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     Proceso is published weekly in Spanish by the Center for Information, Documentation and Research Support (CIDAI) of the Central American University (UCA) of El Salvador. Portions are sent in English to the *reg.elsalvador* conference of PeaceNet in the USA and may be forwarded or copied to other networks and electronic mailing lists. Please make sure to mention Proceso when quoting from this publication.
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Proceso 940
February 21, 2001
ISSN 0259-9864
 
 
 

INDEX

Editorial:  Crisis of the idea about progress
Politics:  Press freedom within the current crisis
Economy:  The January and February earthquakes: economic implications
 
 
 

EDITORIAL

     It is commonplace to think that El Salvador progresses indefinitely no matter what happens. The idea about an infinite and autonomous progress has been one of the main aspects of the elite Salvadoran class’ discourse for more than a century. Progress is thought to have an inexhaustible drive. Thus, El Salvador would be advancing firmly since the nineteenth century, although some obstacles might have been faced and overcome, thanks to the intern progress’ virtues. Such obstacles were the 1930 recession, the 1932 rural insurrection, as well as the petroleum crisis in the early seventies, and the civil war of the eighties, including the alliance between the army and the Christian Democratic Party and its reforms. Nowadays, we have to add the earthquakes to the list.

     This idea about progress held by the Salvadoran elite appeared in the context of the coffee production rationalization, which involved some other export growing crops and even the first efforts to industrialize the country, under the Central American common market protection. The coffee’s elevated productivity and profitability made the producers believe that progress was guaranteed. However, when the dream was almost coming true, the Christian Democrats´s reforms fall and the civil war started. After that, Alfredo Cristiani was appointed to set the road of the progress straight by means of structural adjustment reforms, free market, privatizations and the exaltation of individuality. At this point, progress prevailed again in the discourse, under the premises of neo-liberalism.

     The earthquakes have shown the truth about the prevailing idea of progress, which only considers the city and leaves the countryside out. Even within the city, progress only favors those with the highest income. Those who think that polarization is primarily political are wrong. The economic and social polarization comes before the political one. The latter is just a result of the former. Up until now, the implicit contradiction shaping the idea of progress has been defended by the army, the war, the propaganda, and an important dose of will and endurance from the population. Nevertheless, such progress, instead of covering more social groups, has become more exclusive and excluding. In addition, it has been praising the population’ virtues and exploiting it at the same time. The current circumstances and challenges darken the future of both this progress ideology and the innate virtues of the population for work, patience and poverty. This concept is not only challenged by the earthquakes victims but also by the stagnant economy, which keeps having a blind faith in the free market and its corresponding authoritarian and repressive expression.

     This progress ideology entails silence and forgetfulness. Everything that questions this idea is left out as a trivial matter. Any criticism is said to be motivated either by an illegitimate resentment and ambition, or by strange forces that endanger our happiness and prosperity. That is why the 1932 massacre was erased from the written sources in the country. The topic is touched on only when it is needed. However, it is always distorted. The crisis of the seventies, which led to the civil war the following decade, has also been misinterpreted. Even though officially recognized, it is not given the importance it deserves, while some people have tried to forget the crimes and cruelties executed in that period. After the 2001 earthquakes, the economic and social neoliberal plan faces a challenge with the same characteristics of the 1970 crisis. The plan creators are asking for solidarity and claiming for national unity, as long as nobody questions their plan, which, ultimately, is to be blamed for the permanent exposure of the Salvadorans to all kinds of risks.

