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THE armed conflict that wracked El Salvador January 1992 began 1980 to the signing of the Peace Accords in January 1992 began and ended in a struggle over civil society: over what expression civil unresolved struggle over civil society would be allowed to take, over its influence in public debat expression civil society would control it, and how. If the Right fought to take, over its influence in public debate, over who would economic power, it, and how. If the Right fought first of all on the ground of civil society, own economic power, it fought first of all means available to subordinate, or subdue, the ground of civil society, unleashed via the wave of organizing by church groups, unions, all means available to subordinate, or subdue, the forces unleashed via the wave of organizing by church groups, unions, and the the eruption of civil war in the 1960s (Baloyra, 1982; Lungo U., were preponderantly representatives The targets of the famous "death squads," which emerged well society: union leaders, teachers, community organizers, health workers, catechists. While political mifitants have been the eruption of civil war in 1981, were preponderantly representatives prominent among recent victims of the violence civil society: union leaders, teachers, community organizers, health workers, catechists. While political militants have been the struggle going on in E1 Salvador today is essentially a struggle over the character among recent victims of the violence civil society out by resurgent death squads, the struggle going on in the war and the Peace Accor today is essentially a struggle over the character and direction of the new civil society that has arisen in the wake of the war and the Peace Accords.
This struggle has been scarcely visible in the debates over the reemergence of the death squads,1 over compliance with the recommendations of the Truth Commission or the Accords themselves, or in the posturing of political parties in the wake of the elections of 1994. Nevertheless, it is a struggle that carries profound ramifications, including electoral ones, for the parties of the Right, principally the Alianza Republicana Nacional (ARENA), and of the Left, principally the Frente Farabundo Martide Liberacion Nacional (FMLN) and the breakaway, "social democratic" faction led by Joaquin Villalobos (now the Partido Democratico). It is...