Editorial

The Internationalization of justice

Politics

The unification of the PDC?

Economy

On the question of interest rates

Society

A strike in the national civilian police? A remote possibility?

News Briefs

THE INTERNATIONALIZATION OF JUSTICE

Convened by the United Nations, the community of nations is meeting in Rome to establish an International Criminal Court which would try those accused of crimes against humanity, crimes against human rights and war crimes which national courts refuse to try. This proposal is the product of a new international consciousness of the need to put an end to the impunity of those criminals who commit crimes convinced that they will not be investigated or tried for them.

In Argentina, former President Videla, the general who led the coup d'etat to end so-called communist subversion, was jailed for the second time. Previously President Menem pardoned him and freed him from life imprisonment for torture, assassination and the disappearance of Argentine citizens. This time he faces charges for the kidnapping of children born in the prisons. The accusation is directed against several former generals and civilians. Moreover, several Argentine military officials face charges for obtaining illegal profits from the properties of those assassinated or disappeared.

In San Jose, Costa Rica, the InterAmerican Human Rights Court of the Organization of American States is hearing charges presented against the government of Guatemala for the assassination of a member of the guerrilla. In Europe, tribunals hearing the cases of ex-Nazi officers accused of the assasination of Jews as well as military officials responsible for the ethnic "cleansing" in the Balkans.

In El Salvador, on the other hand, the justice system is ignoring as best it can the assassination of three religious women and a lay collaborator in 1980. Notwithstanding the declarations of some of the material authors of the crime, who are about to leave prison under the benefit of new penal legislation and who have declared that they received orders from their superiors, the Salvadoran judicial system is not demonstrating any interest in reopening the case. The declarations of the material authors of the crime confirm the findings of the Truth Commission which identifies military officers who issued such orders. To allege that the crime has been annulled is a legal sleight of hand. It is true that, at the time, the crime was classified as a common crime in order to eliminate the possibility that those who were guilty might avail themselves of the amnesty law. In reality, the rape and assassination of the four women is a crime against humanity and therefore cannot, under international law, be annulled.

For the Salvadoran government, these crimes are outside the realm or reach of justice because of the amnesty law which fulfills its objective in this way. According to this criterion, the amnesty law would qualify as the only measure and rule of what is good and just. Supported by this law and only because they have not been found guilty of the crimes of which they are accused, many criminals and delinquents are attempting to pass as decent citizens. And what is worse, many well-intentioned Salvadorans fall into the trap of accepting that this act as an unavoidable fact of the state of law. It is not surprising, then, that astonishment and concern predominant in this separation between law and justice.

A very common strategy is to lead one to think that law can operate in an unlimited way in dealing with reality. As a result, it is said to be sufficient, in this mode of thinking, to consecrate in the Constitution or a law the right to something so that all members of the society will actually be able to enjoy that right or produce a law for modifying the situation. On not a few occasions, goods offered are not compatible with or are reconciled among themselves only with great difficulty. In the case we are considering, the law has been invoked in order to avoid the application of justice. The law is defended, but impunity is simultaneously confirmed. The existence of a state of law implies the subjection of the law to justice, but it is necessary always to indicate which is the law, where it should be sought and who establishes it. These are very ancient questions which were posed by the Athenians in Classical Greece. Without clarifying the appropriate form of these considerations, the basis of the state of law is undermined: and thus an effect contrary to that formally sought is the result.

For a long time it was thought that rights were synonymous with law, given that the law was dictated by representatives of the people. Later, when this basis was questioned, it was alleged that the law was the general and abstract norm, and, therefore, the same for everyone. Finally, it is only adduced that it is the law. And faced with the insufficiency of that argument, the Constitution is declared to encompass the content of the state. But constitutional precepts are necessarily general and inevitably imprecise, dealing more with efficient policies than with judicial matters in a rigorous manner. These precepts, therefore, ought to be made palpable and specific by the legislators and, in the last analysis, by the judge. So it is that, parting from the premise of a legal state of law , a judicial state is achieved. If the subjection of the state to the law only means subjection to a judge, any action which makes difficult the access of citizens to the tribunals, or which limits the freedom of citizens, or which considers them to form part of the state itself against which one must defend them, is equivocal and perverse.

