Proceso 917
September 6, 2000
ISSN 0259-9864
 
 
 

INDEX

Editorial Confusions on the right
Political What is there to celebrate in September?
Society The neverending story of the closing of the casinos
 
 
 

EDITORIAL

    The pharisaical posture of the right wing is so unsophisticated that it is evident in and of itself. The discovery of the family links among the owners of the Argentinean enterprise to which the Salvadoran government has conceded the registering of vehicles and the emission of driving licenses for ex-military men who are also from Argentina and linkages with the repression of the military dictatorship in that country, some of whom are now being pursued by international justice, has raised a dense smokescreen in El Salvador. One of the proprietors of this business, by judicial order from Spain, has been arrested in Mexico where he was hiding his true identity under a false name. To this arrest has been added another from France. The Spanish and French courts are requiring the presence of this ex-military person so that they can answer for the torture and disappearance of several persons, activities which occurred in an Argentinean army detention center. The accusation is solid, given that survivors of this nightmare have identified the person without doubt. Frightened, the Salvadoran right wing called for investigations, proclaimed the loss of political confidence in the business and demanded the review of the contracts by means of which the Salvadoran government made the aforementioned concessions.

    The scandal is inexplicable, given that the Argentinean military personnel, as well as the Salvadorans, gave themselves an amnesty, which impedes the legal investigation of the human rights violations committed during the dictatorship. As much in Argentina as in El Salvador, the amnesty law is applied rigorously, except that in that country the stealing of children was not included and some ex-military officials who are also accused of this crime, are now being processed by the courts and some of them have already been found guilty and are doing prison terms. The impunity which the ex-military officers enjoy is what has led some of their victims to seek justice in the Spanish courts, which have issued an international arrest warrant against this ex-military man who has violated human rights and who has converted himself into a businessman. The Salvadoran right-wing, therefore, ought to apply to the Argentinean ex-military official the same tolerance and condescension which has permitted the Salvadoran ex-military men to go about their affairs with no problem, becoming businessmen, occupying posts to which they are popularly elected, to be public functionaries and even diplomats who direct associations or function as political analysts. The forgetfulness ought to be good for one as well as the other. The principle is the same.

    The Salvadoran right-wing forgets that, in a free market situation such as the one they aspire to, it is not conceivable to withdraw a concession entered into according to established laws, if the clauses of the contract are to be respected. Another thing is not to have investigated the antecedents of the proprietors of the business that made proposals to acquire state shares and some of the governmental functions. The business, for the very fact that it presented itself as such makes itself a creditor of immediate and total confidence of a government that is anxious to attract investors. In El Salvador, with regard to the government, the businessmen do not awaken any suspicion, and neither do they question the origin of the money they invest. Money laundering is not one of its principal worries, but private investment is. For this reason, up until now the authorities have taken note that the capital provided by the Argentinean ex-military people who have become businessmen comes, in an unknown quantity, as a result of theft from their victims. These victims were not only tortured, made to disappear and assassinated, but they were also robbed of their material goods and also of their small children who became the object of an abominable practice of trafficking in children. Moreover, the Salvadoran right-wing seems to be surprised at the voracity of the Argentinean business which, not satisfied with the business which it owns, also seeks to control other activities related to the identity of the Salvadoran people. Capital tends towards monopoly by its own nature and the fewer people who control it, the more the monopoly grows. One ought not to forget, nevertheless, that together with the capital provided by the Argentinean ex-military people there is Salvadoran capital as well.

    The disquieting effect which the experiment of the Salvadoran right-wing is experiencing on the question of this Argentinean ex-military man who became an investor by using the money of his victims is perhaps owing to the fact that the right-wing in El Salvador sees itself reflected in this same mirror. In that ex-military person-cum-international businessman is to be seen a human rights violator with whom it can live and work and to whom an unconstitutional amnesty law has provided impunity but whose respectability and honor could fall apart at any moment as a result of an international arrest warrant which could bring him before a foreign court. In this ex-military-cum-businessman is to be found an investor whose capital has a dark and cloudy origin and who, following the logic of the most orthodox capitalism but not that of morality, has confided the registry of vehicles and people who drive them and aims to turn over the very identity of the citizenry. Given these realities, the declarations of the Police Chief of the National Civilian Police are worrisome when he assures us that all is in order in the Argentinean business. And the right-wing feels this way up until the time when this ex-military man from Argentina is exposed publicly before the international community and the right wing sees itself exposed. And what it sees it does not like. Apart from the fact, it is not ignorant of the fact that some of its members could become victims of similar international arrest warrants. In him they see a part of themselves, the part that violated human rights and which cannot be forgotten but with which it must live day to day.

