Center for Information, Documentation and Research Support (CIDAI)
E-mail: cidai@cidai.uca.edu.sv

Central American University (UCA)
Apdo. Postal 01-168, Boulevard Los Próceres
San Salvador, El Salvador, Centro América
Tel: +(503) 210-6600 ext. 407
Fax: +(503) 210-6655
 

     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.

     Subscriptions to Proceso in Spanish can be obtained by sending a check for US$50.00 (Americas) or $75.00 (Europe) made out to 'Universidad Centroamericana' and sent to the above address. Or read it partially on the UCA’s Web Page: http://www.uca.edu.sv
     For the ones who are interested in sending donations, these would be welcome at Proceso. Apdo. Postal 01-168, San Salvador, El Salvador.

INDEX

EDITORIAL

    Playing with money is neither recommendable nor healthy. To play with a considerable amount of money is immoral, and, frequently, it becomes an addiction with terrible personal, familiar, and social consequences. To play with great amounts of money in a country with so many needs and misery is a sin. Despite of all this, there are always people willing to bet their salaries and even their possessions. Apparently, to avoid all of these situations, the political parties, the congressmen, and the government are willing to definitively close the casinos. In addition to the moral dangers, they consider that the casinos are vicious, with drug dealing going on, money laundering, and organized crime.

    If the criteria to close the casinos has a public and a moral nature, they also should proceed to close with the same intransigence the prostitution houses, the ones that belong to the rich, as well as the ones that belong to the poor, including the motels, since in all of these places they trade with sex, the minors are frequently abused, and all kinds of dishonest and immoral acts are committed. In addition, the daily advertising about these places should also be prohibited. With the same criteria they should control and close the Zona Rosa's bars, and other places where plenty of money is spent on alcohol and drugs, and where there is money laundering, and the public order is disturbed. Many of the activities that take place at these night spots are damaging for the individual health , as well as for the family's economy.

    These moral outbursts were splashed with a cold water bucket when President Flores and the United States' Embassy put the moralists in their place. The first one made a “wise” distinction between a business company that is dedicated to entertain and the one that is connected with delinquency. Like so, President Flores himself declared the entertaining spots the places where "the decent businessmen meet all of the requirements of the United States and, therefore, they come here to this country". The United States' Embassy supported the presidential posture, and warned that the law cannot be  abruptly changed without any consultation. This warning is accompanied by a reminder. Last year, not only the casinos complained about that particular way of ruling, but also the petroleum companies and the energy distribution companies as well. The message is clear. That governmental style is counterproductive to negotiate and sign a free trade agreement.

    Immediately, inside the Legislative Assembly, the ARENA congressmen adjusted themselves to the presidential guidelines, and after claiming the immediate closing of the casinos, they acted in a completely different way. After a few hours, the casinos went from vicious places to honest and respectable business. This radical change of the governmental posture is connected with an investor from the United States, who warned them that if his business was closed he would sue them for profit loss, and he would turn the case into a diplomatic incident, in the best style of the old times of the dollar diplomacy, when Washington defended with diplomatic and military means the United States' properties that were abroad. An incident of this nature could be counterproductive for the negotiation of a free trade agreement. Therefore, the  Embassy's intervention cannot be ignored.

    The defenders of the public moral are in trouble, unauthorized by President Flores and the United States Embassy. The director of the National Civilian Police should consider it more carefully before invading the casinos with his contingents, in search of all kinds of delinquents. If there once were any moral objections, these ones have disappeared with the power of money. However, President Flores is not completely unreasonable, since any investment could be used to launder money, and any businessman could be connected with the organized crime or drug dealing activities. For instance, we can mention the frauds at the Banco de Fomento Agropecuario, and the one at FINSEPRO and INSEPRO, all of them planned in the very same ranks of ARENA and the government.

    If the logic of the right-wing’s moral defenders is adopted, all of the business under suspicion would have to be closed, starting with the banks. If the Capitalist logic is adopted, all investments are welcome. What happens is that the government and the politicians oscillate between a provincial perspective, the one of a person who does not trust anything that is new, and holds on to the old habits; and the perspective of the modern businessman, who tries to penetrate into the world of the  transnational capital. Both postures are incompatible.