Constitutional jurisdiction is the highest point of a state of law, but this does not guarantee its existence in reality. The gravest danger is a result of the progressive destruction of its ordinary jurisdiction. Frustration reigns among the citizenry because their expectations, when they confront a power which has been assured to them as the final guarantee of democracy, are not satisfied. For this reason, it becomes even more impossible to suffer the defects of justice. Even more serious, still, is the frustration arising from decisions simply supported by the law to which, according to what has been affirmed, judges themselves are subject when this does not contradict justice. So it is that the judges have established themselves as a intermediate power between the state and society, and this is made legitimate only by their service to the law. But this ancient principle flounders when the rights which are served are the rights which they themselves create.

The protection of the international courts may be sought when justice is laid aside in national tribunals which invoke the law. In this sense, the international community is acquiring a new consciousness of its responsibilities with regard to justice. The world then opens up not only to enjoying the world of football, but also to requiring judgment for crimes from those who, under the protection of impunity, have violated the right to life, which is guaranteed to all.

THE UNIFICATION OF THE PDC?

In February of this year, the Christian Democratic Party (PDC) once again became news because of a schism in its ranks: a movement intent on causing a takeover had as its objective that of putting an end to the period of office of Mr. Ronal Umaña. With this aim in mind, a National Convention was convoked and supported by 82% of the members of the PDC who may exercise the right to vote. In the convention, a new leadership body was elected and former diplomat Horacio Trujillo was ratified as Secretary General and Mr. Jorge Barrera--deputy and bitter opponent of Mr. Umaña--was ratified as head of the PDC faction in the Legislative Assembly.

The fact that an electoral prosecuting attorney, sent by the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) to evaluate the legitimacy of the event, supported the election made one think that, effectively, Mr. Umaña would be replaced by Mr. Trujillo and that, with this, new possibilities would open for the party in its interminable crisis. Nevertheless, contradicting the prognostications offered at that time (see PROCESO, 794) the TSE opted to ratify Mr. Umaña in his post, thereby dampening the hopes of those who had attempted the takeover.

So then, it is not surprising that this was not the first time that party interests were to be discovered at the heart of the TSE. The case of Electoral Magistrate Eduardo Colindres is an indication that the body charged with guaranteeing the correct functioning of the political parties and correct procedures in the electoral processes has not yet achieved the impartiality one might have expected of it. Problems for the PDC Electoral Magistrate began when, in 1996, Mr. Ronal Umana bested Mr. Carlos Claramount, the General Secretary of the party. A short time afterwards, Mr. Colindres--who heels to the line headed by Mr. Claramount--was removed from his post in the TSE for the first time by mandate of the PDC, the PCN and ARENA parties. Since that time, a succession of removals from office, cases and motions before the Supreme Court have weighed upon the shoulders of Mr. Colindres.

The most recent argument brandished about by Mr. Umaña in order to justify his interest in removing the Electoral Magistrate of his party from office is that, should the party favor Mr. Trujillo, he would have been both "judge and interested party" in the matter of the takeover movement. It is frivolous to say that such an argument is unsustainable because if this is the reason that Mr. Colindres merits removal from the TSE, why was the struggle for his removal from office begun in 1996 when the effort to bring down Mr. Umaña took place only in February of this year?

It would be redundant to say that, as there has been ground given for internal PDC struggles within the TSE itself indicates that there is much to be desired on the question of the TSE's impartiality. In spite of the support given by the electoral attorney to the last PDC National Convention, the fact that the TSE could then have ratified Mr. Ronal Umaña as Secretary General of the party allows room for the existence of many doubts. Moreover, the fact that the stubbornness of Mr. Umaña in attempting to remove Mr. Colindres from the TSE--and action which can perhaps be attributed more to a desire for revenge than to a genuine desire that objectivity to be obtained in that body--easily finds a such a facile echo, without that electoral body having emitted any decision on the matter--cannot help but awaken suspicions.

But beyond the clear bias towards right-wing interests which appear to predominate in the TSE when it is a question of resolving problems among the Christian Democrats, it is important to show up Mr. Ronal Umaña's new initiative: that of unifying the PDC. One must certainly take note of the fact that it is the very instigator of the most recent schism in that political party who now wishes to bring about the unification of that same party. It is obvious that it is a question of a simple opportunistic move within that party during this pre-electoral year. It would be only with the greatest difficulty that Mr. Umaña is truly interested in achieving internal unity among the rank and file of the PDC. His conduct has made clear that anything can happen in the PDC and even the party's image can be sacrificed so that he might maintain his position which he succeeded in obtaining only as a result of and after a shameful dispute.

