El Salvador: We Are from These People

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In the morning Captain Juan Vicente radioed the Palo Grande headquarters and proposed that his men hold the ranch as an advance post to continue the search for the guerrillas' base and hidden weapons. To everyone's surprise the answer was "negative." Black Troop was to return to base. On the way down the hill the soldiers encountered no resistance. But close to Palo Grande, a squad ran into a group of 25 guerrillas. One soldier was wounded in the head. He was Black Troop's only casualty; a Red Troop lieutenant had been killed in the previous day's firefight.

Overall, Black Troop approached the guerrilla war as professional soldiers. They were not consumed by hate, but they had strong opinions about the war's causes and its victims. "We are from these people," Lieut. Eliu once said pensively, pointing to a small farmhouse. "We know how life treats them."

Both officers and men seemed pleased with the demise of the rich landlords, and there were lots of digs at the "14 families," the oligarchy that had dominated El Salvador for more than a century. They were also wary of politicians, especially the professional soldiers who had gone into politics and become, they said, as corrupt as the politicians. For the moment, though, Black Troop's job was to help the politicians win a war that could, in the words of Captain Juan Vicente, "go on for a long time, perhaps for years.'' ∎