[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 62 (Wednesday, May 18, 1994)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: May 18, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                      PRESIDENT ALFREDO CRISTIANI

                          HON. JOHN P. MURTHA

                            of pennsylvania

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, May 18, 1994

  Mr. MURTHA. Mr. Speaker, I want to submit an excellent article 
written last week by Mr. Bernard Aronson, former Secretary of State for 
inter-American Affairs, concerning the excellent job done by President 
Cristiani in El Salvador.
  Having been part of the oversight teams that certified the elections 
in El Salvador, I'm so very grateful that President Cristiani has done 
so well.
  The steps the United States helped to promote toward democracy in 
Central America are among the most significant foreign policy steps 
taken in the last decade. I think the members will be very pleased when 
they read what has been accomplished in El Salvador.

                [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 decision--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 then protracted negotiations, 
     Cristiani found time to radically reform the ravaged economy. 
     Last year was 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.

                          ____________________