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US Electoral Assistance to El Salvador and the Culture of Politics, 1982–1984

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The Reagan Administration, the Cold War, and the Transition to Democracy Promotion

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Abstract

This chapter examines US involvement in the 1982 constituent assembly elections and 1984 presidential elections in El Salvador, with an emphasis on management procedures and technologies designed to legitimate the transition from military to civilian rule. Using newly declassified sources and interviews with previously unexamined actors, the chapter investigates the sprawling enterprise that US political intervention entailed, including a roughly $12 million effort to bolster the Salvadoran Central Elections Committee’s strategy for ‘purifying’ the vote with a digitized electoral registry and modernized means of fraud prevention. The chapter sheds new light on a crucial case study of the Reagan administration’s turn to democracy promotion while contributing new perspectives on how changing attitudes towards elections in US political culture were reflected in US electoral assistance programmes abroad.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    See Edward S. Herman and Frank Brodhead, Demonstration Elections: U.S.-Staged Elections in the Dominican Republic, Vietnam, and El Salvador (Boston: South End Press, 1984); Terry Lynn Karl, ‘Imposing Consent? Electoralism vs. Democratization in El Salvador,’ in Paul W. Drake and Eduardo Silva, eds. Elections and Democratization in Latin America, 1980–1985 (San Diego: University of California, San Diego, 1986), 9–36; Karl, ‘Exporting Democracy: The Unanticipated Effects of U.S. Electoral Policy in El Salvador,’ in Nora Hamilton, Jeffry A. Frieden, Linda Fuller, and Manuel Pastor, eds. Crisis in Central America: Regional Dynamics and U.S. Policy in the 1980s (Boulder: Westview Press, 1988), 173–91; Greg Grandin, Empire’s Workshop: Latin America, the United States, and the Rise of the New Imperialism (New York, NY, 2006), 128; Tommie Sue Montgomery, ‘International Missions, Observing Elections, and Transition in El Salvador,’ in Kevin J. Middlebrook, ed., Electoral Observation and Democratic Transitions in Latin America (la Jolla, CA: Center for U.S.-Mexican Studies, UCSD, 1998), 115–140.

  2. 2.

    On counterinsurgency doctrine, see Michael Latham, The Right Kind of Revolution: Modernization, Development, and U.S. Foreign Policy from the Cold War to the Present (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2011), 137–142; and John A. Nagl, Counterinsurgency Lessons from Malaya and Vietnam: Learning to Eat Soup with a Knife (Westport, Connecticut: Praeger, 2002), 124 and 136–37. On political warfare, see Kaeten Mistry, The United States, Italy and the Origins of Cold War: Waging Political Warfare, 1945–1950 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014).

  3. 3.

    Greg Grandin, Empire’s Workshop.

  4. 4.

    Evan D. McCormick, ‘Breaking with Statism? U.S. Democracy Promotion Programs in Latin America, 1984-1988,’ Diplomatic History, August 31, 2017. [Print edition forthcoming].

  5. 5.

    See William M. LeoGrande, Our Own Backyard: The United States in Central America, 1977–1992 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1998); Cynthia J. Arnson, Crossroads: Congress, the President, and Central America 1976–1993, 2nd ed. (University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2003); and Evan D. McCormick, ‘Freedom Tide? Ideology, Politics, and the Origins of Democracy Promotion in US Central America Policy, 1980–1984,’ Journal of Cold War Studies 16, no. 4 (2016): 60–109.

  6. 6.

    Commission on the Truth for El Salvador, From Madness to Hope: the 12-year war in El Salvador. United States Institute of Peace. (1993) https://www.usip.org/sites/default/files/file/ElSalvador-Report.pdf.

  7. 7.

    Philip K. Williams and Knut Walter, Militarization and Demilitarization in El Salvador’s Transition to Democracy (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1997), 85–113; and Enrique A. Baloyra, ‘The Salvadoran Elections of 1982–1991,’ Studies in Comparative International Development 28 no. 3 (Fall 1993), 3–30.

  8. 8.

    Richard J. Meislin, ‘Salvadoran in Search of a Fair Vote,’ The New York Times, March 27, 1982.

  9. 9.

    The Federal Election Commission, Twenty Year Report, 1995, 1.

  10. 10.

    Edwin H. James, ‘The Trouble $2,475,000 can Buy,’ Television, December 1964, 76–79.

  11. 11.

    William G. Andrews, ‘AEI’s At the Polls: Howard Penniman: Penultimate Psephologist,’ Political Science Reviewer, vol. 12 no. 1 (Fall, 1982), 340.

  12. 12.

    Author interview with William Kimberling, February 18, 2016.

  13. 13.

    Cable, State to San Salvador, ‘Kimberling Visit to El Salvador,’ October 20, 1981, Digital National Security Archive (hereafter DNSA) El Salvador Collection; Cable, State to San Salvador, ‘Technical Assistance for Elections Council,’ October 14, 1981, DNSA El Salvador Collection.

