Reagan victory spurs offensive SLAUGHTER OF SALVADOR LEFT WINGERS

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April rally in Nicaragua against Alfonso Robelo when he resigned from ruling junta escalation of the struggle against evident that in recent weeks the Sandinista regime has come Somocistas in Honduras has The facts of the killing are under increasing pressure, much continued despite the death of no means clear but it is of it far from 'legal'.

The Reagan victory has had an immediate and far-reaching impact in Central America where the forces of' capital and reaction have initiated a major counter-offensive.

The first indication of the long-awaited backlash came in Nicaragua when ex-Junta member Alfonso. Robelo took his bourgeojs MDN party out of' the Sandinista dominated Council of State.

Robelo and his fellow capitalists protested against tne "growing threat of communism" • The initial factor in their break from tenuous cooperation with the Sandinistas was the government's refusal to call However, the erisis deepened with the shooting of the leader of the private enterprise federation-COSEP in a clash with FSLN security personnel.

The liberal press claus that this was nothing less than an execution in cold blood and was quick to invoke the memory of Pedro Joaquin Chamorro, the editor of the liberal bourgeois daily Li Prensa, whoso killing marked a critical stage in the the Somoza dictatorship.

by The regroupment of their nominal leader. There have been an increasing number of armed incursions, with literacy brigade members being killed and several abortive attempts at insurrection in the east of the country where the population is sparse, politically distanced from the FSLN and largely of different ethnic stock to the most densely populated west.

At the same time pressure from Honduras, in terms of "border incidents" , reflects the very great build up of the Honduran military by the US since the early summer.

The State Department has encouraged local dictator General Policarpo Paz to set aside in practice this years elections which saw a supposed victory to the bourgeois opposition and the return to "constitutional government"

Paz remains president and has made sure that he retains tight control over I. is territory which has now bec me a vital strategic enclave for the imperialists, since it borders on both Nicaragua and El Salvador.

It is no coincidence that the Hondurans and the Salvadorean junta have rapidly patched up their eleven-year diplomatic quarrel and border dispute in the last month.

We can now expect to see even tighter cooperation between the armies in the frontier region to wipe out insurrectionaries.

It is, of course, in El Salvador itself that the Reagan victory has had the greatest impact and is likely to impose the most far-reaching consequences. - Last week's abduction and assassination of the leadership of the main opposition grouping, the FDR, by a right wing terror squad of over 200 men marks a major stage in the Condoned There can be no doubt whatsoever that the junta knew of, condoned and, in all probability, participated in this action.

Among those killed were Juan Chacon of the Bloque Revolucionario Popular, Enrique . Alvarez Cordoba (leader of the FDR), Manuel Franco of the communist party, Enrique Barrera of the Social Democratic MNR and Doroteo Hernandez, leader of the slum dwellers' union, affiliated to the LP-28.

These assassinations have removed the central figures in the opposition at a time when it was believed that it might be possible to avert an all-out insurrection.

Inis, at least, was the view ol the imperialist press which, yet again, will have to come up with another set of glib explanations as to why in their view El Salvador is not really in the depths oi a civ1 war, why 9,000 dead this year is only the sorry by-product of a 'reformist' regime and why respectable bourgeois lawyers are now being gunned down and dismembered alongside peasants and workers.

It is worth noting that Alvarez served as a minister of the Junta until this January!

The signs are only too clearthe Salvadorean right is escalating its campaign for the anninilation of the left by whatever means necessary.

At the same time there is evidence that the Reagan administration will countenance rapid and direct intervention should the left respond to its setbacks with an uprising.

• Repercussions Reagan's Latin American advisor Roger Fontaine has made it abundantly clear that "this is an option", although Guatemalan, Honduran and "other" troops (presumably Argentinian, Chilean and Bolivian) would probably be sent in before the US Rapid Deployment Force so as to avoid unnecessary diplomatic repercussions for US imperialism.

The Salvadorean left is in a strategic impasse. Following the general strike of August the strategy of Prolonged People's War' has failed to escalate popular and military strength to the point where the guerrillas can move with confidence to an all out assault for state power.

While they have inflicted heavy losses on the army and police in the outlying provinces, many populous sectors remain vulnerable to repression and right wing terror-the killing of opposition leaders makes this only too clear.

The Salvadorean revolution is at a cross-roads: and with it the future of all Central America stands in the balance as the imperialists muster their forces for a major counterrevolutionary offensive.