El Salvador: We Are from These People

An antiguerrilla patrol—afirefight, death and fleas

The U.S. policy of aiding the Salvadoran armed forces in their drive against the country's leftist guerrillas continued to provoke resistance last week. In San Salvador unidentified gunmen sprayed the U.S. embassy with automatic rifle fire. In San José, Costa Rica, a bomb damaged a van carrying U.S. Marine guards to the embassy, wounding three Marines and two civilians. A leftist group claimed credit for the bombing and called for a "halt to the Yankee intervention in El Salvador. "In the Salvadoran countryside, meanwhile, government forces continued their counterinsurgency operations on several fronts. Last week TIME Correspondent Bernard Diederich joined one such search-and-destroy mission near the town of Suchitoto, 20 miles northeast of the capital. His report:

The sun was already high when Black Troop, a unit of Salvadoran cavalry, moved out of Palo Grande, a tiny hamlet near the Guazapa volcano. The troop, comprising three squads of 25 men each, was commanded by Captain Juan Vicente, 29, a tall, taciturn veteran. The soldiers left their three small French Pan-hard armored cars parked beside the village church and began climbing slowly toward a suspected guerrilla base on a distant hillside.

The cavalry, along with National Guard troops and a unit of the army's First Infantry brigade, has been operating in this area for nearly three weeks. The units usually spend eight days in the field before being relieved, each time leaving their steel helmets, which are in short sup ply, for their replacements. Most units operate as single patrols. Explains Captain Juan Vicente: "This is no combined operation. We don't have the men for that."

It is indeed ideal guerrilla country: dense scrub and jungle interspersed with small farms, low stone walls everywhere. The coffee trees are in bloom, but most of the farms are deserted. The soldiers had prepared for combat that morning by cleaning all their weapons. The officers, who have few privileges, saw to their own. Most carried the West German-made G3 automatic rifle. Young Lieut. Eliu knelt down with his squad and uttered his own simple prebattle invocation: "God, look after us and make us act with justice and rectitude and not be driven by our emotions."

Captain Juan Vicente communicated with his three squad leaders by radio, because it was impossible to see more than a few feet through the jungle and coffee trees. The patrol moved on, clambering up a soft cliff face in the clammy heat.