  14. 14.

    Cable, San Salvador to State, ‘Visit of William Kimberling,’ November 1, 1981, DNSA El Salvador Collection.

  15. 15.

    Memorandum from Bill Kimberling, ‘Notes on the Upcoming Election in El Salvador,’ November 5, 1981, DNSA El Salvador Collection.

  16. 16.

    Bill Kimberling, ‘A General Plan for Providing International Observers to the March 82 Election in El Salvador,’ December 16, 1981; and ‘Elements of a Plan for Conducting the March 82 Election in El Salvador,’ December 21, 1981. Both documents available through DNSA El Salvador Collection.

  17. 17.

    Memorandum, Art Giese to Doug Watson, ‘Temporary Employment of William Kimberling as Advisor on Salvadoran Elections,’ December 23, 1981.

  18. 18.

    Cable, San Salvador to State, ‘Visit by Electoral Advisor Kimberling,’ January 15, 1982, DNSA El Salvador.

  19. 19.

    Kimberling interview, February 18, 2016.

  20. 20.

    Max G. Manwaring and Court Prisk, eds. El Salvador at War: An Oral History of the Conflict from the 1979 Insurrection to the Present (Washington: National Defense University Press, 1988), 188–89.

  21. 21.

    U.S. Agency for International Development Project Paper, ‘El Salvador Elections Project,’ Project No. 519–0293, April 1983, 8, USAID Development Experience Clearinghouse http://dec.usaid.gov.

  22. 22.

    Cable, San Salvador to Lima, ‘Salvador Elections: The Voter Registry Controversy,’ January 25, 1982.

  23. 23.

    Kimberling interview, February 18, 2016; and classified CIA cable, ‘Salvadoran Elections,’ January 22, 1982, DNSA El Salvador Collection.

  24. 24.

    State Department Memorandum, Tom Enders to the Acting Secretary, ‘Salvadoran Elections,’ January 15, 1982, DNSA El Salvador Collection.

  25. 25.

    For Reagan’s insertion, see Ariel David Adesnik, Reagan’s Democratic Crusade: Presidential Rhetoric and the Remaking of American Foreign Policy (Ph.D. Diss. Oxford University, 2006), 191–92.

  26. 26.

    Ronald Reagan, ‘The President’s News Conference,’ March 31, 1982 The American Presidency Project. http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=42346.

  27. 27.

    Cable San Salvador to Washington, DC, December 15, 1981, DNSA El Salvador Collection.

  28. 28.

    See Arnson, Crossroads, 136.

  29. 29.

    This total does not include the totals of USAID funding that was spent on so-called Private Voluntary Organizations—primarily unions—which used their budgets to participate in campaign activities for specific candidates.

  30. 30.

    Author interview with John Kelley, March 15, 2016.

  31. 31.

    Author interview with Oscar Pereira, March 20, 2017.

  32. 32.

    Kelley interview, March 15, 2016.

  33. 33.

    Cable, San Salvador to State, ‘Washington Visit of CCE President Ricardo Maida,’ February 17, 1983, DNSA El Salvador Collection.

  34. 34.

    Thomas Carothers, In the Name of Democracy: U.S. Policy towards Latin America in the Reagan Years (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991), 30.

  35. 35.

    Kelley interview, March 15, 2016.

  36. 36.

    USAID Project Paper, ‘El Salvador Elections Project,’ 11.

  37. 37.

    USAID Project Paper, ‘El Salvador Elections Project,’ 20.

  38. 38.

    USAID Grant Agreement, ‘Salvadoran Elections,’ Project No. 519–0293, USAID Development Experience Clearinghouse.

  39. 39.

    Kelley Interview, March 15, 2016.

  40. 40.

    Kelley Interview, March 15, 2016.

  41. 41.

    On USAID contracting, Kelley interview, March 15, 2016; on the value of the contract to Deloitte see Sam Dillon, ‘USAID has Big Say in Salvadoran Election,’ Ottawa Citizen, March 22, 1984.

  42. 42.

    Kelley interview, March 15, 2016; Author interview with Fulvio Carbonaro, April 25, 2017.

  43. 43.

    ‘Los Partidos Politicos y el Donativo del AID’ El Diario de Hoy, August 12, 1983.

  44. 44.

    Rafael Hasbun, ‘Sobre el Convenio de Donacion de AID Para las Elecciones,’ La Prensa, September 2, 1983.

  45. 45.

    Cable, San Salvador to State, ‘Election preparation Update,’ January 12, 1984, State-FOIA.

  46. 46.

    Kelley Interview, March 15, 2016.

  47. 47.

    Fulvio Carbonaro Interview, April 25, 2017.

  48. 48.

