Behold, the mountains trembled, and brought forth...:the ombudsman for human rights

The salvadoran economy according to the world bank

The factory of death

BEHOLD, THE MOUNTAINS TREMBLED, AND BROUGHT FORTH...:THE OMBUDSMAN FOR HUMAN RIGHTS

After almost four months of discussion concerning the candidacies for the Ombudsman for the Defense of Human Rights, the deputies for the ARENA party claim to have presented a lesson in democracy and parliamentary debate. What they did, in reality, was present an example of the futility of legislative debates, because, after many ins and outs, they have elected, almost by consensus, a lawyer who does not fulfill the minimal requirements for holding the post given that he lacks the ability to present a recognized history of experience working in human rights, and his moral integrity is being seriously questioned. Given this, what was expected to be a great event in which the mountains trembled, has brought forth, in the person of the new ombudsman, only a record for diluted service to the institutionality of the country. One cannot call having arrived at this decision by consensus a virtue because the person elected is not the ideal candidate.

The votes cast by the FMLN exhibit that party's lack of orientation: it is not acceptable to elect a judge against whom there are case files open in the Supreme Court and in the very office of the Ombudsman for the Defense of Human Rights for obstructing justice, violating due process, misappropriation of funds and accepting money for issuing an order for the release of a person who had been detained. It is, in the best of cases, an act of recklessness to have elected this person without waiting for these files to be closed. It is scandalous to argue, as does the FMLN, that these represent general characteristics of the judicial system and do not constitute grave failings. One of the most violated rights in El Salvador today is precisely the right to due process and access to justice. And even so, it appears that the FMLN places in the post of defender of the people a judge repeatedly questioned for just such violations. The fact that these violations are pervasive does not diminish the gravity of the situation; on the contrary, it increases their gravity.

Mr. Eduardo Peñate is not the appropriate person to head the Ombudsman's Office for the Defense of Human rights because he cannot present a history of work in this area, except for some few courses offered by the Supreme Court and the Judicial Training School. In addition to the open files on Mr. Peñate, he has been called to task for sexual harassment, and, in the courts of the western region of the country it is well known that where he worked there was corruption. But this is not all. In his work as a judge in penal courts he doubled the sentence of one person from four to eight years simply because that person appealed the sentence. The measure was supported by the respective court and even by the Supreme Court. The prisoner sought relief from the Interamerican Commission for Human Rights of the Organization of American States, which ruled in his favor. Before international condemnation could fall upon El Salvador, prison authorities reacted and freed the victim of Judge Peñate.

Nevertheless, legislative deputies congratulated themselves for having agreed among themselves on the situation of Mr. Peñate, after four months of interminable debate, and because Mr. Peñate has no ties to any political party, which, according to the deputies, would guarantee the objectivity of his work. Mr. Peñate, for his part, congratulated himself for having presented himself and his curriculum vitae to the Legislative Assembly as a common, ordinary citizen. That is to say, according to Mr. Peñate himself--and also, according to the FMLN--his candidacy would be the best among all of those presented.

There do not, however, exist an abundance of reasons for self-congratulation. The curriculum vitae of the new ombudsman was presented to the Legislative Assembly by the legislative deputy for the PDC, Mr. Ronal Umaña, whose press secretary took care of the administrative aspects of the case with the various legislative factions. When Mr. Umaña is questioned concerning the work history of Mr. Peñate he can only mention, with any certainty, the courses received, his having been a judge, his adherence to the catholic religion and the friendship which has joined the two of them since childhood. It is not to be wondered at, then, that he should have promised his allies in ARENA that there would be nothing to fear from the new functionary, because he himself would handle him. This should be easy to do given that they are childhood buddies. And if this is not enough, Mr. Peñate is a business partner of Mr. Walter Araujo, head of the ARENA faction--the term "business partner" is used here rather than the term "one of his adepts" ["compinche"], used by one of the independent deputies who voted against him. Mr. Araujo can only be said to have drawn on the wellsprings of cynicism when he urged Mr. Peñate to be independent in carrying out his work with the Ombudsman's office. This is how the Ombudsman's Office for the Defense of Human Rights would have remained under the wings of the Christian Democrats; and it is in this way, as well, that ARENA can be said to have respected the quota of power granted to its unconditional ally. Let it not slip our minds that the first ombudsman was also a Christian Democrat.

