An attorney general cut to measure

The deficit in the balance of trade: the breakdown of neoliberal dogma

Abuse begins at home

Guatemala: an uncertain future

News Briefs

AN ATTORNEY GENERAL CUT TO MEASURE

These days the Legislative Assembly is writing a new chapter of the novel on the Attorney General for the Republic of El Salvador. After the passing of more than four months during which many knots were tied concerning the names of the possible candidates for that office, the right-wing found a candidate that is well suited to its needs. This person is a lawyer who presumes to know more law than he actually knows. He is an independent deputy the day after having been seated in the Assembly as a Christian Democrat and his most outstanding characteristic cannot be said to be lucidity; it is, rather, the scornful manner with which he deals with people he does not like and the superficiality with his he speaks of the most serious matters. He is, moreover, disrespectful, poorly educated in the extreme and, to top it off, vulgar. But all in all, the quality which the right-wing most appreciates in him is that he has not contributed to clarifying matters in the cases of the assassinations of Monsignor Romero, the U.S. religious women, the assassinations of the leaders of the Democratic Revolutionary Front, nor the massacres of El Mozote and Sumpul and he has contributed nothing towards the illumination of events and criminal activities of the death-squads during the period of time in which he was the Attorney General of El Salvador at the beginning of the 1980’s.

The right wing —and specifically, ARENA— fear that the Attorney General could open up judicial proceedings against those responsible for the most scandalous human rights violations of the war years and against the most notorious criminals of the post-war transition period, among whom are doubtless to be found some of their most important leaders. ARENA’s fear, and that of its leaders, is not unfounded. In several European countries, above all in Spain, judicial proceedings have been opened against generals and colonels accused of various crimes of lese humanité. Pressured by these events, several judges and prosecuting attorneys from the southern cone have pressured for the opening of their own proceedings to deal with these same crimes. In spite of the amnesties and the Punto Final laws, the last words has not yet been said. Now, more than ever, impunity is being investigated and pursued with renewed vigor.

In El Salvador, two recent judicial cases illustrate the importance of an honest and independent Attorney General. The first is the rape and assassination of a little girl: these acts occurred inside the family of the child, several of whose members belong to the army and the police. The case had been forgotten until the mother asked publicly to investigate the family of the father of the little girl. The other is the assassination of a businessman linked to ARENA. One witness indicated that the intellectual authors of the crime were the uncle of the victim, a well-known businessman linked to ARENA, and one of the most important political leaders of that party. Instead of the presumption of innocence provided for by law, both have set themselves directly against the judge. Whatever doubt there might have been about their honor in this matter would have evaporated in the course of a well-conducted judicial investigation.

The fears of Salvadoran politicians are not, then, unfounded. Parting from this premise, an Attorney General experienced in not seeing justice done would be a lifesaver needed in order to continue enjoying impunity. The right-wing candidate cannot allege that he did his job because, in reality, he did not investigate, nor did he denounce the cover-ups. There was a ten-year wait during which the Truth Commission did its work. One Attorney General in the past, familiar with the crime and mechanisms for cover-up, who has been recycled with a discourse which is ostensibly progressive and who is supported by a leader of the National Civilian Police in the past, is what the right-wing needs in order to file those cases which are convenient for it and thereby uphold impunity.

Aside from the fate which awaits this last minute candidate, because with Salvadoran deputies one never knows what they will finally decide —in fact, it only remains to be seen whether the right wing will come out on its own and obtain an attorney general cut to measure—, this, in and of itself is important, because it shows what kind of Attorney General the right-wing politicians are seeking, what they wish to protect themselves from and what their greatest fear is.

The self-designated revisionist sector of the FMLN was at the point of handing over to the right-wing the attorney general they so needed. Their votes would have made up the qualified majority which the ARENA candidate needed. This faction of the FMLN justifies its position alleging that it can find no argument against the candidate proposed by its principal adversary, turning a deaf ear to the acts and faults by omission. It is understandable that these deputies are tired of the topic or that they are genuinely concerned about the fact that there is no Attorney General at present, but none of this justifies electing a politician who was incapable of investigating organized crime in the 1980’s. In the end, the sense of shared responsibility in the party saved the day.

