PROCESO — WEEKLY NEWS BULLETIN — EL SALVADOR, C.A.

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Proceso 1040
March 12, 2003
ISSN 0259-9864
 
 

INDEX



Editorial: Signs of decay

Politics: A custom-made god

Economy: The productive restructuring of the Salvadoran agricultural sector

 
 
Editorial

Signs of decay

 

ARENA has spoken about reorganizing the directive board of the party before an electoral result that might not satisfy its expectations takes place. It is normal that a party that is not achieving its goals intends to reorganize its foundations. However, in order to achieve an effective reorganization, the directive board of the party must ask the right questions. A party does not make a good electoral performance by just changing the members of its directive board. In the case of ARENA, this would be the second important change in a short time. It is a fact that the electoral performance does not depend on the candidates either. The candidate for the San Salvador municipality is well accepted, but her party is an obstacle to get the necessary votes that can guarantee a comfortable triumph. This problem is not related with the campaign strategy. Despite that the party counts with a budget of millions to hire the best advisors and the best advertising agencies, it is not taking a step forward in the electoral field. It is necessary to consider that most of the voters make a decision before the electoral campaigns begin.

The bottom line of ARENA is the rejection of the population. There is and implicit rejection in that majority who does not vote, that is, that majority that is not interested in ARENA because this party is not bringing any benefits to the population. There are also those who vote for other parties. There are enough clues to explain that phenomenon. When the policies of a government cause more poverty and vulnerability, and push the middle class down to a much lower level, the party that represents the government does not come out “unharmed” from the free elections. A party with a government that does not admit the participation of the citizenry, that fears the public opinion, that makes decisions that only bring benefits for a minority who becomes more wealthy, cannot experience a relevant increase in the people’s intention to vote. A party with a government that has lost the credibility and the respect of the population cannot expect a good electoral performance. The public health sector cannot be privatized when most people are against a measure like that one. The present regime of privatized services cannot go on when its price rates reduce the already small family budgets. A dollarization process cannot be imposed against of the society. In these conditions, it is a naïve attitude from ARENA to believe that it will find a general acceptation among the society.

The FMLN should also speak about reorganizing its leadership, since its performance is not improving. To say that it does not have the necessary number of congressmen to impose its national project is nothing but an excuse, because it actually represents a small group of people, less of those who want things to change. The FMLN could have had a better performance at the local government. It is probable that a good part of the votes that this party obtains through the municipal elections are mostly those votes against ARENA. At the time, it would not be prudent to launch a presidential candidacy without assessing the relation of the party with the citizenry, mostly because that candidacy is promoted by one of those who are closer to the party. The relation of the people with the party is not compatible with what the directive board of the party imagines. Inside the FMLN they should be able to speak with more freedom to criticize and propose. The distance that separates the party from the population should be narrowed. The FMLN should establish an effective channel of communication to listen to the poor and to those in need, and it should not be afraid to tell the truth and argue in a reasonable way. It should enlighten the national reality from an integral perspective. It should be more reasonable and use the political ethics. It should not scream too loud, and it should stop with the violent protests. The FMLN lacks basic ideas and political vision.

In ARENA, the politicians of the civil war have failed, as well as the businessmen. The old leadership has also failed inside the FMLN, because they know plenty of things about fights and battles and not much about politics. It seems paradoxical that both of the most important political parties are trapped inside its own past. It is not just the FMLN the one that is fossilized because it keeps staring at an sterile past –as the candidate from ARENA told the City Hall of San Salvador once-, ARENA is also fossilized and because of the same reason. The leaders of both parties use the same arguments of the past, those arguments that they have allegedly forgot. Both parties use their same arguments during the beginning and the end of a campaign, for instance. This stagnation is what does not allow them to grow or to respond to the needs of the population in order to get more votes.

The weakness of the discourse reveals the incapacity to face the present, a certain anguish before the predictable electoral results, and the fear about an uncertain future. These leaderships only feel safe in the past, in the context of a war. That is why ARENA is warning the society about the possibility of street riots for March 16th. It will not seem odd if this kind of events take place. The complexity of the present reality seems to have gone beyond its capacity. Reality has taken away their ideas and their ability to have a fair notion of the facts, they only count with their old schemes and they are holding on to those. Their lack of tolerance makes it difficult for them to understand the complexity of the public opinion and the electoral preferences. Both of them announce an overwhelming victory, but they brake down before the predictable results. The only acceptable triumph is to get a total control. They do not understand the questionings and they cannot become part of a team. The bottom line is that both leaderships are afraid of a democratic context. A context in which they had to discuss to reach a consensus, count with the active participation of an organized society, share the exercise of power, and accept the authority of both the law and the institutions that administrate it.

