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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 957
June 27, 2001
ISSN 0259-9864
 
 
 
 
 

INDEX

Editorial:  A society that tolerates crime?
Politics:  Flores abroad
Economy:  The Panama-Puebla Plan and sustainable development
 
 
 
 
 

EDITORIAL

    Kidnapping has become an endemic problem for the Salvadoran Society. In one of the most regretful events of the last months, Gerardo Miguel Villeda Kattan —a minor of only nine years of age— was killed, after his kidnappers would confront the Police Reaction Group (GPR, in Spanish) of the National Civilian Police (PNC, in Spanish) with an open gun shooting -two policemen also lost their lives during the confrontation. Although the situation in which the child was killed has not been clearly established, the attorney general authorities and the police insist that his death was caused by the kidnappers, one of them —Eduardo Henriquez, a.k.a. "Gigio"— would have shot him from a short distance.

    It is very probable that the events developed like that; however, there is also room for doubt while the contrary is not clearly established: Gerardo Miguel could have been killed in the crossfire between the police and the kidnappers. If this presumption were true, the procedures that the police followed during this particular case would have to be publicly examined, in order to determine if such procedures were the most adequate ones to protect the life of the murdered minor.

    The death of a helpless and innocent child provokes indignation in anybody who has a minimum dosage of human sensibility. It is as indignant to know about the abandonment, loneliness and the abuse to which Gerardo Miguel would have been subjected to in the hands of the kidnappers, if the sad end of his death would not have happened. From any perspective, the cold blooded murder of a child is condemnable: in the same sense, it cannot be tolerated, under no circumstance, that our rights are violated by captivity. Only human emptiness can lead certain adults to step on the innocence and the helplessness of a child. Only a society that has lost the sense of decency can stay with its arms crossed while some of its members violate the rights of those who are the most vulnerable.

    It is not about trying to do justice with our own hands, claim for the death penalty or ask for the reinforcement of the law, but about publicly expressing ourselves in favor of the respect for the human dignity, against violence and impunity. We cannot forget that kidnappings are only one aspect of the complex crime world, in which drug dealers, car robbers, gun dealers, white slavers and money laundresses compete for the "benefits" that the violation of the others' rights brings. We cannot forget either that the organized crime has multiple relations with important political and economic power groups, which has made it difficult to this day to transcend in the judicial investigations beyond certain levels of the criminal bands' structure. That is, impunity has been, until now, an unavoidable obstacle to fight organized crime, which has given to the main ringleaders the security of being untouchable.

    It is interesting how there are some people who do not miss a chance to take advantage of the crisis situation caused by delinquency to ask for either the reinforcement of the penal sanctions or for the death penalty. About the first subject, it is clear that before any penal reinforcement, the efficient application of the existing law must be guaranteed, which as it is leaves a lot to be desired. About the second subject, it has already been demonstrated that it does not contribute to eradicate crime, but to deteriorate the basic social values even more. The murder of a killer is always a crime, even if it is legitimated by the law. Apart from that, any mistake in a decision of such nature is irreversible.

    This last issue deserves special attention, since is one of the aspects that has contributed the most with the proliferation of crime is the inefficiency demonstrated by the authorities during their combat. Such efficiency is obviously not achieved by shooting bullets to every direction, offering money in exchange for information, intervening the telephones or designing campaigns to rave about the police success.

    These actions have turned into the most boisterous failures, just like the criminal activities persistence shows, which through advertising campaigns were already declared eradicated. It would probably be more appropriate that, when it comes to police issues, the investigation techniques preparation, intelligence duties, humanitarian basic education and institutional depuration were considered as priorities. The necessary complement of all this is a solid fiscal work, characterized by transparency and honesty.

    Kidnappers are, without a doubt, one of the worst social illnesses. Their voracity and their misery, as we see it in El Salvador, know no limits. Their conscience is not touched by neither their victims' cries and desperation, nor by the begging of their relatives nor the claims of the different social sectors. To know that they are safe despite their wrong doing —because of the police's inefficiency, the attorney general’s office incompetence or the relations that they count with— increase their disposition to crime. This is where the need to confront them drastically, but without violating the principles of a civilized social harmony. At the same time, the conditions that favor impunity must be eradicated, since it is the best hiding place for the delinquents and their accomplices.

    In a country where, swindlers are declared innocent, in which an ex director of the Social Security Salvadoran Institute disappears with millions in his pockets, and in which a drunk congressman fires his gun against the police without facing the consequences is the ideal place to commit the worst crimes. In a certain way, all of those who do not say or do anything to correct those vile acts have their share of guilt about how El Salvador is nowadays.  Those who praise that kind of behavior, considering it as an expression of the Salvadorans’ "wit", are even more guilty, and they do not miss a chance to take advantage of the weakest people. Then again, there is no use in getting upset about it: a good part of the Salvadorans do as they please —they do not respect their neighbor's rights, when they drive a car they do not respect the people walking on the street, they abuse children and women— and they turn the life of this country into a nightmare.