The head of the legislative faction of the ARENA party also showed signs of being too tired to call for second degree elections so that a simple majority might decide, given that that would make things easy for the biggest party —in this case, their own party—, when, in reality, this legislative assembly deputy decided that in these elections it was necessary for a qualified majority of two thirds would be necessary in order to oblige the two biggest parties to seek candidates outside their ranks. And this is precisely what ARENA as well as the FMLN are incapable of doing. Democracy is too big for their scant abilities and their unlimited ambitions.

The call made by the deputies to civil society to provide them with new candidates cannot be taken seriously. This will not help them out of the labyrinth which they themselves have constructed. The society at large has already provided them with names of several candidates, some of them adequate and appropriate candidates, but none of these satisfy the deputies because they look at the election using eminently political criteria without waiting to consider the needs of an efficient public minister. The candidates they pulled out of their sleeve, and in favor of whom they were at the point of declaring themselves do not appear on any of the lists provided by society at large. The respect which the citizenry and its organizations has for them is null and void. They call it "civil" when it suits their intrigues and machinations, but they disparage it ruthlessly, accusing it of obeying strange slogans and responding to obscure interests when civil society calls it to task for its contradictions and dishonest acts. It is not worthwhile, then, to take part in the power plays of the Legislative Assembly.

THE DEFICIT IN THE BALANCE OF TRADE: THE BREAKDOWN OF NEOLIBERAL DOGMA

One of the most notorious pieces of neoliberal dogma is the proposition that, simply by means of an opening up of the national economy to foreign trade it is possible to succeed in reorienting production towards the world market, and, in so doing, increase exports, production, jobs and income. In El Salvador, such an opening up of the economy has been promoted even more rapidly than in the rest of the Central American countries, to the point at which the first program eliminating tariffs had to be reconsidered given the protests of the Salvadoran business sector, which did not feel prepared to deal with foreign competition.

Even now, the convenience of continuing to reduce tariffs in a context in which it is more and more evident that national production cannot compete with imported products is being discussed. Such is the thinking of sectors linked to the Salvadoran Association of Industrialists (ASI) and to the agricultural and livestock sector. It is in this context that the director of ASI, Jorge Arriaza, declared that the government would be "asked to provide lifesavers when it could be proved that harm to national production was being caused by imports, but only for categories which need it".

The results of the last nine years reveal that the diverse neo-liberal policies (privatization, loosening of price controls, reduction in the fiscal deficit, inflation controlled by monetary methods, etc.) have not yielded the desired effects for the productive apparatus and low rates of economic growth are still being detected (Proceso, 877) together with a broadening of the balance of trade deficit. The country’s exports are not growing at the rate necessary for them to equal the elevated levels of imports. On the contrary, even traditional exports are facing considerable reductions. As a consequence, the already eternal tendency towards the lack of equilibrium in the trade balance has been seen exacerbated during recent years.

Since economic stabilization policies were initiated during the first ARENA administration (1989-1994), control of the foreign trade deficit was proposed as the primordial objective by means of a reorientation of the productive apparatus towards the production of non-traditional exports. Nevertheless, slowly, this objective was losing importance owing to the fact that, for the moment, the deficit does not place macroeconomic stability —which is assured by massive income from family remittances— in danger.

This has led to a state of affairs in which an evaluation of the results of neoliberal economic policy on the basis of criteria proposed by apologists is not known: what remains unknown is the contribution to the economic reorientation towards the international market. In evaluating the behavior of the trade balance during the last nine years it was proven that neo-liberal policies proved do not guarantee a successful insertion into that market.