Neither ARENA nor the FMLN are on the verge of extinction. None of them are about to hold an electoral debacle. But still, they look as if they have lost their strength. They will hardly be able to overcome the boundaries. Their polarization has found a limit because of the overwhelming rejection of the population.

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Politics

A custom-made god

 

There is a recurrent term in the discourses about the war against Iraq that the president of the world’s most powerful nation uses: the name of God. George W. Bush is sure that God supports him in his mission to defend democracy, the security of the American people, and to give freedom to the uncivilized Iraqi. It will all be a part of a divine plan, which elected the United States as the instrument to bring tranquility and justice to the world. As for the leaders of the White House, because of that divine command, they believe that they are the saviors of the world.

Bush considers that his duty is to lead the necessary attacks against the “enemies” of freedom. “If our country does not lead the cause, the cause for freedom will not be leaded. (…) Civility is not a tactic or a feeling. It is a deliberated choice between trust and cynicism, between community and chaos. The enemies of freedom and the enemies of our country should not fool themselves: North America keeps participating in the world because of historical reasons and because of its own decision, forming an equilibrium of power that favors freedom. It will bring the values of our history and they will take care of our times. We North Americans are generous, strong, and decent, not because we believe in ourselves, but because we have beliefs that go beyond ourselves. That is why America follows that angel that rides the whirlwind as he leads this storm”.

Whoever believes that the former declarations reveal only the typical arrogance of Bush and his team of militaristic hawks is terribly wrong. It is a tradition inside the United States that the presidents are not only faithful believers, but that they also interpret their political mission through the commands of a custom-made God. William Jefferson Clinton, the former President of the United States –many Europeans consider that he would play a better role in the present moment-, in his inauguration speech, pronounced a discourse that had a messianic tint:
“Today we celebrate the mystery of America’s renovation. (…) We have heard the trumpets. We have changed our guard. And now, each one, and with the help of God, should respond to the call. (…) If our challenges are powerful, so is our strength. Americans have always been tireless people, restless, and full of hope. (…) There is no doubt that America must keep leading the world that we helped to create. (…) We will act when our vital interests or the freedom and the consciousness of the international community are challenged with a pacific diplomacy whenever it might be possible, and with strength, whenever it might be necessary”.

In the case of Iraq, in order to prove the fairness of his determination and the depth of his religious compassion, the President of the United States, George W. Bush, intends to give each one what they deserve. That is why he asks God to protect his men. But he also thinks that it is necessary to ask for mercy, mercy for the innocent Iraqi, whose extermination is already programmed. However, since destine assigned him to defend the Freedom, the Democracy, and the Security of his country and the world, he decides to confront reality with courage and without hesitating.

The trust of God in the North American leaders and their particular perception of their “divine” mission to assure the Occidental supreme values encourages them to get a firm attitude when it comes to use the military force. Because it is inspired in such superior ideals, the war seems to get an air of holiness and a crusade spirit which prevents people from seeing it as it really is: the highest expression of irrationality and human brutality. President Bush puts in the hands of God a crusade against to what he considers the kingdom of evil, which exists in Iraq because of Sadam Hussein.

However, despite the comparison between Hussein and the devil, both the United State’s president and Hussein use the name of God to legitimate their behavior. The leader of Iraq invites the people to defend their territory against the aggression of an unfaithful Bush. The figureheads of the Iraqi regime claim to be sure that God is on their side, and that they will make “Satan” fail in his attempt to subjugate their country. In the end, for Bush as well as for Hussein, God is on their side, and they claim his name to legitimate the destruction of the adversary.

After the middle - ages, the term “Holly War” was connected, in the West, with the most vile features of humankind. The worst crimes were committed in the name of an ideal. As a matter of fact, the West was not the first one to use certain religious beliefs to subjugate other territories. With the modern age, thanks to the new perspectives about the sacred and the profane, people began to reject the notion of religious wars and the holly military campaigns.

Europeans are probably more sensitive about the holly war. They are, from afar, those who have suffered the most and who have made others suffer the destruction that the holly wars bring. That is why they have been the first ones to realize how wrong the present war is. The Old Continent could be a mirror for human kind, as long as humankind is willing to leave behind the most violent times in history. It would be convenient to point out some considerations about how dangerous it would be for the present to go back to the time when religion legitimized the military conquests.

It is not enough to remember how people have suffered for the cause of the holly wars. The “enlightened” leaders usually become bloodthirsty dictators who believe that they own their towns. The Iraqi people live an experience of this kind with Sadam Hussein. In the case of Bush, there is no doubt that his main victim will not be the American People. The solid democracy of the United States is an impassable barricade against any outrage of the aspiring dictator. However, the same cannot be said about the rest of the humanity. Bush’s actions are destroying the little that has been accomplished in terms of a multilateral negotiation of the world’s crisis. The angel that he has seen walking through the storm will bring death and destruction for the most vulnerable people.