    "No prophet is welcome in his own land". With this Saint Lucas phrase, President Francisco Flores dismissed a reporter who asked him for the flagrant contrast between the apparent acceptance that he has abroad and the skepticism that a good part of the population feels about his government. Just like Jesus was rejected in his own village, Nazareth, Flores felt that the Salvadorans did not appreciate the self-sacrificing work that he does together with his team of technocrats.

    Ever since then, to stop the critics that were made to the president, about being disconnected from the national reality, a new advertising strategy was elaborated to communicate, nationally, the activities and the achievements of the Flores government. Such initiative, it seems, did not take long to come up with the desired effect. Now, approximately a year after the worst evaluations, the citizenry's perception about the role of the president has improved; despite that, however, the economic, poverty and delinquency problems are still being denounced. However, differently from last year, a direct connection is not established yet between the governmental policies and the serious generalized anxiety situation.

    Close to this national offensive to improve the president's image, in the international context the governmental efforts to present the image of a young, intelligent and visionary statesman have persisted. Despite that the present government’s focal points of its international policy can be questioned —for instance, the relations with Taiwan or the maintenance of the Salvadoran embassy in Jerusalem— we have to say that it has had an important presence at the international forums, if it is compared with the role and the presence of the rest of the Central American presidents. As a sample of it, El Salvador has been the location of the most important events that have been organized in this region.
 
    The presidents of the isthmus seem to realize, in a natural way, the leadership of the Salvadoran president. That way, despite that in our country the labor of the public safety officials is still being questioned, and that the judicial system has been failed in the last report of the State Department of the United States of America, the country is the regional location of the INTERPOL and the questioned director of the National Civilian Police, Mauricio Sandoval, enjoys has a great prestige among the rest of the police chiefs of the region.

    All of these facts are an unmistakable proof of the success that the Salvadoran president and some of his officials have had abroad, end specially in the Central American context. In addition, ever since the last argument with Cuban president, Fidel Castro, Francisco Flores has received more acknowledgement from the rest of the Central American presidents. The role of Flores in the argument with Castro can be questioned, however it is important to acknowledge that most of the presidents, just like the president of Panama, have surrendered to the charms of Flores, and consider him an aggressive and a smart statesman.

    It is undeniable that these facts say a lot about the qualities and the qualification of the rest of the Central American presidents. Even if it is true that it is important to notice the leadership that Flores has achieved in the area, this leadership has not contributed to a better representation of the national interests.

    On the other hand, the main features of this exterior acknowledgement to president Flores are owed to his repeated declarations in favor of the free trade, freedom of the business companies, and in favor of his predecessors' macroeconomic policies achievements —about whom he raves of at the international forums. For instance, during the last World Summit about globalization, Flores highlighted the wish of the Salvadorans of being able to sell their goods to the developed countries without obstacles. For that reason, he insisted that he was not there to ask for charity, but to defend the principle of freedom that the rich countries usually demand of the poor ones. Obviously, the ovations were immediate, mostly because what Flores came to say at that summit matched with what the planet's richest nations expected from the poorest ones: to accept their poverty without protest.

    It does not matter much that a little time after that, Flores traveled to the United States to beg president Bush not to send back the thousands of Salvadorans that abandoned their country because the present social and economic model does not provide them with the basics to live with dignity.

    Everything seems to indicate that, facing the exterior, the important thing was to highlight the principles of the free market, freedom of business companies, among other values defended by the international community. The defense of these values has led Flores to become the quintessential example of the Central American presidents. To tell the truth, when it comes to defend those ideas, President Flores does it better. That is why he has counted in many occasions with the visit of the BID's president, and that is why Flores is an intimate friend of the president of the Spanish government, Jose Maria Aznar. Not even the corruption acts of Flores' officials or those of the business elite —whose rights he defends to the last consequences— have tarnished his international acceptance.

    The democratic quality that the international community's power instances propose can also be understood from this perspective. A representative democracy, that has nothing to do with substantial contents. That is the reason why you can compliment and accept president Flores as one of the great ones in politics, while in this country he is more than questioned because of his doubtful decisions regarding to the consolidation of internal democracy. However, not one of these aspects actually matters for the international community leaders, since that what they value in their "protégés" is if they are faithful defenders of the neoliberal principles.

    You cannot be too surprised. The international community that now supports the actions of President Flores is the one that supported the Fujimori-Montesinos team when they did whatever they wanted in Peru. That is the same international community who, in a great deal, keeps supporting Israel, despite its evident violations to human rights. The international community has not been distinguished for its support to the fairest causes.

    That is why, even if Flores enjoys a good international acceptance, that acceptance is not valid to measure neither his qualification nor his statesman features. The BID’s president approval of the economic measures impelled by this government does not guarantee its effectiveness, nor its capability to resolve most of the problems that worry the Salvadoran population. That is because, despite that the international community is denying to accept it, the legitimacy of a president does not come exclusively from his acceptance among the international neoliberal circles, but from his compromise with the well-being of the citizenry. And President Flores leaves a lot to be desired about this last subject.

    On last June 15, a new Mexico-Central America presidential summit was celebrated in San Salvador. The event's agenda contained the presentation of the so-called  "Puebla-Panama Plan" (PPP, in Spanish), a proposal of the Mexican government for the development of the southern part of Mexico and the Central American countries. This plan is involved in a much wider cooperation process between both regions, which had its inflexion point in the "Tuxtla Gutierrez Declaration", subscribed in January 1991.