    If the human rights violations committed by Salvadoran ex-military officials and politicians are forgotten, the same things must be done for the Argentinean. If these are not permitted to invest ill-gotten funds, neither should Salvadorans be permitted to do so. If the Argentinean ex-military officials are repudiated—and some Salvadoran authorities are even willing to comply with a hypothetical international arrest warrant—Salvadoran nationals along with some other foreign terrorists who have used national territory for their operations, some of whom are being sought by international justice must also be repudiated and made to comply. The Salvadoran right wing is scandalized by what it sees in its neighbor, but the neighbor moves along on greased wheels without changing.

    These confusions would disappear if the Salvadoran right wing would face its past. There are ways of doing this without starting a witch-hunt and without violating the elemental rights of persons. And it is the duty of justice to the victims. To continue resisting is to chain oneself to the past and deny the future. The past, which one might wish to forget, is that which impedes the establishment and prevalence of the rule of law and judicial security because it is this which tolerates the existence of forces which operate outside of or above the law. To break with this past using truth and justice is to break simultaneously with the power that twists and captures the present and obstructs the future.

POLITICS

    During this month of September, aside from dealing with the problems of day to day life, Salvadorans must prepare themselves for the celebration of a year more of independent living. The preparation of the celebration of a patriotic festival is the official event of the greatest of importance in these days. Traditionally, in Central American, and particularly in El Salvador, the first day of September is when the festivities of this civic month begin. In this inauguration the president of the republic participates accompanied by the members of his government cabinet, usually in some town in a rural area of the country with an emotional speech recalling the independence struggles.

    This year, as part of the inauguration of the civic festivities, the president was in San Juan Opico, a small town in the Department of La Libertad with a very warm climate. Mentioning nostalgic events of his childhood, he invited school children to lay aside the boring wait for the official acts and activities, in order to meditate upon the freedom and liberty achieved some 179years ago. He took notice of the fact that the answer to the legitimate question of why the empty repetitions of the national hymn and the boring speeches ought not to be taken up by using the faculty of reason but as nostalgic experiences of the homeland. Only from this experience can one appreciate what is the most important of the human creations: the concept of the state and the concept of the nation.

    Nevertheless, apart from the emotion that the functionaries like to underline on these occasions, it is necessary to ask oneself rationally about the need—or not—to celebrate a month of civic festivities. The governmental slogan of these festivities is an exhortation to “carry the blue and white of the pride of El Salvador”. But, objectively speaking, who could feel proud of the patriotic colors in the national situation of today?

    A glance at current reality, on the contrary, would fill any observer with pessimism. On the political plane, the crisis of the institutions is sharpened more and more each day. The citizenry is not satisfied with the functioning of these institutions. There is not a week in which there are not complaints against the lack of compliance of these institutions with their mandate. In this sense, there is a generalized repugnance surrounding political activity. The rejection of the behavior of some functionaries is proof of this as well as the systematic cover-up of corruption, the denunciation of telephonic espionage and the impunity enjoyed by politicians.

    On the other hand, the current situation of insecurity among the citizenry, which is a scourge upon the Salvadoran populace, is another reason for concern. In addition to the already uncontrollable common crime and organized crime together with the increase in social violence is added a public health problem: the outbreak of hemorrhagic dengue fever. During the height of the celebration of the festival of independence, the Salvadoran people must experience the deaths of their loved ones as a result of the inefficiency of the public health system. On this topic, serious difficulties confront the authorities of the Health Ministry and the national hospital network as they attempt to control this disease leave no doubt about governmental incompetence about the problem. At this stage of the game, and after six months of epidemic, the functionaries do not know finally known even what kind of disease they are dealing with. They cannot, therefore, be sure what actions to take, nor the best way to save the lives of innocent victims.

    The economic situation is another Calvary during this hot and humid month of September. The already precarious economic situation in the homes of the poor is aggravated at a point in time when the government just announced the elimination of the subsidy on the consumption of electric energy. In this way, the price increase of hydrocarbon fuel on the international market is worsening the national economic crisis.

    Finally, not even football, the sport of the multitudes which service and such occasions as an opiate and allows people to forget their problems has given great satisfaction to the country. The humiliating defeats of the Salvadoran team during recent days do nothing more than contribute to increasing the frustration. Now, sports, so many times used to evoke patriotic sentiments, have played a poor role for the Salvadoran people. Definitively speaking, the emotion that accompanies the civic festivities is now, among the Salvadoran people, has reached the proportions of social nightmare.