In 1989, when neoliberal reforms intensified, the trade balance showed a deficit of 3,717.4 million colones, which grew uncontrollably, from 6,560 in 1991 to 10,270.7 in 1993 and to 12,542.4 million colones in 1996. 1997 has been the only year in which the deficit in the trade balance was reduced, rising, as it did, to 11,578 million colones; nevertheless, it was only a temporary reduction because since then the tendency towards an increase in the deficit was seen with greater force. In 1998 it increased to 13,224 million colones, rising above even the level of 1996 and for the first semester of 1999 the deficit increased 23.4% as compared with the same period in 1998, which indicates that 1999 will close with a trade balance deficit greater than that of 1998.

This behavior is owing to the fact that exports have not grown sufficiently so as to equal imports and neutralize deficit tendencies. Exports went from 2,786 to 21,403 million colones between 1989 and 1998, but imports went from 6,503 to 34,646.5 million colones; this is to say that exports grew to an annual rate of 25.4% while imports grew at a lesser rate, close to 17.7% per year. Unfortunately, this has not impacted a situation in which the difference between amounts of imports and exports might widen during this period.

With respect to the behavior of exports, it is important to note that traditional exports faced a serious reverse during 1998 and in what is left of 1999 because of reductions in the prices of coffee and sugar. So it is that these have moved from 5,281 to 3,684 million colones during 1997 and 1998, while during the first semester of 1999 they were reduced by 35.6% as compared with the same period for 1998. Non-traditional exports have not grown sufficiently so as to become the basis for economic stability or the outcome of the trade balance. They are even greater than exports from the maquila, which, were it not the case that almost all primary material is imported, they would be the greatest generators of net exports.

As we mentioned before, imports have grown at an average annual rate less than the rate for exports. Nevertheless, owing to the fact that their total is almost double that of exports, it has grown sufficiently to a greater yield in absolute income from exports. Between 1989 and 1998, exports increased by 18,617 million colones, but imports increase by 28,142 million colones. This is to say that the deficit in the trade balance widened close to 9,500 million colones during the period mentioned (a spectacular leap of 256% since 1989).

The sustainability of this serious economic contradiction is only possible because of the providential increase in private unilateral transferences, especially those of the family remittances. On the other hand, it would not be possible to maintain the current economic model until now because it would have experienced heavy macroeconomic imbalances. What would have pointed to the need to adopt drastic measures in order to stimulate production of exports, even against the most elemental postulations of the neo-liberals.

During the same period of 1989 through 1998, unilateral transferences went from 2,907 to 13,207 million colones on the basis of an increasing private transferences, especially those of the family remittances. This has almost completely compensated for the broadening of the deficit of the trade balance and has contributed —together with capital flows— to a situation in recent years Net International Reserves have accumulated, even in the face of a heavy lack of equilibrium in the trade balance.

The situation of the foreign sector shows clearly that neo-liberal policies are not unquestionable and that, on the contrary, they can come to provoke results completely opposite of the desired results. Additionally, it shows that in the case of El Salvador, economic stability is not the result of the economic policy implemented, but rather of the presence of favorable exogenous factors such as the affluence of remittances and capital.

The current state of affairs shows the existence of tendencies toward a growing lack of equilibrium in the external sector, the result of stagnation in the production of exports and of a reduction in the rates of economic growth. Evidently, this suggests the need to reorient economic policy, even when it might presuppose the abandonment of much neo-liberal dogma.

ABUSE BEGINS AT HOME

A five-year-old child tied for hours to a tree in the option of his home, without company and without food is a sad representation of the violation of human rights, and it is a daily sight for many people in El Salvador. In this country, human rights of minors are not respected; they are trampled upon, scorned, undervalued and ignored in many spheres of life by men and women of any social status. Many ignore the significance of these rights and others prefer to let them slide without caring about who or how many are affected and in what way.

But, in the last analysis, in the majority of cases adults know what they are doing and are responsible for themselves. In the social dynamic of "abused-abuser" "dominator-dominated", "rapist-rape victim", "victim-attacker" when it is a question of adults, there are ways of dealing with it such as public and judicial denunciation, vengeance (incorrect, but it is a methodology which is used), self-protection, etc. Adults are generally conscious of what is good and what is bad, what is correct and what incorrect and they know how to act when confronted with it. Each one is responsible for what he or she does and how he or she reacts when faced with a specific situation, especially when human rights —their own or those of others— are in the balance.