    Clifford Krauss, a foreign correspondent for the Wall Street Journal, worked on the report with Robert McCartney and later wrote that the source confirming IVEPO’s role was a “top Duarte campaign tactician.” After writing the report, he said the D’Aubuisson campaign was nice to him, while “Duarte never forgave me.” Clifford Krauss, ‘Vietnam Goes Centrist,’ Gannett Center Journal 3, no. 4 (Fall 1989), 37–38.

  49. 49.

    Interview with Kelley.

  50. 50.

    USAID Project Paper, ‘El Salvador Elections Project,’ p. 12.

  51. 51.

    ‘Dr. Trabanino: Con las Elecciones, Lograremos la Paz’ El Diario de Hoy, March 24, 1984.

  52. 52.

    ‘Terroristas Dinamitan un Avión Con Urnas,’ La Prensa Grafica, May 23, 1984.

  53. 53.

    El Diario de Hoy, March 23, 1984.

  54. 54.

    ‘Suplemento Civico,’ El Diario de Hoy, March 26, 1984.

  55. 55.

    Marilyn Anne Zak, ‘Assisting Elections in the Third World,’ The Washington Quarterly 10, no. 4 (Autumn 1987).

  56. 56.

    Cable, San Salvador to State, ‘Wrap-up of Salvadoran First-Round Elections,’ April 7, 1984, DNSA El Salvador.

  57. 57.

    See, for example, Memo, Tony Motley to George Shultz, ‘First Round of Salvadoran Elections,’ April 4, 1984, DNSA El Salvador Collection; Cable, San Salvador to State, ‘Salvador Election Observers,’ March 31, 1984, DNSA El Salvador Collection.

  58. 58.

    ‘Muchos Correligionarios No Votaron Dice Fortín’ El Diario de Hoy, March 27, 1984.

  59. 59.

    ‘ARENA Está lista Ganar en el 2a. Ronda,’ El Diario de Hoy, April 1, 1984.

  60. 60.

    Rafael Hasbun, ‘Pido la Palabra: Desorden por descuido o desorden Programada?’ El Diario de Hoy, April 2, 1984. Hasbun was murdered days later while leaving his office, in an assassination attributed to a Left-wing group.

  61. 61.

    ‘Desorden, Señalan en Elecciones Ayer,’ La Prensa Grafica, March 26, 1984.

  62. 62.

    Language regarding “purification” was a common theme in official discourse before and after the elections. See, for example, ‘Ing. Morgan Bojórquez: Pureza del Cómputo de Votos Está Garantizado,’ El Diario de Hoy, March 24, 1984; and ‘Dr. Trabanino: Con las Elecciones, Lograremos la Paz’ El Diario de Hoy, March 24, 1984.

  63. 63.

    These calculations are made from the official results released in El Diario de Hoy, April 2, 1984, and Cable ‘Wrap-up of Salvadoran First-Round Elections.’

  64. 64.

    Memo, Tony Motley to George Shultz, ‘First Round of Salvadoran Elections,’ April 4, 1984, DNSA El Salvador.

  65. 65.

    Lydia Chavez, ‘A Conservative to Stay Neutral in Salvador Vote,’ The New York Times, April 17, 1984, p. A1.

  66. 66.

    Kelley interview; Robert J. McCartney, ‘Salvadoran Death Threats Reported,’ April 19, 1984, p. A1.

  67. 67.

    Cable, San Salvador to State, ‘Final Election Results,’ May 12, 1984, DNSA El Salvador.

  68. 68.

    The CCE heard and dismissed these allegations. See cable, San Salvador to State, ‘CCE Dismisses ARENA Complaint,’ May 16, 1984, DNSA El Salvador.

  69. 69.

    Cable, State to San Salvador, ‘Sen. Helms on Covert Assistance to Duarte,’ May 10, 1984, DNSA El Salvador.

  70. 70.

    Cable, San Salvador to State, ‘Disinformation: Rightist Leaflet Alleges Electoral Fraud: Accuses Just About Anyone,’ May 25, 1984, DNSA El Salvador Collection.

  71. 71.

    Chris Hedges, ‘On Salvador’s Ballots, the Fragmented Left is Felt but Not Seen,’ Christian Science Monitor, May 7, 1984.

  72. 72.

    William Deane Stanley, ‘El Salvador: State-Building before and after Democratisation, 1980–95,’ Third World Quarterly, 27 (2006): 101–14.

  73. 73.

    Fulvio Carbonaro Interview, April 25, 2017.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Postdoctoral Fellow at the Clements Center for National Security, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA

    Evan D. McCormick

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  1. Department of Political Science and International Studies, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK

    Robert Pee

  2. Institute for History, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands

    William Michael Schmidli

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McCormick, E.D. (2019). US Electoral Assistance to El Salvador and the Culture of Politics, 1982–1984. In: Pee, R., Schmidli, W. (eds) The Reagan Administration, the Cold War, and the Transition to Democracy Promotion. Security, Conflict and Cooperation in the Contemporary World. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-96382-2_8

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