    There is no lack for those who, on the contrary, see in this situation as just one more motive to give a higher profile to the civic festivities in the same measure in which people are mobilized, stimulating their sentiment of belonging, and collaboration in the solution to the crisis. The customary call by public functionaries for the collaboration of the populace is a good illustration of the foregoing. Present Francisco Flores himself, on many occasions, has underlined the necessity for all Salvadorans to feel that they belong to the nation and that they should work in a common front to remove the difficulties which plague the country.

    Nevertheless, given some of these speeches, one must put a stop to the generalized use made of the topic of independence to evoke emotions and sensationalism, as a cover-up for the situation of anguish which large sectors of the population are feeling because they are not taken into account when the national pie is divided and passed out. Said in another way, the topic of the homeland in Central America and especially in El Salvador has been used in its emotional and ideological components to hide the exploitation of which the great majority of the population is victim. Or, what is tantamount to saying in El Salvador today, as a result of the way the state is structured, only a small, reduced group enjoys the privilege of the independence day celebration which consecrates freedom for the sons and daughters of these lands.

    Not to take into account this reality is to perpetuate the sensationalist and emotional feeling of a nationalism which does not draw people together and which has never been convincing to the majority of the Salvadoran people. In fact, as several Central American historians have recognized, independence was the decision of the Creoles as against the control exercised by those on Spanish mainland and had not very much to do with the situation of exploitation misery and suffering of the indigenous populations. In one way or another after independence followed marginalization, exploitation of those who before independence had felt the heaviest weight of colonization. For this reason, freedom and prosperity brought by independence was only for a small groups of sons and daughters, descendents who continued to follow the destiny of the newly independent countries. In this sense, if independence is understood to be a national effort to resolve the problems which harry individuals in a specific geographical area, national independence must be reinvented. In order to succeed in the creation of a real identity, one must work towards the solution of problems which trouble the Salvadoran nation. If one does not work along these lines, independence will continue to be an emotional outpouring which is hollow and powerless to bring people together at all.

    In El Salvador today it is a question of returning to the process of winning independence. But this time it must be a question of independence which takes into account the interests of all of the sons and daughters of this land. It is not enough that Salvadorans outside El Salvador feel strong emotions when they hear the words of the national anthem. The logic, which appears to invite those who wish to feel patriotic love and leave the country and to feel sentiments of loss in foreign lands, must be broken. As the president of the republic stated in his speech in San Juan Opico, one must succeed in winning freedom and liberty against injustice, ignorance and marginalization. Nevertheless, the cause must be found which perpetuates these ills after 179 years of independent life. And likewise, the president must be reminded that a group of Salvadorans who has never been marginalized or who has never suffered from injustice and ignorance. To the contrary, the processes of independence and the celebration of it have contributed to mystifying the sense of freedom achieved in order to perpetuate the ills from which the great majorities of this population suffer. To forget about this reality is to enter into a state of schizophrenia which does not help to restore patriotic ties and occasions, as well, a forgetfulness concerning the urgent necessity for reinterpreting, at this point in time, the sense and meaning of independence.

SOCIETY

    Ever since the Legislative Assembly decided to intervene in the definition of the legal status of casinos in our country, the future of these establishments has been bogged down in confusion. After the legislative deputies decided to remove from the municipalities all responsibility in the handling of the casinos, they have been in a legal limbo for several weeks in which they have been categorized as “untouchables”. Given the situation surrounding the casinos became an indication of the lack of capacity among the legislators who could not delegate the responsibility for opening, closing or regulating their operation to practically any other institution of the state. To this was added the repeated calls by San Salvador Mayor Hector Silva to define the province of each entity which had to do with defining the final future of these businesses. Finally, in spite of the fact that only in the capital has there been any relative agility in the ordering of the closing of the gaming houses, the legal complications have once again held back the long awaited closing of these establishment.

    This brief glance at the recent context is enough to conclude that, in the debate which has been unleashed around this series of events—which cannot be said to come to a head or a definitive conclusion—the ethical appeals no longer have any precedence issuing in action. So it is that the principal point of attack from those who define the morality and integrity of the Salvadoran people have never hit the mark as was hoped and have even been lost in the labyrinths of state bureaucracy. So now, to this state of affairs honest Salvadorans who have decided to change the municipal laws and close the doors of some few business eager to become rich with the slot machines had to wait. The chastity of their way of life—the same modus vivendi that they wish to pass on to their children in keeping them distanced from the temptation of vice and gambling—will be visibly perturbed during this period, at least until judicial authorities make a determination as to whether the rights of the casino owners were violated by the San Salvador municipality when it ordered their closing.