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Economy

The productive restructuring of the Salvadoran agricultural sector

 

Most people know about the difficult situation that the Salvadoran agricultural sector is going through, as it is presently experimenting one of the strongest crisis of history. The crisis has mostly affected the coffee-growing branch. The coffee-growing farmers intend to reactivate the national coffee-growing park, but they feel that the government has overlooked their requests. The offer of coffee has increased all over the world, that is why the prices went considerably down at an international level, and the countries that have traditionally cultivated coffee –formerly called “the gold grain”- are going through a difficult situation.

The Minister of Agriculture and Cattle-Raising, Salvador Urrutia Loucel, has stated that one of the measures to resolve the crisis of the coffee and the agricultural sector in general would be to restructure and diversify the production. For the present government, which definitively agrees with the opinion of the ARENA candidates who run for congress, this policy would combine perfectly with a trade agreement with the United States. However, a measure of this nature would end with the cultivation of those products that have traditionally characterized the agricultural productive apparatus: coffee, cotton, and sugar cane. These products have become less exportable along the last few years.

The average value of the traditional exportation increased each year by $4000,000, between 1986 and 1989. While during the early nineties (1990-1993), the average value of the exportations was approximately $250,000 per year; this means that the exportation of traditional products was reduced by 37%. Therefore, the most reasonable decision would be to promote a productive diversification in order to export non-traditional products to the international market -the United States, in this case- and reactivate the Salvadoran agricultural sector. That is why the spokespeople of the Flores administration have stated that “a true agricultural restructuring should be consolidated with the cultivation of –especially- vegetables and tropical fruits”.

To talk about a “productive diversification” is not to talk about just any subject. Such an economic process has plenty of implications that must be considered in technical terms. It would be important to analyze if the country can carry on with an actual productive agricultural restructuring. To make such analysis, it would be important to realize that a decision of that nature cannot be easily made.

In the first place, to restructure and diversify the agricultural sector means to understand what are the most essential requirements to transform the agricultural productive structure. For instance, there have been many families who through the years have managed to survive by cultivating the traditional products: coffee, cotton, and sugar cane. It would be necessary to ask if these families would have the versatility to change and move on to another agricultural economic activity that, even if it will not be radically different from other activities, could require certain specific abilities that people do not have. In other words, once the productive transformation is launched, the question is how many farmers will be willing to (trained or not) become involved in a productive activity that is actually unknown for them, in technical terms.

Certain considerations would have to be made, and they involve a couple of interesting aspects:
- The economic cost would have to be evaluated (in order to cultivate vegetables and fruits).
- It would be necessary to analyze the nature of the desired products (or the viability of such project).

To cultivate vegetables is not necessarily a profitable activity, and it demands a high level of production expenses. In addition, there are certain kinds of vegetables that need plenty of attention during its development. Therefore, to cultivate this kind of products demands an adequate knowledge and a certain number of technical and financial resources that are not available for most of the farmers.

On the other hand, it has been said that the nature of such products is not immediately profitable. In other words, if a small farmer chooses to cultivate fruits and vegetables he needs to consider how long it will take to recuperate the investment. Certainly it would be a considerably long period in the case of the fruit. During this time, the farmer would not have a specific economic activity. In addition, in order to make an investment, it would be necessary to count with a kind of credit suitable to the needs of the farmers who choose to cultivate fruits and vegetables. In order to develop a good distribution at both the local and the international markets, it would be necessary to have an adequate transportation system, since the cultivation of vegetables and fruits can only take place during a certain season, and the products require immediate transportation.

Several situations in South America show that a process of this kind, if it intends to be successful, demands a considerable participation of the state. A productive restructuring establishes a series of responsibilities for the state’s apparatus. The state has to have a certain amount of resources in order to invest on training, technology and supplies. However, by observing the activity of the present economic model, it is clear that the agricultural sector has been forgotten and that, on the contrary, what is important for the present government is to reduce the size of the public sphere in order to improve the performance of the market.

It is clear that those who speak about a conversion and a diversification of the production do it in a very superficial manner. It seems as if when some people refer to a change for the agricultural system, they are not considering certain essential aspects. It is necessary to wonder if it would be actually possible to achieve a productive restructuring for the Salvadoran agricultural system, mostly if it is realized that many small farmers are reluctant to leave behind the particular cultivation that they have traditionally worked on for years. A forum called “Malnutrition at the coffee-growing areas of El Salvador” took place. By the end of this forum a series of short, mid and long-term measures were proposed in order to achieve the welfare of the coffee-growers. Among the different plans that were made public, they practically never consider the conversion and the productive diversification as a strategy. This situation might make people think that, perhaps, for a good number of coffee-growers, it is very difficult to change their minds. The agricultural diversification does not only involve the technical aspects, but also those circumstances that are connected with the rural culture of the country.

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