The votes of the FMLN deputies, with one honorable exception, made possible the election of Mr. Peñate. In exchange of their votes, Mr. Peñate could have promised the party a quota of power inside the institution, committing himself to maintain a number of persons in their jobs or to name a specific number of persons sympathetic to that left party. Giving the situation a second thought, the FMLN seems to have begun to doubt the political wisdom of their decision, presenting various species of arguments such as the following: that they had to put someone in the post of Ombudsman--someone, moreover, to whom the benefit of doubt must be conceded, but for whom they would not hold their hands over the fire. So then, why did they vote to put someone such as Mr. Peñate in a post where personal and professional integrity is such a key consideration? The benefit of doubt is usually given when there are sufficient reasons for it and not when the evidence indicates that the person chosen is not the ideal or appropriate candidate. The FMLN deputies are not giving the benefit of the doubt but are, instead, hoping that a miracle will occur so that the political costs of their error might to be too high.

In this set of circumstances it is neither reasonable nor prudent to trust the Legislative Assembly. It is true that they have one month in order to investigate whether the candidate chosen is the appropriate one and so ratify this choice in his post, but it would be a novelty if they were not to do so. It is true that Mr. Peñate has not been proven guilty, but his personal conduct and professional work history are being seriously and repeatedly questioned. The election is not a triumph for the Salvadoran people nor does it respond to serious consideration of the situation, as the ARENA head of faction declares. If there is something to be considered, it is either lack of information or malice. The Salvadoran people can hope for nothing from an ombudsman such as the one which the legislative deputies have just imposed upon them.

THE SALVADORAN ECONOMY ACCORDING TO THE WORLD BANK

On June 29 and 30, El Salvador was the site of the Fourth Annual Conference of the World Bank on Development in Latin America and the Caribbean, the principal theme of which was "Banks and Markets for Capital: Solid Financial Systems for the Twenty-First Century". In that meeting the role of the financial system in development was dealt with as was the need for adopting measures to improve its transparency and, with it, reduce the probability for dealing with cases of financial crisis.

Although no specific case was dealt with in this conference, the fact that El Salvador's financial system exhibits symptoms requiring urgent corrective measures cannot be left out of the discussion. Data referring to recent financial fraud and the reduction of credit for productive sectors are much in evidence. Likewise, the declarations of the representative for the World Bank and even the content of the conference made this a very real concern. According to the Vice President of the Regional Office of the World Bank for Latin America and the Caribbean, Mr. Shahid Javed Burki, "the problems of the crisis are generally caused by poor relationships and the lack of transparency in the countries"; for this reason, one of the programs implemented by the World Bank attempts to "strengthen regulatory and accounting systems" of the financial systems.

More revealing than the content of the conference have been the press communiqués in which the World Bank presents evaluations in summary of the economies of each one of the Central American banks. In the case of El Salvador, a markedly negative diagnosis of the national situation is presented as well as serious challenges to be confronted in political, economic, social and environmental areas. So it is that the World Bank notes, among other important aspects, that "its social indicators are among the worst in Latin America and its per capita income was U.S. $1,810.00 for the year 1997, which makes it one of the poorest countries in the region" (See the document entitled "The World Bank Group in El Salvador" at the end of this issue of Proceso).

This scenario makes it opportune to reflect on the role of the bank and of the Salvadoran state which are called upon in order to overcome the critical social situation just mentioned. In order to do this, it is important to review statistics which reflect the behavior of production and credit in the bank for the economic sectors (especially the industrial, agricultural and livestock sectors), as well as the behavior of social spending implemented by the state throughout the decade of the 1990's.