Although it is not legitimate or justifiable from any point of view to ignore human rights, the "rules" between adults are established and, in almost all occasions, there is a way of proceeding in personal or social defense. But when the victim is a person who is a minor, a child without —or with little— consciousness of how society functions, a child who is always dependent upon an adult, the violation of his or her human rights is, from any point of view, aberrant.

The case of a child tied to a tree is only one among several which have recently been published in the national daily newspapers. It is well-known that others have been chained for not doing domestic chores. There have also been some who have been abandoned by those responsible for them for hours, even days, while they go to work. During that period of time the children have suffered cold, hunger, solitude, sadness, tears and have had their own needs as a child ignored.

The situation is that violence is a phenomenon occurring habitually on a daily basis which, in some cases becomes a silent matter, especially when it is practiced behind the shield of being "a private affair". Violence and abuse in many Salvadoran "homes" brings with it more victims than can be imagined. The most vulnerable are those who have the least means for defending themselves: older people, women, and, of course, children.

Children are impotent when they must deal with mistreatment by adults, when they suffer actions which are justified by the traditional idea that "parents have omnipotent rights over their children". Authoritarianism is part of the process of socialization and growth of minors, especially within the family. Consequently, physical or psychological punishment becomes the disciplinary method par excellence which children must suffer without raising protests and with the surety that they deserve what they get. Mistreatment and despotism is disguised as education within the home.

Parents who now violate the rights of their children were surely abused by their own parents in the past. Children who currently suffer mistreatment by their parents will probably also mistreat their own children because "that is the way they were educated". The mistreatment of children is a crime which victims and witnesses can denounce only with difficulty. The Network for Children and Adolescents revealed that 78% of Salvadoran children suffer physical mistreatment; 67% suffer emotional mistreatment and 37% sexual abuse. Those who practice these forms are, in general, mothers and fathers, but also grandmothers, step-mothers and step-fathers or caretakers.

After a study carried out in El Salvador in August by UNICEF, that institution considered that one of the explanations for the high indices of violence against children is ignorance of their rights. The population is not conscious of the existence of the Convention governing the Rights of Children ratified in our country in 1991. There is no awareness of institutions which are charged with dealing with the victims of mistreatment and which ought to monitor compliance with the rights of minors. UNICEF interviewed 1,816 people of ten years of age and older. Of these, 36% had never heard of anything concerning the existence of institutions which could offer help to children.

By the same token, it is equally serious that the entities which deal with the defense and attention to victims of mistreatment do so, almost always, from the point of view of curing it and not preventing it. On the other hand, there is not a serious, continuous and open campaign to educate the population, especially minors concerning this phenomenon. But even more worrisome is the fact that within these very institutions in which children are supposedly being protected, they are mistreated. "Orientors of the ISPM accused of mistreatment" reads a headline of a news article in which five employees of the Salvadoran Institute for the Protection of Minors are accused of "abusing the rights to correct" against minors. The news item revealed that four children of the ISPM were found walking around alone on the streets after having run away from the place. They declared that they had run away from the institute because of the punishment they received from those in charge.

But the problem goes even beyond this. Last September a person was sentenced to eight months in prison for chaining, beating, isolating and raping his two daughters (4 and 6 years of age) and his son (eight years of age). These victims now suffer the psychological effects of mistreatment and are now under the custody of the authorities. The person accused of abuse spend only eight months in prison for his crime. Can this be said to be justice? There is no doubt that the penal laws ought to be reformed with respect to the abuse of minors. The legal vacuum is obvious.

