Letter from Jorge Arias Gómez to López Vallecillos, 25 January 1972

Letter from Jorge Arias Gómez to López Vallecillos, 25 January 1972

Jorge Arias Gómez (1923-2002) was a leader of the Salvadoran Communist Party, a prominent law professor at the University of El Salvador and a friend of many poets and writers. In this letter, he complains to López Vallecillos about "ultra-leftists" who wanted to boycott the 1972 presidential elections. The Communist Party was still participating in elections in coalitions with left-leaning parties, although some of its members had already split off to start urban guerrilla groups. The letter hints at the gulf that was opening up within the Salvadoran left over whether to launch armed struggle against the military regime.

Jorge Arias Gómez

López Vallecillos family archive

Paper

Spanish

Personal letter

Translation:

San Salvador, 25 January 1972

Dear Italo:

[…]

I can only tell you that the group that forms the Executive Council of AGEUS [Association of Students at the National University] has adopted a position of boycotting the elections and has launched irrational, unfair criticism of the UNO [opposition coalition that includes the Communists]. The ultra-leftism of this tiny group has brought them to the brink of anti-party activity and from there to rabid anticommunism (although dressed up as verbal ultra-revolutionary-ism). Life, nonetheless, will have the last word. The semester that is starting will be rich with challenges, and we will see who holds firm and who, at the first hint of change, run home to their mothers or take refuge in embassies.

[…]

Jorge Arias Gómez

Paper