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Proceso 1144
May 11, 2005
ISSN 0259-9864
Editorial: The level of intervention increases in the country
Politics: The capricious nationalism of Saca
Economy: The economic conjunction of the U.S.A. and its impact on the Salvadoran economy
The level of intervention increases in the country
President Saca sees in the visit of the Foreign
Affairs’ Official of the United States a definitive ratification of the
friendship with Washington. However, the visit was short and almost on a
technical scale in the long trip of the public official, from Chile to
Washington; the private meeting with the President was brief, and the subjects
discussed in it followed a previously written script. The official did not even
spend the night in San Salvador, but she left the country that same night. The
visit, in itself, did not bring anything new. In a few words, it was good
because it was short and brief.
The Free Trade Agreement is a priority for the White House, but this one cannot
guarantee its approval, because the agreement is going through an anxious debate
in the Congress. There is a promise to reform the immigration law, something
that would favor, in theory, the Salvadoran emigrants; however, there will not
be an amnesty, and there is not a word about the temporary permit to work, which
is due on September, 2006. There is another promise to continue working on the
issue connected with the gangs. And, finally, a recognition to the Salvadoran
troops for their presence in Iraq, whose humanitarian mission of reconstruction
remains unclear. Yet, the visit left some results for the Saca administration,
because the American official acknowledged the Salvadoran experience in the
fight for democracy and freedom, a couple of extremely important subjects for
the United States, because with them it justifies its interventions in the
world. She also “realized” that the government of ARENA has brought prosperity
to the country. And there were compliments for the Salvadoran chancellor, who
would have allegedly contributed with the construction of a consensus in the
Organization of American States.
The simple and the optimistic perspectives assure that this visit shows how
interested the United States are in the continent, to the south of Rio Grande.
The Salvadoran right wing feels honored by the fact that the Foreign Affairs’
Official of the imperial power has actually noticed this small country to pay a
visit. It looks as if it were at the height of the great ones of the Latin
American continent, but the substance of the visit and the time granted to El
Salvador show the opposite. It was such an irrelevant visit that, on the
following day, it vanished from the most important news media as if it had never
occurred. Nevertheless, the presence of advisers, American officers and soldiers
has increased in the country.
Several agents of the FBI added themselves to the actions of the advisers of the
police and the soldiers of the military base of Comalapa. Officially, this is a
coordination between both governments to control the gangs. Therefore, it is a
direct and an open interference in the internal affairs and none of the
governments has the scruples to admit it. The plan of the FBI goes beyond the
Salvadoran borders, because it also intends to intervene in the Guatemalan and
the Honduran territory. It is a higher level of coordination to organize legal
investigations, operations, intelligence actions and proceedings. Washington has
chosen El Salvador over the other Central American countries by the good
disposition of the Salvadoran police to accept this kind of intervention. The
presence of the American advisers goes back to the first days of the National
Civilian Police. Back in those days, there were European and American advisers,
but the latter did not seem to like the European profile that the institution
was acquiring: it was too independent, too involved with the duties of the
police, in the professional sense. Washington removed the European advisors and
took control of the organization, of the training, and the operations of the
Salvadoran police. It should not seem odd, then, if it now finds a good level of
disposition to “collaborate”, which is something ironic, because the Americans,
in fact, will control those police areas that they might find convenient.
Although they might acknowledge the level of organization, sophistication, and
will to work that the Salvadoran police have, they know very well that their
level of intervention will increase, in other words, this is a public statement
about their incapacity to guarantee an acceptable level of security to the
citizenry. This failure is shared by the Guatemalan and the Honduran police as
well. The “iron fist” and the “friendly” hand security projects have not brought
the expected results. For that reason, Washington has decided to take a direct
control. In the same way, when they saw that they could not rely on the local
police to neutralize the drug trafficking, it intervened in these affairs and
placed a military base in El Salvador. Once in the country, nobody will be able
to prevent that the American agents go from the drug trafficking and the gangs
to investigate and to even organize operations to follow their interests, which,
in a strict sense, are not the duties of a foreign government. This is,
therefore, one more step towards the intervention of the United States in El
Salvador and in the region.