Child abuse in the home carries with it the immediate and future consequences. Some of the victims of such abuse choose to run away from their homes and live in the street, abandoning their studies (those who are in school) and dealing with a life of crime and drug abuse. Early pregnancy is also a consequence of abuse in the home by parents. Psychological symptoms arising from such abuse in social development and behavior are also part of this black legacy. Very possibly many of these young victims of abuse will themselves become adults who tomorrow will abuse other minors. Although there is no right to trample upon the happiness and tranquility of children, in El Salvador this is something which has only just begun to be considered a problem outside the sphere of "private family life" and, therefore, something which is part of public responsibility.

GUATEMALA: AN UNCERTAIN FUTURE

In Guatemala, the November 7 elections laid the foundation for the beginning of a new stage in that country’s history. The spirit of renewal which accompanied the electoral process was more than necessary: this presents itself as a long-awaited opportunity for providing the definitive impulse for the peace process initiated with the signing of the peace accords of 1996. It was from that perspective that the state of affairs which our neighboring nation was experiencing took on historic value. After more than thirty years of armed conflict, the electoral scene of this country showed a wide range of unprecedented political offerings among which is that of the erstwhile guerrilla movement of the URNG. Nevertheless, the half-baked culmination of the elections surely endangered the whole process of democratization and pacification begun with the signing of the peace accords: on the one hand, the triumph of political conservatism led by the Guatemala Republican Front (FRG); on the other, the consolidation of an exclusive political practice.

To speak of the FRG is the speak of obstacles in the path of peace. Led by the hand of its historic leaders, General Efraín Ríos Montt —under whose government the majority of the violations of human rights during the armed conflict were committed—, the party expressed its opposition to the content of the Peace Accords and have made it possible to obstruct any effort at political and social transformation inspired by them. In fact, the supposed compromise which the presidential candidate Alfonso Portillo adopted with regard to the democratization of Guatemala has not been seconded by the other members of the party, and much less by the rank and file. The recent growth of the FRG is owing, above all, to the support offered by members of the security forces which functioned during the armed conflict, whose principal motivation has been to reverse the transformation which were applied within the repressive apparatus which the state ran during the war.

In this way, the FRG mobilized within its ranks those who saw in the existence of the indigenous organizations, in the representatives of the political left and in human rights activists a threat to the stability of the country; stability which is defined from this perspective, by its marked anti-communist bias. It is the sum of these and other elements which make up the political and ideological identity of the FRG which makes its electoral victory a danger for the democratization of Guatemala. In spite of the fact that the presidential election will have to define itself during a second round, the FRG has already dragged with it important structures of Guatemalan political power. With a comfortable majority in the Congress (64 seats out of 113), the party will confortably hold control of the rest of the state institutions. Moreover, it will govern almost half of the 330 municipalities of the country, which might presuppose an increase in its social base. These are the figures which permit one to speak, definitively, of a dangerous electoral victory for the FRG.

However, the dangers to the process of democratization and pacification of Guatemala arise not only from the sure anchor of this party within the state apparatus. The elections in Guatemala showed different shading in the high rate of abstentionism which obeyed an electoral system which institutionalizes the exclusion of great sectors of the population and a threatening deterioration of the political representation scenario. The recent elections surely did not present serious deficiencies in terms of organization, but the paralysis of the electoral reforms —first because of a hardening of the right-wing opposition in the Congress, then because of the triumph of the "no" in last May’s Popular Consultation—negatively influenced the outcome of the elections. Close to 47% of the voters —the majority of whom are in the rural areas of the country— did not go to the polls on November 7.

The reasons for this are the following: the voting centers were distributed by district, which considerably reduces the sharing out of resources in such a way that the voters could exercise their right to vote (e.g., one table to receive ballots for every 750 persons). The analysis, therefore, of the high rates of abstentionism in Guatemala must necessarily take into account the institutionalization of mechanisms which would make it directly or indirectly difficult for the population to exercise their right to vote. On the other hand, the expectations arising from the participation of a wide variety of parties in these elections fell to the floor once the first results of the voting were known: at least six parties will disappear because they did not receive the minimum votes necessary established by law. In this way, all seems to indicate that the political panorama of the coming years will be dominated by two forces representing the right-wing: the ruling party, the National Advanced party (PAN) and the FRG.