One of the most persistently noticed factors during recent years is the growth of the Gross National Product (GNP) which offers greater and greater privileges for the service sectors of the economy such as commerce and financial services. This is easy to document when one reviews the rates of intersectorial growth of the Gross National Product and the evolution of its structure. Between 1993 and 1997, agriculture has grown by 3.7%, industry--excluding maquilas [runaway shops in tax-free industrial parks]--by 20%, commerce by 27.3% and financial and insurance establishments by 71.8%. As a consequence, the importance of these sectors has changed in favor of commerce and financial establishments which went from representing 10.3% and 2.4% of the GNP to representing 20.5% and 3.4%, respectively. On the other hand, agriculture and the industrial sector, with the exception of the maquila industries, moved from a category representing 15% and 19.84% of the GNP to categories representing 13% and 19.86%, respectively.

Consonant with the foregoing, credits extended by commercial banks to agricultural, livestock and industrial sectors have been reduced appreciably, passing from constituting 20% of total credits in 1993 to representing only 10.6% in 1997, in the case of agriculture; and 25.4% to 17.8% in the case of industry. Commerce went from receiving 26.9% to receiving 40.9% for the same period. It should be mentioned here that, apart from this dynamic, the banks charged elevated rates for mediation and, in the final account, it is these which explain their strong growth in recent years, but which, at the same time, close off possible projects for productive investment.

The marginalized position of the agricultural and industrial sectors from the benefits of growth is provoking higher social costs, especially in the rural area. The low rates of GNP growth for agriculture and livestock are also translated into fewer jobs and less income for the rural population. It is not extraordinary, then, that the document entitled "The World Bank Group in El Salvador" repeatedly poses as a challenge to the government of the need to confront the conditions of poverty through a reform in the agricultural sector and through an increase in social spending, especially in the areas of education and health.

Lamentably, none of these basic measures for reducing poverty are being implemented in El Salvador, in spite of the fact that President Calderón Sol has presented specific projects such as the Agricultural and Livestock Plan for 1997 and The Plan for Social Development. With the first were promised a series of measures of various kinds for stimulating growth in agriculture (security, fiscal measures, commercial policy and price measures, financing, etc.) and, with the second, were promised an increase in social spending until it reached a level of 50% of total government spending.

In practice, the 1997 Agricultural and Livestock Plan continues to be called to task by the unions and guilds of the agricultural and livestock sector which complain about the commercial policy of the government, as well as scarce access to credit; on the other hand, for 1998, social spending still has not increased above 25% of the total budget and even, between 1997 and 1998, this diminished its participation from 25.1% to 24.5%. We have arrived at the extreme point of diminishing the portion of the budget destined for the category of health.

The panorama, then, is not very uplifting. There is a financial sector which is rapidly expanding at the cost of high interest rates and which marginalizes the agricultural and livestock sector from the extension of credit to that sector--precisely where the greatest number of poor are concentrated--and which contributes to the fact that this is stagnant sector which is losing importance in the GNP. The government, for its part, is incapable of turning this situation around and taking social compensatory measures.

The most revealing information presented at the recent conference of the World Bank is that, in spite of the constant support which the government receives from international bodies such as the InterAmerican Development Bank and the International Monetary Fund, behind the scenes the need to regulate the functioning of the financial system is being recognized as is the need to implement a social policy more in accordance with the plans offered.

The supposed economic phenomenon of El Salvador is in reality an illusion: high rates of economic growth with stability are not an end in themselves and do not work if they do not allow for sustained processes of job and income growth, reduction of poverty and the bettering of the conditions of life.

The current situation in El Salvador exhibits, among the big challenges facing it, the need to implement a reorientation of credit towards the productive sectors, the reduction of the margins of financial mediation of the financial system and the need to acquire financial resources for significantly increasing social spending. It appears as if these tasks will be the tasks of the next government administration of 1999-2004.