One cannot help but notice the fact that while, on the one hand, Mr. Umaña performs even the impossible in an effort to remove Mr. Eduardo Colindres from the TSE and maintain Deputies Julio Samayoa and Jorge Barrera inexplicably on the fringes of the regulations of the party he leads--given that these two were his allies in the fight against Mr. Claramount--,while on the other hand he declares that Mr. Horacio Trujillo and the rest of the party dissidents could come back in and form part of that Christian Democracy. "I do believe that it is possible to unify the PDC. It is a question of work and a lot of discipline," the PDC Secretary has declared. What he did not specify is what exactly he understands by the word discipline. Perhaps it means, above all else, maintaining silence when faced with deviations and accepting the fact that it will be he himself who makes the decisions.

So, then, the General Secretary of the PDC contradicts with his own acts his supposed goal of party unification. Even without taking into account the fact that Christian Democracy in El Salvador has been characterized more by crises and ruptures than by work and efforts toward the restoration of democracy, to imagine that the diverse groups which make up that party could really come to unify themselves is almost out of the question. To begin with, Mr. Ronal Umaña can, only with difficulty, lead unification efforts with any authority when he not only instigated the notoriously scandalous rupture of 1996, but was also the principle actor in a new internal intrigue just a few months ago.

In this sense, it is absurd to think that work and discipline will achieve unity in that party. Splinters and ruptures among the Christian Democrats are related to distinctive conceptions of politics among the members, to ideological disagreements, to power struggles--in the end, matters which have nothing to do with much work and discipline. On the other hand, the call to dissidents to reincorporate themselves into the party borders on madness or cynicism or both. How is it that Mr. Umaña feels that he has the authority to propose to those who are not in conformity with the party to return to it when he himself is the cause of their unconformity? How does he have the nerve to propose unification when he himself is the cause of dissension?

The only possible unification of the PDC while Mr. Ronal Umaña continues as its General Secretary is that which it is obliged to maintain as the electoral race of 1999 approaches. That the "takeover group" decides to hold faithfully to the Umaña mandate is largely improbable; on the other hand, it is not improbable if, with Mr. Umana at the head of the Christian Democrats, the party continues to be an appendage of ARENA and never achieves its own identity. In order to achieve true unity among the PDC rank and file, two things would be necessary, at least in principle: these are, first of all, that if Ronal Umaña might be disposed to leave the office he currently holds and thereby accept the decision of the party majority; and, second of all, that all members of the party, conscious of the necessity to abandon a servile and dependent attitude towards ARENA, forge a real PDC identity.

ON THE QUESTION OF INTEREST RATES

During recent months, the levels of interest rates have been strongly criticized by the country's academic and business sectors. The principle doubts posed, in the first place, are that the active interest rates--those charged on loans--are unjustifiably high and, secondly, that the margins of financial mediation which the banks charge are also too high. Faced with this, representatives of the financial sector are making efforts to affirm that the interest rates charged in El Salvador are the lowest in all of Latin America and that the national bank is one of the most efficient in the region.

But what is certain is that even the business sector itself, to which the bank belongs, has noted the need to reduce interest rates in order to stimulate more vigorous growth in investment, production and employment, just as the Salvadoran Chamber of Commerce for Construction (CASALCO) has noted previously. In reality, the functioning of the Salvadoran bank has been the object of debate and reform since its creation at the end of the 19th century. Curiously, many of the doubts presented more than a century ago continue to be alive, as a brief review of history will indicate. Between 1880 and 1934 the existing banks functioned in a relatively autonomous fashion, extending short term credits at high rates of interest until the Banco Central de Reserva and the Banco Hipotecario were created: the first with the intent to regulate the extension of credit and "el medio circulante", and the second in order to fulfill the demand for long term credit with preferential interest rates for the agricultural and livestock sector.

From 1934 to 1960 the coffee-growing, commercial and banking sectors utilized the BCR which then tried to exculpate itself and make amends by becoming a state enterprise regulated by the Monetary Junta, created in 1973. In spite of these reforms, credit continued to be concentrated in the hands of a small group of patrons; an effort to reverse this phenomenon was placed in motion after 1980 with the appropriation of the bank by the state. At the end of the 1980's, critics of the nationalization of the bank pointed out that it was technically bankrupt in that it demonstrated unfavorable micro- and macroeconomic efficiency indicators, aggravated by its inability to achieve its goal of eliminating discrimination in the extension of credits.