These two ostensible enemies are, perhaps, already paving the way for future political alliances which permit PAN to hold some points of control within the state and the FRG will enjoy certain stability in order to encourage its political projects as much as it likes. In a relatively distant third place is the New Nation Alliance (ANN), which contains the URNG and two other minor center-left parties. Nevertheless, the ANN is no more than the sum of the candidates of several parties and, at this writing, has not succeeded in drawing up a unified proposal for the government which transcends what the whole world can see in the Peace Accords. The internal conflicts which produced this alliance and which culminated in the withdrawal of the New Guatemala Democratic Front (FDNG), as well as taking votes away from the left project, confirmed the inviability of the same, in the measure in which those who said they represented it did not succeed in adopting as theirs the structural demands crystallized after the signing of the peace.

Not even the Guatemalan Christian Democrats who had previously been successful in the elections, came out well supplied with votes, so that until the electoral authorities had publicized the results of the voting, it will not been known if they will survive as a party or if they will definitively disappear on the political terrain. Along with this, four other right-wing political groupings will disappear (which, it is believed, will be conveniently absorbed by the FRG) and one of the left (the failed FDNG).

In this way, in Guatemala not only will the left lose, or the modernizing neo-liberal project of the PAN, or political pluralism; the whole country will also lose as it once again watches the vote of a minority (22.5% of the total number of voters who truly represent people who voted for the FRG) take possession of their future. If the possibilities for participation are progressively closed in such a way as to make the politically powerful (i.e., PAN and FRG) the only power brokers with decision-making ability; if the opportunities to consolidate a culture of participation, of consensus and, consequently, of respect for the ideas of the rest are substituted by the empowerment of intolerance, extreme conservatism and arrogance, what future awaits the still incipient democratization of the Guatemalan society for the coming century? What awaiting the country as it faces the imminent arrival of this "new stage" in its history?

BUSINESS. On November 3, after six years of work, the U.S. Senate approved, by a vote of 76-19 its version of the inclusion of the Central American and Caribbean countries in trade with the U.S. The Senate initiative, which also extends customs and tariff benefits to the African countries, will permit El Salvador to export to the U.S. without taxes and free of quota payments, textile products made with U.S. thread and cloth. The measure was considered to be a key measure for the future of the maquila industry. René León, El Salvador’s ambassador to Washington, stated that the only thing lacking is that the version for broadening might be discussed in a conference with the members of the House of Representatives which had already approved its own version of the measure. The ambassador declared that negotiations between both houses of the U.S. Congress will produce a single piece of legislation, which will be sent to U.S. President Bill Clinton for signature so that it can become law. The Senate modified the projects to end the taxing of textile products and many other articles made in the Caribbean and Central America, thereby providing similar benefits to those which Mexico enjoys under the North American Free Trade Agreement (TLC or NAFTA) (La Prensa Gráfica, November 4, p. 4).

STRIKE. Judges of the Family and Minor Courts of San Salvador had to cancel programmed hearings were programmed since the beginning on November 3. After three days of strikes, some one hundred hearings were cancelled because of the work stoppage carried out by judicial employees. The ill feeling between prosecuting attorneys and public defenders was notorious, owing to the fact that they felt obliged to violate the time limits established by law. In the courts some 60 hearings were suspended while in the Family Law and Minor Courts, more than 40 were suspended. The President of the Supreme Court (CSJ), Eduardo Tenorio, indicated that the work stoppage was being encouraged by a small group of workers. The trade unionists held this indefinite work stoppage in order to pressure deputies to approve a salary increase for the coming year. The workers demanded that the authorities provide a salary increase of between 8% and 10% for the more than 7,200 workers in the whole country. So it was that employees with salaries less than 4,000 colones would receive an increase of 10% and 8% for those whose salaries were 5,000 or more. The CSJ ordered the head of security to send personal to the "Isidro Menendez" Judicial Center to guarantee that access to the building for workers and public at large was not obstructed (El Diario de Hoy, November 6, p. 10 and La Prensa Gráfica, November 06, p. 5).