THE FACTORY OF DEATH

Dolores Rodriguez is 35 years old and for the last seven years she has worked in AVX, a factory which makes replacement parts for computers and electrical apparatuses. She never imagined that for a salary of 1,200 colones she would have to have two toes of her right foot amputated, would have contracted breast cancer and would have to spend a year on disability. Today, she cannot work there or anywhere else because she continues to be sick. When she began to work, she would go home tired with headaches and pains in her bones. She thought that this was a result of the extra hours she worked and never suspected what would happen. "I did not know of the danger involved, I had only heard that there were people there who died because they got cancer", expressed one worker bedridden in the Oncological Hospital of the Salvadoran Security Institute.

After the feeling of tiredness there came symptoms of vomiting and diarrhea. She felt that her body was going to sleep and from this moment on she began daily visits to the Social Security Hospital. The doctors, first of all, diagnosed her as having tonsillitis; then, arthritis throughout her body; afterwards, other illnesses. Meanwhile, her health deteriorated. In spite of this, she went day after day to the factory. "When someone is sick, they cannot pay for a private check-up and so they continue working", Dolores lamented. She then decided to consult a private physician, Dr. Jorge Vargas Peña, who gave her a blood test from which he discerned that her blood was contaminated with lead. The Social Security Hospital did not accept this diagnosis and continued to treat her for arthritis and colitis until she was interned in the Surgical Hospital. Afterwards she was moved to the Oncological hospital with breast cancer. Throughout this process, she lost her ability to speak for a period of time and her skin turned purple; she was unable to move her legs and she had two toes amputated and her breast removed. In the Social Security Hospital they called her illness "Stil" and when her family members asked the doctors what this was, they were told that it was contamination of the bones--although they did not say what it was or why it was that she was suffering this contamination.

Luisa Martinez, another AVX employee with 14 years seniority on her job suffered an abortion at two months, according to her because "she was transferred to the anode line, which is the most contaminating". In this section of the factory the workers work with many highly toxic chemicals such as nitric acid, acetic acid and manganese. Luisa suspected that she was pregnant and because of this she was afraid of the transfer. "From the first moment I began working there, I felt the change". She told her immediate supervisor about this, but the only answer he gave her was communicated to her with an indifferent attitude: "look, Luisa, I cannot assure you that nothing will happen to you because not everyone has the same [physical] constitution". Moreover, he told her that in order to move her from the anode line she would have to present a medical statement that she was pregnant. Nevertheless, even when she presented it, he did not change her and after 11 days on this line, she suffered a miscarriage.

In spite of what happened, Luisa continued working because "her needs obliged her to stay. Although she said that she thought about quitting because she felt that she was in bad health and because she was afraid of the new lines they were going to open which had something to do with processing anode and in this line she would have been exposed to more chemicals. Today, Luisa already exhibits symptoms similar to those of Carmen when she began to be ill.

The owners of the AVX are from the United States and Korea. The factory was founded in 1976 and is located in the tax-free industrial park of San Bartolo where approximately 2,500 employees work. They produce transistors which are exported to countries such as England and Singapore for the transnational AT & Ford, among others. AVX has five production lines: Sigma, Termination, Sky Cap, Tantalu and Anode. The last three present the greatest risk because it is there that workers handle the metal base which contains lead and other chemicals. Carmen worked in the Tantalu area. In all of them, with the exception of Termination, there are areas of corin and solder. The first is where ceramic is applied to the computer parts, using a powder metal base substance and, in second place, melt the metal base in pots until it turns to liquid. The powder and the smoke from the pots on these lines is breathed in by the workers.

The factory presents descriptions of security measures in pamphlets and these explain the kind of chemical used in each area, the consequences that these produce and describes the protective gear which should be used. At the beginning of the document one is advised that this material should be destroyed once it has been read. In the cafeteria tapes are played which provide information to the workers who, moreover, can have the services of a doctor who each month examines employees who work in close contact with the chemicals. The results of these examinations are never given to the workers because the doctors report them only to the authorities of AVX who send them to the United States.

This worries some of the workers who confront day to day risks using the acids and metal bases because they do not have the necessary implements for protecting them against direct contact or from greater exposure: they are given only a pair of gloves, boots and disposable masks, states Rosa Aguirre, who works at AVX.