Coinciding with the political movements at the beginning of that decade, the bank was re-privatized after 1990 and currently, over and above the elements pointed out at the beginning, confronts a series of challenges related to the concentration of properties in the hands of the traditional big businessmen. What is presented below is an effort to present the problematic of interest rates and margins of financial intermediation, with the objective of establishing the fact that petitions in favor of a reduction of active rates of interest are justifiable.

According to an article entitled "The Salvadoran Bank: Its Efficiency and the Tendency towards Lower Interest Rates", published in the magazine Unidad Empresarial [Business Unity], a publication of the National Association of Private Enterprise (ANEP): "the Salvadoran bank is among the most efficient, pays one of the highest real interest rates on the average for deposits (passive rate) and charges a real interest rate on the average (active rate) below the average of other Latin American countries, according to data reported by the Latin American Federation of Banks (FELABAN) as of December of 1997". According to the same source, active interest rates were 16%, while passive rates were 12.7%, which implies that the margin of intermediation or difference among the active and passive rates was only 3.3%. This situates El Salvador in second place with respect to the lowest margins of financial intermediation in Latin America.

If one compares this data with data from national sources, a series of questions arises. Interest rates charged, in fact, by one of the two major banks in the country--Cuscatlan and Agrícola Comercial--, which are very similar to those charged by the other banks, reveals a very different state of affairs. Interest rates on deposits can go beyond 10% only with difficulty; worse yet, interest rates paid on savings account deposits (which represent about 30% of total deposits) is scarcely 4%. So it is that the allegation of an average rate of interest at 12.7% in December 1997 is difficult to accept.

On the other hand, interest rates charged on loans can reach a minimum of 6% in order to implement relatively low-profit projects (such as reforestation), but in practice these credits are not significant bank operations. In truth, the lowest interest rate in effect is 16% for the purchase of housing, but it can go up to 23% in the case of personal or consumption loans, although these last are not significant bank operations either. In any case, 16% interest rates mentioned by FELABAN, would correspond less to an average figure than to a minimum which is currently charged.

If we combine the previous figures we would arrive at margins of intermediation, at least in the case of the banks indicated, which are much higher than those posed by FELABAN. A person with a savings account who is, at the same time, a borrower of consumer loans, is paying, in reality, an astronomical 19% as a margin of intermediation, without considering commissions. A businessmen, though, could be paying up to 6% for the same thing.

A figure for the margin of intermediation accepted even by the President of the Salvadoran Banking Association, Mr. Archie Baldocci, and calculated by the BCR, is that of 5.1%, which, by all manner of thinking, is greater than the 3.3% calculated by FELABAN and does not take into consideration the effect of elevated commissions which the banking system charges.

Without doubt, it is necessary to depend the study of interest rate averages, but a rapid review shows that existing data does not reflect the true situation facing patrons because the banks continue their old practice of short term lending at high interest rates. What characterizes the present moment is the fact that the bank is now an economic power in and of itself. This is to say that it is not subordinate to the interests of any other business group, as it was in the past to the coffee-growing sector. Banking has now become one of the most dynamic and profitable economic activities, as, in their time, were coffee and cotton growing.

Probably owing to the aforementioned, the national bank appears to have lost its perspective of what its true functions should be, especially that function which is related to serving as an intermediary for the achievement of savings and the financing of its investment. Higher rates on deposits would encourage savings, while lower rates on credits could stimulate investment. Criteria for fixing interest rates could be to achieve a margin of financial intermediation closer to 3% and not 5%, as the BCR declares to be the case currently.

It is impossible to deny that the criteria which establishes the functioning of the bank is that of maximum benefit and not that of encouraging productive investment, although one cannot blame it for this because it acts on the basis of the criteria of private enterprise and not as an agent for development. Even so, it is an undeniable necessity for the financial system to significantly reduce its interest rates and orient the extension of credits toward the productive sector if it wishes to focus the country on a process of economic growth with stability.

A STRIKE IN THE NATIONAL CIVILIAN POLICE? A REMOTE POSSIBILITY?

In El Salvador, according to the Salvadoran Association of Freight Transport of Central America (ASETCA), in the last six months of this year, 200 cargo trailer transport trucks have been assaulted with a resulting loss of 72 million colones. During the same period, police and financial sources report assaults on at least 30 banks without there having been even one arrest of those responsible. During the first three months of 1998, police statistics indicate a total of 1092 stolen vehicles and 966 assaults. Between January and May in the Rosales Hospital alone, 452 persons have been attended for having been wounded by firearms and 548 for knife wounds.