ATTORNEY GENERAL. High-level functionaries of the Justice System were clear in indicating that the lack of an Attorney General was causing problems for investigations and demanded that the Legislative Assembly Deputies elect an Attorney General as soon as possible. The President of the Supreme Court, Eduardo Tenorio, underlined the fact that there were problems between the institutions of the sector and within the Attorney General’s Office itself. "An institution without a leader is a fragile institution", declared the judge. The Joint Attorney General, who is holding the post of Attorney General at present, added Tenorio, knows that his commitment at the head of the institution is precarious. Institutionally speaking, this situation not only damages the Public Ministry but also damages the country, indicated the highest level judicial official. For his part, the Ombudsman for the Republic, Miguel Angel Cardoza, explained that the lack of a head in the Attorney General’s Office was provoking delays in the decisions which, institutionally speaking, are the province of the Public Ministry. He added that, although internal problems in the Attorney General’s Office could be resolved by the Adjunct Attorney General, the projections for the coming three years could only be established if an Attorney General were to be elected (La Prensa Gráfica, November 9, p. 5).

FMLN. The revisionists of the FMLN changed the political map inside the legislative faction of the FMLN in the Legislative Assembly. The leader of the reform movement, Facundo Guardado, during an interview held on November 5, predicted the falling apart of the imposition. Guardado declared that he did not feel that he had been defeated by the orthodox members, those calling themselves the revolutionary and socialist current. He declared that Shafick Handal, head of this current, ought to be capable of administering the differences at the heart of the FMLN faction. According to him, the revisionists are willing to seek votes in order to elect Ricardo Canales Herrera as the new Attorney General, whether Shafick is in agreement or not. On November 4, Guardado announced that "it was very probable that some deputies would vote for Arturo Argumedo [for Attorney General] at their own risk". Hours later, Handal declared that all FMLN deputies would abstain from voting for Argumedo. Guardado knew that not all revisions would be disposed to vote for Argumedo. What he did not guess was that, those who were willing would cede to the pressures of the orthodox group. Not having a sufficient consensus on the question of the Attorney General, the revisionists decided to change and support Canales Herrera, even when it was affirmed that Argumedo was the person who deserved their support (El Diario de Hoy, November 5, p. 3 and 8).

TARIFFS. Several U.S. Senators conditioned the definitive study of a proposal to broaden benefits under the Caribbean Basin Initiative (ICC)in compliance with a series of non-commercial demands. In this way the possibility that textile products sewn in the Central American area will enter tax-free into the US. Depending on the efforts carried out in the struggle against narcotics trafficking and corruption, the signing of a treaty providing for extradition of Salvadoran nationals, the guarantee of adequate conditions for workers and the strengthening of control mechanisms on intellectual property. This position caused Central American ambassadors to prepare a letter in which they expressed their malaise on the question of such demands. "They [the senators] demand conditions which have nothing to do with trade", explained René León, Salvadoran Ambassador to the U.S. in Washington, D.C.; León was a little irritated. Likewise, the Senate demands that the nations which comprise the Caribbean Basin that they offer to the U.S. the same trade concessions (most favored nation status) which other trade partners give them. This is the only condition which has not provoked conflict among the ambassadors, given that they are convinced that it can be negotiated (El Diario de Hoy, November 12, p. 2).

PROMOTIONS. Jaime Guzmán Morales, ex–Defense Minister during the Calderón Sol administration, recognized, on November 10, that the ex–President removed him from his position because he was not in agreement with a recommendation to promote two colonels to the rank of brigadier general. Guzmán Morales was implicated in a sandal-ridden series of promotions for military officers who supposedly enjoyed the sympathy of Calderón Sol and who had not complied with all of the requirements established by law governing promotions. The ex–functionary responded in this way to questions by deputies of the Defense Commission of the Legislative Assembly who investigate if the case suffered from illegal intrusion by President Calderón Sol in the promotions ordered at that time. Another of the functionaries removed was Omar Vaquerano, President of the Selection Commission of the Legislative Assembly. "The resignation was owing to the fact that the President asked us to leave" declared Vaquerano in his statements to the legislators. Nevertheless, although both military officers stated that they had acted according to the law established by the Law Governing Military Careers, they did not condemn the intrusion of Calderón Sol in the orders for promotion and abstained from making conjectures about the motivations of the ex–President on this issue (El Diario de Hoy, November 10, p. 6).