    The ideas that came out of the most recent summit do not show surprising results, considering antecedents such as the previously mentioned intentions' declaration and, most recently, the Free Trade Agreement with the North Triangle countries (Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador), Nicaragua and Costa Rica. The newest aspect of the PPP has probably been the idea that the Mexico-Central America integration is more probable if the south and the southeast parts of Mexico are involved first with the countries of the area. This is because the difference in the relative development of these regions is not so abysmal compared with the north central zone of the Aztec country.

    The Mexicans consider the southern part as an underdeveloped zone, with a low-income per-capita in relation to the rest of the country. According to the presidential commissioner and general director of the Panama-Puebla Plan, Florencio Salzar, "in the north center of Mexico the income per-capita is $4,000; in the south-southeast is $2,000; in Central America is $1,000". This means that for the Mexicans, Central America would be even more underdeveloped than the most late developed zone of Mexico. That might be why President Vicente Fox considers that the PPP is important to "correct the vices and the mistakes of the past, modernize our productive apparatus and find new formulas of development".

    To face this challenge, Fox proposed the PPP, which has eight areas of subjects: sustainable development, protection against disasters, tourism, commerce encouragement, infrastructure construction, energy interconnection, telecommunications integration service, and local development. The first aspect that calls our attention about this plan is that Mexico is practically giving a lecture to the Central American countries about the program content that their public policies should have. Beyond this implicit message, it is worth to reflect over each one of the main aspects of the PPP, to have a clearer idea of its content as well as to prove that it actually is not a novelty.

    Sustainable development is seen by the Mexican proposal as a way to respect the environment, the natural resources and the cultural heritage. This proposal —even though it does not mention the political, social and equity principles of sustainable development— has valid elements, mostly if the alarming environmental situation of Central America is considered. In fact, since a long time ago, the Central American presidents have added themselves to international movements in favor of the environmental sustainability, and subscribed to the agreements reached at the Rio Summit, in 1992, and the so called Alliance for Sustainable Development. In this field, then, there would be nothing new.

    The protection against disasters, besides being intimately related to the environmental sustainability, has also been considered by the Central American presidents, who have also declared the 1000-2004 period as the Central American Five Year Period for Vulnerability Reduction.  The first actions have already been gotten off the ground by the countries of the area, although, just like in the case of the environment, the efforts are still shy, disperse and not related to a integral development strategy.

    The proposals for a sector divided economic development of the PPP include tourism and commerce. With the exception of El Salvador and Nicaragua, tourism can be considered as one of the strongest proposals of Central America and the southeast of Mexico, where this sector has received special attention: although it still requires more investments and support through adequate public policies. The promotion of commerce, on the other hand, does not add much to the free trade agreements that are already operating, since the precise object of these agreements is to eliminate the barriers for the free circulation of merchandise.

    Other areas of the PPP consider measures that promote a higher infrastructure and services connection: construction of roads, energetic interconnection and telecommunications integration.  For Central America, this would be one of the aspects that could provide most of the benefits, considering its relative technological delay and its inefficient road infrastructure.

    A problem that is clearly foreseen in the PPP is the existence of high poverty levels and the inefficiency to provide the basic needs. In fact, this is the negative feature of the Mexican southeast that, according to the Mexicans, related them to the southern nations. That is why the PPP contemplates a social area that might impel education processes, health, indigenous development and the solution for the immigration problems. This issue is also related to the agreements subscribed by the Central American countries in the field of social development.

    In summary, and from the perspective of its conceptual content, what the PPP has as an interest feature for Central America is the possible technological exchange and the migratory problem treatment, which has turned into one of the main issues of the bilateral relations between Mexico and El Salvador. However, the rest of the areas have been previously discussed in other presidential summits, even though that does not mean that the problems have been solved, such as low income, environmental deterioration, vulnerability or the satisfaction of the basic needs.

    A new aspect of the PPP is that it has a more specific and integral content in relation to previous initiatives such as the free trade agreements or the cultural cooperation agreements, which now are included in the new plan. The most important aspect is the fact that, implicitly, the PPP is a call to the attention of the Central American presidents about what has to be done to overcome the "bottle necks" in sustainable development. As it has been mentioned before, these recommendations are unnecessary from a conceptual perspective, because they had been previously assumed by the Central American presidents.

    However, they seem to be recommendable from the governmental marketing plans, programs and projects perspective.  At least that is how the financing offer that the BID members —present at the presidential summit— made suggested, who expressed that they could finance up to $4,000 million for the PPP.

    In summary, the PPP is a new declaration of good intentions which adds up to previous ones, such as the Tuxtla Gutierrez, subscribed ten years ago and which have not provided real benefits (unless we talk about the subscription of a free trade agreement with Mexico, which positive results are still doubtful). These initiatives are acceptable material, but they should not make the Central American presidents neglect the formulation of their own development plans, which should go after elevating the competitiveness of their economies, increasing the production growth rates and generating more exports and products for the internal consumption.