Faced with these statistics it is difficult not to agree with President Calderón Sol and the Public Security Commission of the Legislative Assembly: the fight against crime during this year has not yielded fruit. Armed assaults have not only multiplied--and with them the number of victims who have died--,but also organized gangs of delinquents seem to be professionalizing themselves in techniques and procedures: brutal and uncontrolled assaults are giving way to carefully planned attacks: bankers and business and freight transport businessmen can vouch for this.

But one cannot agree with the President when he holds the PNC exclusively responsible for the serious situation in terms of criminal delinquency through which the country is passing. With this the president has piled error upon error: on the one hand, it does not take into account the need to design an integrated plan for fighting crime (see Proceso, 811) and, on the other, it proposes a solution which, because it is based on an unreal evaluation of the structural problems of the PNC, emphasizes the quantitative and not qualitative aspects of the persecutory dimension of this phenomenon and not in its complementary functions of investigation and intelligence work. The curious aspect of the case is that presidential recrimination has found an echo among the leadership of the PNC.

Perhaps with the objective of avoiding becoming wrapped up in the presidential polemic, the higher commanding officers of the PNC accepted the president's indications in silence. And, as a result, proceeded: if the problem in the police force were a lack of willingness on the part of its agents, a generalized lack of attentiveness; if in the members of the PNC a serious commitment to combat crime did not exist, in spite of being able to count on all of the necessary material resources (something which, by all accounts, is unreal and out of line); if the solution implied an increase in the number of agents and not in their qualification (equipment, technical or investigative), what ought to be done was increase the number of service hours for the police agents and cut their periods of vacations with an eye to assuring the presence of a greater number of police in the streets and PNC barracks.

Certainly, with these measures, the leadership of the police force has ingratiated itself with the President, but they are paying a high price: to sacrifice the solidarity and support it owes to their subordinates. The result of this has hardly been reflected in the communications media. With the exception of a report in an afternoon newspaper--which has been neither confirmed nor denied--, in which it is declared that the intermediate ranks and agents of the sub-divisions of the PNC of the whole country would be evaluating the possibility of beginning a strike as a demonstration of discontent with the presidential declarations and the increase in the work schedules, the written press appears to be resisting the deepening of rumors which indicate a profound disagreement inside the PNC for the situation to which it has been subjected in recent days.

Whether generalized discontent in the PNC exists or not, they are being led by the hand of their own leadership onto dangerous terrain in which the possibility that the police officers would proceed to initiate a work stoppage; as extreme a measure as this may seem, it cannot be ignored a priori. The intermediate levels of PNC command and the police line officers have reason to feel betrayed and abandoned by their superior officers, who have, faced with presidential scolding, avoided making public declarations about the deficient materials which the police force has to work with and the human cost that fighting crime has brought with it (an average of one police death daily in confrontations with criminals has been reported).

The recent declarations of the Assistant PNC Police Chief Renzo Martinez have not served precisely to reduce the distance which has slowly built up between the leadership of the PNC and the rest of the police force. Questioned about possible unconformity among the PNC rank and file about a longer work day, Mr. Martinez could only respond with scorn and arrogance. For the Assistant Police Chief, the unconformity of the police officers is nothing to worry about because "just as they came...they can leave; no one is indispensable". An additional commentary concerning the extra hours is the following: "I can say 'no one will go on patrol and that's it', afterwards the policeman is paid...I would offer to pay the extra hours, but possibly the budget would not be sufficient [to cover this]."

So then, PNC policemen and women are at the point of a desperate situation. In addition to the external pressure, they now have to deal with superior officers who make decisions which are more aimed at ingratiating themselves with a president at odds with reality, than with satisfying the needs inside the police force which is generating a new set of circumstances. Obviously this will imply that the policemen are suffering a pattern of lack of motivation and growing frustration. According to all indications. the PNC leadership levels and the President are disposed to achieve an illusory omnipotent presence at the cost of making the policemen tired and disgruntled.

It is worthwhile mentioning that a policeman who is exhausted by long work days and lacking in motivation because he or she is not paid for them, will be a policeman who may very possibly succumb to negligence or the use of excessive force. Among other possible attitudes, this will weigh on the attitudes of respect for human rights and adherence to procedural norms established in penal legislation. In a job in which one risks one's life on a daily basis, subjective motivation and a good salary are indispensable for effective carrying out of their duties; these are truths which are being irresponsibly ignored by the higher levels of PNC leadership.