ELECTIONS. Guatemalans went to the polls on November 7 to elect their first president since the end of the 36-year-old armed conflict. The new president will face the challenge of consolidating democracy and resolving serious socio-economic problems which wrack the country. These elections are the fourth since the return of a civilian government (in 1986), and ended a series of military dictatorships which were engaged in armed conflict against the guerrilla of the National Guatemalan Revolutionary Unity (URNG). More than four million Guatemalans eligible to vote went to the polls to cast their vote for a new president, a vice – president, 113 deputies to the National Congress, 330 mayors and their respective municipal councils and 20 deputies to the Central American Parliament (PARLACEN). In the electoral race for the president, 11 candidates from the entire ideological spectrum are participating, but the favorites are Alfonso Portillo of the Guatemalan Republican Front (FRG) and Oscar Berger, the leader of the reigning National Advance Party (PAN). Alvaro Colom, running for the left coalition Alliance for a New Nation, which is lead by the ex–guerrilla party URNG, landed third place. The elections took place in the midst of generalized frustration caused by difficulties in enforcing compliance with the peace accords signed with the ex–guerrilla in December, 1996 (El Diario de Hoy, November 7, p. 2).

GUATEMALA. The November 7 elections in Guatemala took place three years after the signing of the peace accords in that country; nevertheless, the Guatemalans continue awaiting the implementation of the commitments signed on that occasion. Among these is to be highlighted the reduction in power for the military, recognition of the rights of the Mayan peoples and reforms to the tax system. These last are to finance health, education and housing programs. Analysts maintain that Guatemala still has not overcome the tradition of military domination and impunity. Among the big challenges which the new president will face are those involving overcoming the prolonged economic crisis and end poverty which affects 62% of the more than 11 million Guatemalans. More than 40% of Guatemalan citizens lack access to formal health service and six of every ten homes do not have plumbing for sewage. In the course of his message to the nation, President Arzú discarded any possibility for electoral fraud. In this sense the President of the Supreme Electoral Tribunal of Guatemala, Felix Castillo, who guaranteed the transparency of the elections and did not give credibility to the denunciations by the opposition concerning possible fraud. However, the principal parties engaged in mutual accusations that illegal actions had been planned (La Prensa Gráfica, November 7, p. 10).

RESULTS. Alfonso Portillo Cabrera, a second-time presidential candidate for the opposition Guatemalan Republican Front (FRG), moved, on November 7, to the front line running in the vote count in the presidential elections in Guatemala. The polling centers closed at 6:00 P.M. and the first results placed Portillo at the head of the race, although in some places the number of votes was equal to the ex Mayor of the capital city, Oscar Berger, candidate for the reigning Party for National Advance (PAN). Portillo, who has been accused of representing the interests of the ex–military dictator Efraín Ríos Montt, who has been singled out for having committed acts constituting genocide during the counter-insurgency campaign, stated that he had voted "for the humble people as against the arrogant people". Nevertheless, in spite of Portillo’s advantage in the vote count, the results indicated the need for a second electoral round on December 26. Alvaro Colom, candidate for the leftist New National Alliance (ANN), won less than 7% of the votes. A second round of voting was announced by President Alvaro Arzú. Berger, for his part, declared his victory in the second round. "They [the opposition] announced that they would win in the first round, but that PAN continues to be alive and in the second round we are going to win", declared Berger (La Prensa Gráfica, November 8, p. 4 and El Diario de Hoy, November 8, p. 2).