      Silence and forgetfulness are not only a strategy but also part of a necessity. The idea about progress held by the elite groups abandoned many thousands of peasants killed in 1932. In the seventies and eighties, killings reappeared first as state repression and then as death squads. In the early eighties, the owners of coffee plantations used to talk about exterminating nearly 100,000 Salvadorans in order for them to solve the problems of the country. They were offering an answer similar to the one given in 1932, but amplified. The amount was not reached but it was close. Currently, some people refuse to remember and avoid asking for responsibilities for the past. All the killings are minimized and considered as a casualty within the civil war. To ask for responsibilities would lead us to expose the system’s crime. Meanwhile, the system keeps operating overlooking the well being of many people, who are forced either to leave the country or to resign themselves to live in poverty and misery, as the earthquakes have shown. In consequence, silence and forgetfulness become crucial to hide the harshness of the Salvadoran reality. For this reason, some people are now asking for collaboration and eluding to ask for responsibilities. Nature is supposed to be the only responsible.

     The other side of silence and forgetfulness is the insistence on both the progress’ advances, which are frequently magnified, and the promises about a prosper future, which is imprecise and remote as well. Another way of hiding the reality is to raise a prosperity façade, which benefits a small group, while the rest is asked to look ahead, without realizing the present conditions. Any small step toward progress and the certainty about a promising (and vague) future add to the covering of contradictions. This situation is not caused for a lack of information. Even the most famous supporters of the progress ideology know there are contradictions within their beliefs, but such ideology let them deal with the conflict and hide it from the society. For this reason, the most important enemy of this ideology is truthful and critical information, which exposes the abstractions about the neo-liberal progress.

     It is doubtful that the deceit can continue covered for a long time. The political system is showing signs of a dangerous rigidity. It is reducing its capacity to satisfy the needs of the population. The political leaders lack new ideas for answering the demands that, although deep-rooted, are now appearing with more intensity and urgency. The natural response of the population towards the status quo has been hostile and indifferent. People do not trust in progress. If the aforementioned contradiction is not resolved soon, El Salvador might enter a social crisis, which could be avoided if radical social changes took place in the near future. Reality has discredited the old idea about progress. Thus, it would be impossible to promote new stages in the country without adopting structural changes.

     The quality of the responses given by the government to the needs created by the earthquakes of these first two months have been analyzed many times. Discontent voices have been heard everywhere, despite the results of a poll, which revealed that most Salvadorans were satisfied with the government’s performance during this most recent crisis. In order to get a better idea about the public opinion, it would be necessary to wait for another survey, since the results of the one done by the CID-Gallup seems to contradict the prevailing social discomfort. Nevertheless, in the following lines we approach the capacity of the government members to assimilate the criticism and divergent opinions given by different groups about the way the current crisis should be faced.

     It is not a secret that the right wing group governing the country does not accept any claim from the opposition. This group has not shown signs of digesting any criticism, either. The ARENA’s history itself is enlightening in this respect. The ARENA is a political party, whose militants interpret any intern dissent as an insurrection movement. Obedience has been the gold rule for all the convinced ‘areneros’. On the other hand, ostracism and expulsion are strongly felt by the ones that do not conform to the internal partisan rules. The most recent case was obvious when the “rebel congressman”, Orlando Arévalo, criticized the mafias ruling the party in the power and, consequently, was expelled from it.

     The persistent conflict between the “arenero” government and the FMLN makes evident the incapacity of the former to settle its differences with the opposition groups. The ancient hatred showed by the ARENA’s leaders towards the FMLN members overcome, in some cases, the limits allowed within the struggle for the national political leadership. The ARENA’s directory barely accepts political opposition. Thus, it is a tradition in the national politics that the areneros blame the left wing party for their own mistakes, ever when the public opinion is against the government policies. President Flores has done it many times when the approval of international loans has been discussed, and when he has tried to hide his own mistakes from the public. In this context, the last official accusations against the FMLN that it has some responsibility for the inadequate government’s performance on the assistance for the earthquakes victims do not surprise anybody. This is part of the right wing’s political tradition.

     However, it is worth to analyze why the president and some powerful groups attacked so furiously Channel 12 for having criticized the deficient governmental performance. The daily Prensa Gráfica (February 14, 2001) echoed the accusation made by the Salvadoran president against Channel 12 for contributing, according to the President, to plant the seeds of doubt in the country, and  for being responsible for paralyzing the international aid. Channel 12 was blamed for the abandonment of thousands of Salvadoran families, and for the lack of governmental attention to the victims. President Flores did not hesitate to say that Channel 12 did a great harm to the country with its permanent criticism.