The national press, so susceptible to the participation of foreigners in the
national policy, mainly when they belong to the opposition, has swallowed this
new imperialistic step like a friendly and a promising gesture. It is almost
certain that the FBI will control the important police and intelligence actions,
it will train the Salvadoran officers in those special areas that are considered
necessary to carry out their plans, and will vanish from this territory when the
country loses its present appeal. Perhaps, when they go away, the Salvadoran
police will have acquired some knowledge and new abilities that might increase
their effectiveness. Perhaps it will be more capable to contain delinquency, to
investigate crime and to face the juvenile rebelliousness. Nevertheless, it is
not necessary to forget that nothing of this is a high-priority for the FBI. Its
priority is to guarantee the internal security of the United States and not the
one of El Salvador; if the situation of the latter somehow improves, as the
result of this intervention, they might expect the country to thank them.
The capricious nationalism of Saca
As early as October 30th 2002, in an article published in
this weekly magazine, the attention was on the case of doctor Pedro Enrique
Banchón Rivera, the Ecuadorian that the Saca administration recently expelled
from the country. At the time, the editorialist was horrified by the fact that
the mass media and its staff became informers of the government, under the
pretext that the mentioned doctor had participated in internal political
activities. In addition to the behavior of the journalist-someone called
Bernardo Valiente, according to the note of La Prensa Grafica of October 26th,
2002- who became the eyes and the ears of the government, they also placed their
eyes on something even more simple: to criticize the public opinion of a person
just because he is a foreign citizen. "To be foreign -the text in question
indicated- is not an obstacle to be interested in the problems of the country
which a person visits or the country where he permanently lives in. On the
contrary, it is a sign of decency that we all would have to notice. That it [
such manifestation of decency ] might be forbidden by the law is nothing but a
sample of the obsolescence of the legal systems founded on an archaic
nationalism ".
Over two years later, after those declarations, the Saca administration
fulfilled the dreams of the defenders of the Salvadoran internal policy. In the
line of what the journalist of La Prensa Grafica denounced, the Minister of
Internal Affairs –with an authoritarian attitude and an insulting arrogance-
stated that the Ecuadorian doctor violated the laws of the Republic, and he
expelled him from the country. The contents of the day, without lifting one
finger before the terrible news, seemed pleased with a decision that everyone
saw coming. As it usually happens between the opinion directors, there was no
time to stop and notice the authoritarian vocation of Saca, the capricious
nationalism of the right wing and the selective xenophobia of some ministers of
the government.
The President, who is part of a minority that is still mistreated in the
Salvadoran language, could be a witness of the samples of xenophobia that
characterize some of the members of this society. Saca cannot say that he has
not been offended in more than one occasion because of the connotation of the
word “Turkish” , through which some Salvadorans usually show their scorn towards
the descendants of the Palestinian people, who started coming to the country in
the beginning of the last century. The President, as the son of immigrants, must
perfectly know what means to be stigmatized, and to stand contemptuous
expressions about his ethnic roots, and suffer a certain kind of discrimination
in the country.
There was more than one reason for the President to act in a moderate fashion
during his intervention the day after Banchón was expelled from the country, he
should have prevented the media from exuding such arrogance, just like the one
shown by the police of the frontiers’ brigade and by both the ministers of
Security and Internal Affairs. Nothing of the kind happened. Saca declared
without hesitating that he had issued the order to expel the Ecuadorian doctor.
It was clear, of course, that he did not seem to care that this doctor has a
family in El Salvador, and that now these people do not have the right to be
near him.
In this context, the expulsion of doctor Banchón fundamentally recalls all the
ingredients of an authoritarian and a xenophobic State . The arrogance of the
authorities has arrived at such levels that the public officials of the official
party do not even hesitate to repress the actions of the delegates of the Office
for the Defense of the Human Rights (PDDH, in Spanish). Cynicism has reached
such high levels between the congressmen of ARENA, that some of them threaten to
dismiss Beatrice de Carrillo, the director of the formerly mentioned
institution, because of the behavior of her employees.
This is one more element to measure the authoritarian behavior of the right wing
that yearns to govern El Salvador without any kind of opposition. It is not
possible to understand that the controversy about the performance of the public
officials of the PDDH continues, when a judge already has closed the case. In
any serious country, where democracy reigns, the public officials who promoted
the measure would have to hide before the requests of explanation made by the
citizenry’s opinion. However, opposite to what happens in the civilized
countries, in El Salvador, those that in trouble are indeed the defenders of the
individual liberties.
