United
Nations was pressing Cristiani to relent.
``I've been pulling this string little by little,''
Cristiani said. ``But I don't think I can pull it any
further.'' The United States supported Cristiani's refusal to
change the process. In the end, it turned out to be a good
tactic. The guerrillas and the government knew they had to
agree on constitutional reforms in time for the outgoing
national assembly to ratify them before it expired on May 1.
In the final days of April, they reached agreement on a
series of constitutional amendments--the first major
breakthrough in the negotiations.
Time and again in the peace process, Cristiani performed
the political equivalent of Richard Nixon's historic opening
to China. No military in Latin America had ever agreed to
anything like a purge of 107 senior officers by a U.N.-
appointed civilian commission. No police force had ever been
peacefully abolished. Cristiani agreed to land reform, human
rights reform, a Truth Commission, judicial reform and
electoral reform. Through it all, somehow, he retained; the
trust and confidence not only of all Salvadoran political
factions but also of leaders of both the government and
guerrilla armies.
At the peace treaty signing ceremony in January 1992, in
Mexico City, Cristiani sat above the audience at the center
of a row of heads of State. The FMLN representative gave a
tough, uncompromising speech that stressed the enormous
losses of FMLN members and supporters. It was a speech for
the cadres, perhaps necessary but not conciliatory.
Cristiani, in a plea for national reconciliation, declared
that El Salvador's war was rooted in past injustice and
repression. A decade earlier, Salvadoran leftists had
disappeared for making similar statements; for an ARENA
president to utter such thoughts would have been unthinkable.
When he finished, Cristiani walked down to the audience and
one by one shook hands for the first time with each FMLN
comandante. A sense of relief and exhilaration filled the
hall.
The only time I heard of Cristiani letting his hair down
was on the flight returning from the peace ceremony. When
Cristiani's presidential plane reached San Salvador, carrying
the entire elected leadership of his country, it buzzed the
outdoor stadium where Salvadorans were celebrating late into
the night. I am told this decison--reached after a number of
celebratory toasts--had Cristiani's personal approval. I
shudder to think of what could have happened to that tipsy
plane, with all the hopes of peace in the country riding with
it.
In the midst of war, and the protracted negotiations,
Cristiani found time to radically reform the ravaged economy.
Last year, El Salvador's fourth year of strong economic
growth. The overwhelming victory of the ARENA presidential
candidate in El Salvador's recent election is largely a
tribute to Cristiani's leadership.
From Bosnia to Angola to former Soviet Georgia to East
Timor, societies and nations are being torn apart by ethnic,
religious and political differences. After a brutal civil
war, El Salvador is coming together. Many forces created
opportunity for negotiations, but Alfredo Cristiani was the
catalyst and glue that held the peace process together. His
legacy is secure.
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