     Far from convincing, to state that the lack of international help, or that the stoppings of governmental assistance are owed to the critics from the communication media, raises the worst kind of suspicion. It is well known that the governmental slow performance to help the victims was due to the centralizing zeal of the Executive branch, as well as to the exclusion of the natural structures in cases of disaster, such as the municipalities. The earthquake in India, which took place a few days after the one in El Salvador, was the reason that a great deal of international aid was sent to that country.
 

     There is no evidence that could sustain the President’s denunciation against Channel 12.  Flores´ discomfort seems to obey rather to his displeasure by the voices that doubted his government team’s ability to respond to the crisis. The situation turns even more serious: the angry reaction of the Salvadoran President against Channel 12 is one of the best traditions of authoritarism, which usually attacks the segment of the press that does not submit to their wishes, attaching it to the political opposition, and achieving in such way its disqualification.

     More recently, press domestication and/or liquidation were frequent in the Peru of Fujimori and Montesinos. The last video images where owners of important media appear negotiating their editorial lines and their news coverage make everyone see to what extent the Peruvian press was in connivance with Fujimori´s and Montesinos´ dictatorship. Latin American sensibility towards any State intent to restrain the criticism duties of the media must always be alert. The Salvadoran President´s attitude against the “opposition” —be it press, civil society organizations or political opposition— is not a sign of democratic maturity, but that of an authoritarian political style.

     The last statements of the Salvadoran President about Channel 12 are part of the State pressure on communication media. What is more surprising about this situation is the fact that such attitude did not open the way to a protest from the media and the owners of journalistic enterprises —except for a shy press release of the Association of Journalists of El Salvador (APES, in Spanish). The silence of the Interamerican Press Society (SIP, in Spanish) contrasts with their speech on the necessity of a free press. There is no doubt that the nature of the accusations of the President against Channel 12 is in the tradition of the authoritarian presidents, the SIP considered such tradition as an offense against the freedom of the press during its last meeting in El Salvador, last August. What does the speech on the necessity of a free press has to say about this case?

     The least that one would expect is that the SIP condemns the Salvadoran government. It is not about being defensive about this or that leader (or flags). It is about making clear that the criticism of the public officers´ actions  —which is a duty of the press— does not depend on the sympathies, nor on the personal, nor on the political interests of the informative media. The society has the right to know the truth beyond the sensibility of the people pointed here; the duty of the communication media is to contribute to that.

     Exactly a month after the January 13 earthquake, a new seism shook the central area of the country, causing the death of 305 people, injuries in another 3,000 and the total destruction of more than 36,000 houses. This disaster has been added to the damage caused by the first earthquake, specially because it affected some areas that were barely damaged before. The most affected areas during the second earthquake are located in the departments of La Paz, San Vicente and Cuscatlán.

     At the moment, the government estimates that the accumulated loss because of both earthquakes would be close to 3,000 million dollars, equivalent almost to a 22% of the Domestic Gross Income (PIB, in Spanish) for the year 2001. Without a doubt,  this sets an important challenge for the authorities. They are obligated to examine their development policies concerning the reconstruction, as well as to overcome those structural obstacles that cause more vulnerability.

     So far, the government has elaborated only a “necessities report”, which will be presented during the next meeting of the Consultant Group of Madrid. On this occasion, they will discuss the future of the international cooperation for El Salvador. Last February 16, President Francisco Flores delivered the report to the members of the businessmen elite. This report contains the damages´ evaluation, which was supported by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (CEPAL, in Spanish). In this article, it will be reviewed the first information revealed by President Francisco Flores concerning the report he is taking to Madrid, as well as the reactions of the business sector. This article also evaluates some of the challenges that El Salvador will have to face after the earthquake.