Considerably, the lack of sensibility of the public opinion about the
circumstances and the meaning of the expulsion of the Ecuadorian doctor is due,
on the one hand, to the fact that the government manipulates the sense of
nationalism; and, on the other hand, to the inconsistent idea of identity of
this country. It is surprising to see that in this subject the fact that El
Salvador is a country of immigrants does not mean anything, a place where,
through history, the citizens have moved to other places trying to improve their
situation. In addition, a certain feeling of schizophrenia has reached such a
level of cynicism, that some people forget that also the Salvadorans who live
abroad have essential and basic rights to protect.
The governmental decision about the alleged political activities of doctor
Banchón and his later expulsion, took place in a period close to the visit of
several Salvadoran public officials to the border line between Mexico and the
United States. As it usually happens, the members of the committee represented
by ARENA, according to the press, affected before the inhospitable environment
of the obstacles that the compatriots must leave behind to make their "American
dream" come true, did not establish any relations with the reality of the
foreigners who live in the Salvadoran ground. At the same time that some people
demand respect for the rights of the Salvadorans who live abroad, it would be
necessary to start respecting those of the foreign residents in our country.
However, for the political authorities of the right wing, nationalism does not
have much to do with the rights of the foreign people. They negatively and
viciously followed the words of the retrograde Foreign Law, that commands to
expel from the country all foreigners who a minister might consider as people
involved in the internal politics. However, for a sense of decency or for some
sense of justice, it would be possible to think that they have to interpret the
laws and involve the justice courts in these cases, as indeed indicates the
Constitution, and not make decisions based on the opinion of a handful of
allergic politicians to any kind of opposite thoughts, especially if they are
sustained by a foreign person.
The superficial nationalism that the public officials from ARENA rave about is
not very realistic. They are the same people that, just to make a few more
dollars, usually become the allies of the international bourgeoisie. They have
not skimped on efforts either to look for external support whenever they have
thought that their political hegemony is in danger, as they have made it evident
with the clamorous interventions of American public officials in the last
electoral campaign or in the case of the accounts that came from Taiwan.
The facts connected with the expulsion of doctor Banchón Rivera cannot be
analyzed but as a capricious nationalism and a sample of selective xenophobia.
But the most serious aspect of the subject it is the lack of conscience of most
of the citizens and the continuous harassment against the PDDH, because of the
employee’s performance on the subject. The unconsciousness of the Salvadorans
prevents them from digging deeper into the subject, and to demand an explanation
from the public officials who, obviously, went too far with the help of their
duties. In addition, the harassment against the PDDH shows that the culture of
human rights, the observation, and the control of the public authorities has
still not reached the conscience of the right wing public officials.
The economic conjunction of the U.S.A. and its impact on the Salvadoran economy
The last news about the performance of the American economy
are not very encouraging for the country. Recently, The Wall Street Journal
announced that inflation appears as a threat, worse than a possible economic
deceleration in the U.S.A. According to several economists, the signals of a low
level of growth in the North American country tend to disappear. In the last
months, especially in April, the absorption of the labor force has increased,
surpassing the expectations of the specialists.
For some people, a higher level of dynamism in the North American economy is the
good news for the local companies, because an increase of the North American
level of importation might mean a higher level of sales for the country.
Nevertheless, this is moderately certain, because El Salvador does not depend
exclusively on the behavior of the North American real economy, but also of the
changes that the U.S.A. make in their monetary policy.
According to the American newspaper, an increase of the number of people who
work in the United States could generate an increase in the prices. In fact, for
some experts, the increase on the prices of petroleum, combined with a certain
increase in the volume of the labor force, can make pressure towards an
inflation process. Specifically, it is usually mentioned that "as the labor
market expands itself and the workers start having more power to negotiate
salaries and benefits, it is possible that the labor costs increase. That, at
the same time, would give to the employers a higher level of incentives to
elevate the prices and to protect the level of profits".
In most of the cases, the United States searches for stable prices, and that is
why it constantly increases the interest rates to control the monetary flow.