In the struggle against crime and delinquency, as has already been pointed out, error is accumulating on top of more errors. The intense pressure to which the policemen and women are being subjected is only the last link in the chain of uncertainties-- uncertainties which, on the one hand, will only with difficulty put a brake on the advance of crime in this country and which, on the other, open the doors for conflicts of greater proportions and serious consequences inside the PNC. Assistant Police Chief Martinez is outspoken when he declares that no police agent is "indispensable" among the rank and file for the police force, but what would happen if the policemen and women decide for one single day to demonstrate the importance of their presence with a general strike? That El Salvador needs these men and women a great deal at this time ought to oblige the higher command levels of the police force and the government itself to take a serene, realistic and, above all, responsible attitude.

PNC. On June 16, Mr. Hugo Barrera, the Minister of Public Security, declared that the combat-readiness of the National Civilian Police (PNC) to fight crime had fallen considerably and he stated to the deputies of the Legislative Assembly that the operative capacity of the police force is not sufficient to launch an anti-crime program. The Legislative Commission on Public Security demanded that Mr. Barrera, together with the Police Chief and Assistant Police Chief of the PNC, Mr. Rodrigo Avila and Mr. Renzo Martinez, respectively, should explain what actions are being taken in order to bring the high level of delinquent activity to a halt. Mr. Barrera declared that it was necessary to engage in joint efforts for the police institution to be able to begin to take actions more in accordance with "the difficult moment through which the country is passing". He added that combating and preventing delinquency and crime is not the "exclusive province of the police', but also of other public bodies, he said, referring to the President, the Legislative Assembly, the Attorney General of the Republic and the citizens, who, as he remarked, ought to collaborate in this joint effort. For his part, Mr. Avila stated that the PNC will launch a strong series of activities to fight crime. These consist in increasing deployments in the countryside and in the cities in order to protect Salvadoran families. Likewise, he stated that the police force needed greater financial resources to comply with their duties (LA PRENSA GRAFICA, June 17, p. 4).

MUNICIPALITIES. On June 16 of this year, 262 municipal councils of El Salvador demanded that the General Superintendency for Electricity and Telecommunications (SIGET) effect an audit on the distributors of electrical energy in order to verify if the charges "coincide" with the rates which that body is authorized to charge in the line item for public lighting. Likewise, the mayors, who are resisting the increase in the charges for electric service announced that this measure will probably limit the number of house during which public lighting functions in some of the municipalities of the country as a measure for holding the cost of electricity down. The president of the Departmental Councils of Mayors (CDAs), Mr. Jorge Alberto Chinchilla, said that the municipalities are suffering an increase in the charges for electricity which have been felt since last January when the distributors were privatized and at the same time presented proof of that. On June 18 it was learned that the Economic Commission of the Legislative Assembly conceded to SIGET an extension of three weeks' time to order the energy distributors to comply with the immediate reimbursement to users of excessive charges and the practicing of the two audits on the distributors. If this is not complied with the legislative deputies threatened to reform the law governing distributors so that they can offer better protection to electrical energy users (LA PRENSA GRAFICA, June 17, p. 14 and EL DIARIO DE HOY, June 18, p. 4).

OMBUDSMAN. A new effort to elect the Ombudsman for the Protection of Human Rights was made on June 18 with exactly no results. The heads of faction and general secretaries for the parties which make up the Political Commission met that day without being able to advance the process given that the nine party representatives of the Legislative assembly continue to be divided into two blocks. In one block is to be founds ARENA, PDC, PCN, PLD, PD and CD, all of whom support the candidate Mr. Luis Dominguez. On the other hand, the FMLN and the USC support Mr. Henry Campos The block headed up by ARENA declared that the opposition block is withholding its support for Mr. Dominguez because they consider that it has "a political interest" in Mr. Henry Campos. This declaration was rejected by FMLN representatives who, more over, declared that they would vote only for that person who complies with the requirements laid out in the Constitution. Ms. Nidia Diaz of the FMLN explained that her party does not support Mr. Dominguez because he has judicial proceedings pending against him and because he does not understand the functions the Ombudsman is charged with. For his part, Mr. Ronal Umaña, General Secretary of the PDC, stated the following: "we want the people to know who is holding back the election and who we are [i.e., which parties ] who are in favor of finding a solution so that the Legislative Assembly as an institute is not continually being criticized" (EL DIARIO DE HOY, June 19, p. 8 and LA PRENSA GRAFICA, June 19, p. 5).