Trump has rekindled a nightmarish and blood-soaked partnership with El Salvador. This was a significant result of the deportation of 200 Venezuelan undocumented immigrants alleged to be members of a notorious gang.
They are now in El Salvador’s medieval-like mega-prison. Undoubtedly, the thousands of prisoners are guilty.
But it is also unquestionably fiendish to imprison people without due process under the Alien Enemies Act. All of this got me to reminiscing.
A powerful forearm and bicep locked around my throat. At the same time, my assailant, who had silently crept up behind me, shoved the barrel of a submachine gun against my ribs.
Immediately, I realized that I was in the custody of a cop or soldier. As he strongarmed me a few feet, I recognized him as a member of the savagely repressive and murderous Treasurery Police, La Policia de Hacienda.
It was an early morning in 1984, and I was in San Salvador as a Time correspondent. Another journalist and I were set to meet at the corner where I was standing when the cop sought to abduct me.
I say abduct because once these guys had you, it was quite possible you would never be seen or heard from again. You would become a desaparecido, one of many thousands. I was a guerrilla, the thug growled.
The Treasury police were converted to a fighting force that concentrated its efforts on cities. It was an open secret, and it was later confirmed they acted as death squads.
In the calmest tone I could muster, I said I was an American journalist with a military credential that allowed me to work in El Salvador. Unmoved, the officer pulled me closer to a car near where another cop with a submachine gun pointed in my direction.
Now afraid, I told the cops that my American status would mean major trouble for them should something unfortunate happen to me. They allowed me to produce my passport and press pass, and the encounter ended.
In addition to me, there was a much larger American connection to my near kidnapping. Washington provided the Salvadoran military with an estimated $9 billion in military aid and training during the course of the war.
American advisers posted to the tiny nation knew about the death squads and other routine human rights abuses. However, this sordid history has been disappeared. It’s like it never happened.
Ricardo Chavira Chicano 