In Article 17 of the general rules and regulations on industrial health and security of the Ministry of Labor of El Salvador state that "any industrial process which causes dust, gas, vapor, smoke or massive emanations of any kind should have access to devices for eliminating the said dust and vapors which contaminate the air so as to dispose of them in such a way that they do not constitute a danger to the health of the workers or for the hygiene of the rooms or neighboring towns".

Rosa declared that even as one enters the factory one notes a pervasive gray color and smells the ill odor and feels the heaviness of the air. On the other hand, she adds that many times the workers do not have time to put on their gloves because the supervisors demand that they get on with the production and she notes, that they receive verbal abuse, especially from the superintendent, Daniel Orellana. "He calls us lazy people and old whores on top of everything else". Rosa revealed that there are more serious cases such as that of Rosario Hernandez who has leukemia (cancer of the blood). She is in the same hospital as Dolores and other employees say that there was another case of miscarriage, of leukemia and that there are also two more people whose blood tests revealed lead contamination and a number of deaths--there are also reports of between three and thirty deaths. The majority of these have been sent to the Social Security Hospital in Ilopango.

Mr. Audilio Avelar, in charge of the health department of that institute, said that the cases of the workers in this factory are known and declares that other problems exist as well. "There is contamination, but the Social Security Institute does not have the power to coerce [legally]. Avelar added that it is the Ministry of Labor whose responsibility it is to conduct an inspection. And in the department of Industrial Health and Hygiene of this dependence they admit having conducted a routine inspection, but the results were given only to the factory.

With relation to the files, the General Director of the Salvadoran Social Security Institute, Dr. Maria Julia Castillo Rodas, denies access and gives no explanation. There is such a concern to protect or withhold information that the doctors do not know the truth about their patients. In the case of Dolores, her file was inexplicably lost and this retarded her treatment, according to a Social Security Institute social worker who asked not to be identified.

Dr. Carlos Henriquez of the Social Security Institute considers that "if two persons work together in contact with lead and exhibit the same symptoms, then there is a problem." The lead, stated the doctor, affects the bone marrow, the liver, the level of white blood cells, and all of this produces leukemia, cancer and other illnesses. Dr. Henriquez noted that "once all of this has entered the organism, it is difficult to eliminate it."

The financial superintendent of AVX, Mr. Carlos Jimenez, insists that all of the rumors regarding contamination are "inventions" by the employees. "I do not know of a single case; go to the Ministry of Health or the Ministry of Labor because they are the ones in charge of giving this information, not us", he emphasized. In this way AVX and the Ministry of Labor throw the ball one to the other and so avoid the topic. Even more, Mr. Jimenez, at the beginning of the telephonic interview, denied knowing of Dolores' case, although afterwards he admitted knowing of it, but not that her illness had any relationship with the factory: AVX does not admit responsibility for Dolores Rodriguez' situation. Ms. Rodriguez receives a pension for disability form the Social Security Institute in the amount of 700 colones every two or three months for two years. Her health is very delicate now and it is not known if she will live for two more years.

After one year, Dolores has survived her illness, although she still has lead in her body. On the other hand, Rosario Hernandez died in August of 1997 from leukemia. Unfortunately, to this date the situation inside the AVX factory has not changed. Even the factory executives have begun to feel the effects of the contamination. "Even they faint in the aisles, but they do nothing", stated Luis Martinez. All in all, the much-feared new line where workers are going to be in direct contact with anode is about to begin functioning.

One other fact: Ford, one of the strongest of the factory's clients, has withdrawn from the business and this has provoked the layoff of more than 400 workers. This is what they receive for having risked their lives. Representatives of AVX, such as Mr. Carlos Jimenez, refuse to discuss this situation. Meanwhile, the only hope for Dolores, against all odds in the doctor's diagnosis, is that her body might free itself of the lead.

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*The names of the workers have been changed to protect their identity.

This article, presented by Ms. Silvia Linares and Ms. Marissel Avalos, is a summary of their graduation project for the Central American University (UCA).