     The available information does not specify the needs that will be brought up by the Government to the international cooperators. It can be said that President Flores intends to lean on a document that contains a map of needs, an estimate of the damages and the priorities in each sector or municipality. According to the presidential perspective, it will be created a commission in order to deliver the aid. Religious and business personalities, and four mayors of the most affected areas will integrate this commission. The expectations of the government would be to obtain soft loans, technical assistance, cooperation for the local governments´ qualification, and foreign investment to help the most affected areas.

     The business sector was guest of honor at the presentation of the damages and needs report. Its most influential instances   -National Association of Private Enterprises (ANEP, in Spanish), the Salvadoran Association of Industrials (ASI, in Spanish) and the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of El Salvador seemed to be pleased because, according to Ricardo Simán, the ANEP´s president, “the way the document will be presented and the spokes people have been chosen wisely”. In this context, Simán would have expressed that it is also necessary to adopt other legislative initiatives: flexibility in the ratification of Free Trade Agreements, liberalization of the minimum wage and the creation of favorable conditions for foreign investments.

     These three elements are not new, and were already pointed out by the private business representatives even before the first earthquake. However, even if they could have a dose of legitimacy, the truth is that they show a series of negative effects, which are worthwhile to examine.  First, free trade agreements could cause more damages than benefits  (as the case of the Canada-United Sates Free Trade Agreement). Such damages can cause the disappearance of enterprises and jobs located in sensitive sectors. Unfortunately, in El Salvador almost all the economic sectors are sensitive due to the low structural competition of the economic apparatus, which has been aggravated even more with the impact of the earthquakes on the constructions´ structure, streets and roads, and productive installations.

     Second, the minimum wage liberalization solicited by the business sector is based on the supposition that, with such measure, the minimum wage will be reduced and, with that, the demand for labor. It is a reason based on the offer and demand theory, but it supposes that there is a great elasticity on the demand for labor when there are changes in the minimum wage. That is just an assumption in a post earthquake situation. Even if minimum wages were diminished, the demand for labor will not increase if investments and production are not growing vigorously.

     Beyond the perspective of offer and demand, what has to be considered is that the minimum wage is already inferior to the value of the basic food basket (which defines the line of extreme poverty). Therefore, a reduction of the minimum wage implies to sink the workers into a deeper poverty.

     Third, the thought that favors the foreign investment supposes that the pro development efforts depend, fundamentally, on the decisions of foreign investors. This is correct to some extent, but the domestic investment stimulus is also required. The national business sector must multiply its investments to promote the growth of production and employment, for which it is absolutely necessary a monetary and a credit policy, in order to support the investment activities and those sectors economically strategic. Unfortunately, the dollarization adopted by the government since the beginning of the year could definitively close the possibility to develop a monetary and a credit policy.

     President Flores´ attitude to negotiate on this kind of issues just with the businessmen, and the valuations made by the their elite representatives reveal that it is necessary to generate more discussion and debate on the country’s future. The decisions that might be taken during the design and implementation of the reconstruction efforts will affect, for better or worse, all Salvadoran society, not just the businessmen.

     The post disaster priorities must set the discussion about the economic model boundaries, which has been implemented throughout the nineties (even before the earthquakes, this model showed clear signs of weariness). If  there was a concern for the long phase of slow economic growth, now this one is even greater,  because the productive structure has been severely affected. One of the main national challenges is how to turn the situation opened by the recent disasters into an opportunity for development.

     In addition to an evaluation of the damage, the government needs to assume a new post earthquake development plan, that benefits  the vulnerable sectors with the economic growth. This should make the government redefine its economic model, and lead us to the stimulus of the economic sectors with more capacity to generate employment. It is completely unadvisable to pretend that we have no problems, and keep holding on to an economic model that has already demonstrated its limits to maintain high rates of economic growth, and to promote the local development.
 

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