“Find the Jackals”

The Revolutionary Party of Central American Workers (Partido Revolucionario de los Trabajadores Centroamericanos, PRTC) was one of the political-military organizations linked to the FMLN. In June 1985, members of the group's urban commando unit “Mardoqueo Cruz” housed at an auto repair shop in San Salvador launched an operation dubbed “Yankee aggressor in El Salvador, another Vietnam awaits you.”

On the evening of June 19, six off-duty U.S. Marines responsible for security at the American embassy sat down at an outside table at the Chili's restaurant in the tony nightlife neighborhood called Zona Rosa. The marines were regular customers and were known to the restaurant owners. After a while, two of the marines left the group to sit outside an adjacent restaurant. At around 9 p.m., a white pickup truck parked outside the La Hola restaurant in Zona Rosa. A group of seven individuals got out of the truck and proceeded over to the Chili's where they began firing rounds at the unarmed Americans, Thomas Handwork, Patrick R. Kwiatkoski, Bobbie J. Dickson, and Gregory H. Weber. While the commandos were firing at the United States marines, an unknown source returned their fire from inside Chili's. Several Salvadorans and foreign bystanders, including American and Chilean executives from a multinational technology firm, were also killed. A total of nine civilians and four marines died at the Zona Rosa shooting. One Mardoqueo Cruz commando was wounded with a bullet and subsequently died at a medical clinic.

Two days after the killings, President Duarte went to the Ilopango Airport in San Salvador to see the bodies of the U.S. Marines placed on a plane to be returned to the United States. On that occasion he offered this consolation: “To the American people, on behalf of the Salvadoran people, to the U.S. Government; to President Reagan; and to the relatives of these heroes, these marines, who are returning to their homeland today covered with the honor of the U.S. flag. . . .

In late February 1981, soon after the White House had announced its expanded military and economic aid to the embattled Salvadoran government, the FMLN/FDR invited the Reagan administration to engage in direct negotiations to end the war. This guerrilla overture might have been a result of the failure of the January 1981 final offensive to seize power, but also the FMLN might have decided to support negotiations as a “tactic” allowing them to gain “time and diplomatic advantage.” Whatever the motivations, the FMLN pursued “negotiations as a strategy.”

The State Department quickly rejected the rebels’ invitation, countering that “if the insurgents want to talk, they should address themselves to the Government of El Salvador.” And it was not only the guerrillas who were pushing negotiations. In the wake of a massacre of 30 civilians, orchestrated by the infamous Treasury Police, in the town of Soyapango in March, Democratic senators Paul Tsongas and Edward Kennedy, both of Massachusetts, contended that talks were “essential to end the military escalation and pursue a political solution to this conflict.” Little over a year later, the House of Representatives voted to urge the Reagan administration to press for “unconditional discussions between the guerrillas and the Salvadoran government.”

Assistant Secretary of State Thomas Enders's much-discussed speech on July 16, 1981, at the World Affairs Council in Washington appeared to provide the possibility of negotiations that the administration had theretofore resisted. Enders, scion of a patrician Republican family from New England, epitomized “the best and brightest” of his generation. In the 1960s, the towering six foot eight Enders had supported civil rights at home and the Vietnam War overseas. Enders's height meant he towered over CIA director William Casey and President Reagan. “His intellect was equally imposing,” Reagan's biographer Lou Cannon wrote, and might have intimidated other policymakers.