Some economists consider that, although inflation is not a reality yet, a
feeling of inflationary pressure is present in the economy. In this context, the
Secretary of the American Treasure, Alan Greenspan, decided to get ahead and
take a step beyond these pressures increasing by several points the rate of
federal funds, and it is probable that this kind of tendency continues.
How does this affect the Salvadoran economy? Its behavior depends on the
monetary variables in the U.S.A.. Due to the dollarization process and to the
foreign trade with the United States, the behavior of the index of prices and
the types of interest would tend to be similar. In a context of economic
stagnation of the country a certain increase on the prices of the products that
come from the U.S.A., and an increase on the interest rates can intensify the
negative aspects of the country’s economic situation.
In this sense, it is possible to notice how the dollarization of the economy
becomes a negative aspect when two countries with the same currency go through
different situations. It is evident that the U.S.A. tries to adjust its monetary
policy to the behavior of real variables; however, El Salvador, by yielding the
control of the monetary supply to the American Federal Reserve, has no choice
but to accept these dispositions.
Although the U.S.A. has not totally closed the cycle of economic deceleration,
everything seems to indicate that the country might be about to take off. A
growing level of labor force inside the American industry can sustain this
possibility. But in El Salvador nothing of the sort is happening. The economy is
still in a phase of economic stagnation and, even worse, the demand does not
seem to be reaching a reactivation process in the labor market. In other words,
we are before two different economic conjunctions.
Given the national economic conjunction, it is ironic to see how dollarization
becomes an obstacle, and not a benefit, because it is a mechanism that transmits
to El Salvador the monetary adjustments that the U.S.A. adopts. It is evident
that a different monetary policy is expected, in order to respond to equally
different economic conjunctions. However, everything seems to indicate that this
factor was not been seriously considered by those who decided to dollarize the
country.
Monetary regimes are not some sort of "shield" offering economic stability for a
country. This was one of the most defended theses by those who implemented this
measure. In the context of dollarizaton, the country is characterized by
increasing prices, by the lack of private investments, a high unemployment
level, and, in general, a low economic performance.
According to the Salvadoran Foundation for the Social and the Economic
Development (FUSADES, in Spanish), one of the expectations for this year is the
increase of the investments. Nevertheless, if the transmission of the increase
of the interest rates in the U.S.A. to the country can take place immediately,
it is probable that many of the investments do not take shape. Several months
ago, the Salvadoran banking system realized that it had been absorbing a portion
of the increase in the costs of the credits, but that in the future they would
no longer do that because they run the risk of having a loss. That is why it is
probable that the national market of credit will be able to respond faster to
the variations of the North American interest rates, and this might not be
favorable for many of the private investment projects for this year.
This is a sample of what happens when the leaders of a country, instead of
designing a strategy of economic development based on a consensus between
diverse national sectors, they tend to impose economic measures that obey,
mainly, to particular interests. In the last presidential periods of ARENA, two
economic measures have been presented as solutions to the crisis: dollarization
and the negotiation of the Free Trade Agreement. The first measure, as it has
been mentioned before, shows how inefficient it has been as a strategy to
reactivate the country’s economy. And the second one seems to be the
quintessential weapon of the present government. It is not possible to deny that
a commercial connection with the U.S.A. can give a certain dynamic feeling to
the local economy, but some are obviously against focusing all of the attention
and all of the efforts in a measure of that nature.
Recently, the Salvadoran President, in a visit to the U.S.A., said that "It is
urgent. The region can no longer wait for its approval, because there are no
specific and no viable alternatives to the CAFTA ". That means, according to the
President, that the country does not have any opportunities to reach a higher
level of development without the commercial agreement. But the President also
mentioned that the other choice "would be the industrialization of the country,
and the creation of incentives to attract the investments".
The conversion and reactivation of the national productive apparatus is what
ARENA has not been able to do in the last 15 years. For that reason, now it
thinks that the Free Trade Agreement between Central America, the Dominican
Republic and the U.S.A. (CAFTA-RD) will be the key for development. Once again,
the governmental responsibility to increase the development level is put on hold
in order to pay attention to measures that probably will not bring benefits to
all the Salvadorans. It is important to count with a program of economic
development, with a certain level of autonomy and stop promoting the "dependent
economy" that characterizes the country.
Tel: +503-210-6600 ext. 407, Fax: +503-210-6655 |