    Nevertheless, and although it might be difficult to believe, some public functionaries have adhered firmly to this kind of arguments in order to condemn tolerance—as they call it—which certain authorities have shown on the topic of the casinos. Evidently, these same authorities apply a small figleaf to the history of this intolerance: the problem begins with a mayor who gave free rein to the gaming houses in San Salvador. And it is a known fact that that mayor belonged to the opposition party and that his efforts to modernize the municipal administration of the capital have been recognized inside and outside the country. From this perspective the work of Mario Valiente, capital city mayor for the ARENA party for the period 1994-1997 is not particularly relevant, even though it was Valiente who threw the first stone in the process of establishing these dubious recreation centers in the country.

    At this point in time, what is most important in the discussion surrounding the existence of the casinos is the fact that the legal definition of their existence and functioning cannot be put off any longer. In reality, the whole world became aware of the tremendously harmful factor the casinos constitute and could be places where legal gambling might begin to be established in our country. Many citizens, committed as they are to the moral integrity of Salvadorans, became the self-appointed spokespersons to let the population know. But in the end what placed so many barricades against these businesses was their supposed linkage to international Mafia and smuggling networks. This possibility would be prejudicial to national interests, and therefore would add a final chorus to the war against the casinos and make their links to the world of crime public. The fact is that none of these arguments seem sufficient to stop once and for all the direction which the debate has taken. In spite of the fact that the case is now in the hands of the legal authorities and that the Administrative Law Section of the Supreme Court will have the final word, there is still an insistence in pointing out persons who are responsible beyond the limits of what justice may order.

    One more example may be in order: the Minister of the Interior, Mario Acosta, as well as Mauricio Sandoval, the Chief of Police of the PNC, have insisted on a situation in which Salvadoran society is still “immature” or too young and inexperienced to assimilate this kind of activity and a ten year wait would be in order, after which time this state of affairs would be taken up for discussion. There exists reasonable doubt as to what kind of analysis should be used in order to determine the parameters of time during which this waiting period should be in effect, above all if we think that in ten years or in twenty, El Salvador will still have these knights in shining armor to defend good manners and high values which would halt the advance of the harmful casinos. Nothing can assure Mr. Sandoval, the architect of this projection, that at that point in time one would not have to waste his or her energies in listening and assimilating each and every one of the objections to be raised on this issue. Without the perspective from which the problem is taken up being taking into consideration, if the problem of the establishment of the casinos had become so relevant and so much in the public eye, this has been because they who have wanted to object to its existence enjoy, by all considerations, the necessary arenas to make their opinion felt throughout the country.

    Concerning the interests that operate behind the conspiracy against the gaming houses there is very little to say. Having privileged access to the media, enjoying the prerogatives of political allies (representatives of the most crass conservatism in the country) and being clear about who the real enemies are in this game of arguments and counter arguments, the aim of the debate is to have an effect on the work of Mayor Silva and the political opposition which might offer support for his re-election. This, however, was not sufficient for the context obtaining during the period before last March’s elections for other municipalities who had given their consent to the operation of these businesses within their jurisdiction and were thereby affected. And in some cases, the ARENA party, the government party, governed these municipalities. For now, with the electoral storm having passed, indications continue to be focussed on what happened or did not happen in the capital city municipality.

    And so there are still a lot of loose ends in this problem for which few wish to take even the most minimal responsibility. The Legislative Assembly and the Presidency of the Republic itself has exercised no pressure of any kind to the effect that actions against the casinos might be applied using criteria which override moral and political considerations and which are focussed on legal arguments and legal reasoning. The Attorney General’s Office of the Republic, with much gnashing of teeth, assumed the final responsibility for closing the San Salvador casinos, but has not proceeded with the same kind of diligence against the rest of the municipalities of the country. For now, the authorities of the institution are accusing Silva of delaying—perhaps with ill intentions—the process of closing them down and, at the same time, closing his eyes to the flaws and lacks which the other mayors implicated in the case could be committing. Judicial authorities have spoken of at least a four month period which will be needed before they issue a resolution on the question of the restraining orders requested by the casino owners.

    It is this kind of contradiction that undermines the importance of the way in which the problem might be resolved. At this point in the discussion, what seems to be the guiding light for the government functionaries in their speeches against their functioning is the possibility of public protagonism which would offer them a topic which would continue to benefit them in their political doings. And so it is, then, that as long as there continue to be people who feel that they have the right to add yet another objection to the struggle against casinos in our country, there will be much to deal with in the time that remains to wait before their final elimination from national borders.