Terror, Right and Left

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The scene was an all too familiar tintype of armed repression and political turmoil, a fitting symbol for the upheaval of the decade. Staccato bursts of gunfire echoed through the streets. Clouds of tear gas hung in the air. A phalanx of blue-shirted policemen, equipped with gas masks and steel helmets, blocked the avenue in downtown Guatemala City. They trained their rifles on the six unarmed men who were advancing, like prisoners of war, with their arms held high. One of them clutched a large manila folder. Its contents: a letter to Guatemala's outgoing President, General Fernando Romeo Lucas García, charging fraud in last week's presidential election and demanding a new contest. The politicians never delivered the letter; the police did.

The six marchers were a formidable and respectable group: the three defeated civilian candidates and their running mates. But they were stopped on their way to the presidential palace last week by a band of police, led by an officer brandishing a .45. "We have come peacefully, without arms," protested one of the candidates. "I don't understand." Suddenly, a red tear-gas canister landed in the street, scattering the group of journalists who had accompanied the candidates. Sniper fire popped like firecrackers a block away. Finally, the three presidential candidates—Mario Sandoval Alarcón, Alejandro Maldonado Aguirre and Gustavo Anzueto Vielman—offered to go alone to present their grievances to the authorities. The candidates never made it to the presidential palace. Instead, they were taken to police headquarters and lectured by Police Chief General German Chupina for almost an hour.

The struggle in the streets of Guatemala City was symptomatic of the chaos that was churning through Central America last week. Throughout the isthmus, a fight for power is evolving between extremists on the far right and on the far left that is leaving leaders who are even vaguely in the middle in an increasingly exposed and perilous position. For the Reagan Administration, the whirlwind of revolt and repression poses special and hazardous problems as it tries to find ways of helping the moderates and of bringing stability to a region that is in America's backyard.

The hour is already dangerously late. The Guatemalan government may have been able to turn aside the pleas of unarmed politicians last week, but the most populous (7.5 million) of the closely related quintet of countries is faced with a rising rebellion of dedicated guerrillas. In Nicaragua (pop. 2.5 million), the Sandinista guerrillas took power in 1979 and, despite their early vows to encourage "pluralism," have been moving zealously leftward ever since. Honduras (pop. 3.9 million) has a moderate government, but is fearful that it will catch the virus of rebellion from its neighbors. Even Costa Rica (pop. 2.3 million), a stable democracy, fears that its economic problems will cause social unrest that could lead to trouble.

But El Salvador (pop. 4.9 million) is where the crisis is the most acute and U.S. policy under the most tension. Guerrillas are increasingly challenging the civilian-military government headed by President José Napoleón Duarte. Says Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs Thomas O. Enders: "If