    The warning of the Embassy is also reasonable. Putting aside the influence that this declaration might have from the United States' interventionism activities in the Salvadoran internal affairs, it does show a serious flaw of the national government. His way of legislating is opposite to reason, and opposite to any ambition of modernity. When there are problems, which is inevitable, all of the congressmen react hastily, and propose, from one day to the next, a decree or a law. Like so, they legislate reform after reform, or accumulate laws. No one else has  control over this affairs. This particular way of ruling is characterized by impulsive reactions, legislative proposals that are never actually discussed, regardless of how this affects a great number of citizens. This is how the Salvadoran legislation dances to the rhythm of the difficulties and the whimsical wishes of the congressmen. The legislators reflect very little and know less, but they give their opinion about everything. The worst part is that,  with an astonishing security, they keep deciding the destiny of the Salvadorans.

    Legislators and officials will have to take note of the United States' Embassy warning, if they want to go inside of the globalization process through the main entrance. They will have to stop for once and for all with that improvised way of administrating the country. Neither the foreign investor, nor the citizens should be exposed to the arbitrariness of the legislators, the officials, and the judges. If from the start the legislators and the officials would have had a clear idea about the casinos, plenty of time and energies would have been saved, instead of going through such a sterile and useless debate. Their efforts would have been more productive if they had dedicated some time to think in a proper law to regulate (in general) the foreign investments and (in particular) the casinos.

    There is no doubt that the world lives a complex social, political and economic situation. The global recession, poverty, the wars, and the unilateral administration of the world that the potencies' make, are the everyday worries. With the celebration of the Second World Wide Social Forum, at Porte Alegre,  thousands of representatives from different social organizations spoke about poverty,  and about the needs that take place even in the countries with an economic bonanza. The importance to denounce an economic conception  that does not include the needs of the poor (condemning them to desperation) was discussed.

    In El Salvador,  despite that both the union freedom laws and the social organization are acknowledged, the social movements do not receive the approval of the official circles. Among those, the ones with a left-wing tendency (a real or a presumed one) are most likely to be questioned and thrashed. In reference to this issue,  the news media have played a notorious role. They have told their story, blaming the left-wing for all of the problems that afflict the society, even for the economic setback. The official press is an expert at revealing the left-wing's injustice in order to expose its irrelevance as a political option to resolve the problems and the abuse caused by the right-wing.

    The economically powerful circles support, in addition, their anti-left-wing discourse in the disastrous economic, social and politic results of the former Socialist block. The Berlin Wall's disappearance, and the end of the Soviet empire is a palpable evidence -for them- of the Capitalist indisputable triumph. Historically, Socialism has demonstrated -they insist- that it has not been able to honor its revolutionary promises; and when it has come close to fulfill those promises, it has been at the expense of the most radical aspect of a human being: individuality.

    The former ideas do not only support the boundless race to individualism, but they also discredit any attempt to express opinions against capitalism. In many occasions, it has been mentioned at the pages of El Diario de Hoy or La Prensa Grafica that Capitalism, despite its "collateral damages”, it is the best thing that could have ever happened to humankind. The market, the businessmen's freedom, and similar speeches about "the market's holly economy" are the only redemption. The creative businessmen have to be granted with total freedom. Thanks to the market's wisdom, they will know how to direct the country through progress and wealth.

    For El Diario de Hoy, no one can talk about the needs of those without a home, health, or education as an inequality produced by the businessmen’s greed. These cases cannot be presented as an attack against human rights, since such issues are not valid. In addition, according to its editorial, to attempt to distribute the wealth produced in the country by taxing the rich is an idea that can only be conceived by a feverish ex-communist head. Those are “false rights”, demanded to defend the losers and the ones defeated by history.

    According to the formerly exposed thesis, it is a sacrilege to criticize Capitalism or to pretend to humanize it. The ideas of a fair political, social, and economic system do not deserve any credit. >From this moment on, the demands to create a new world do not have the slightest chance to be taken seriously. However, the worst aspect of all of these ideas is that, besides rejecting any possibility of change, they condemn the victims of the system to an absolute fatalism. It turns out that the poor are considered the ones mainly responsible for their social exclusion. In this sense, the politically and economically powerful groups, despite the negativity of their role in the configuration of a society as the Salvadoran one, are exempt of any responsibility.

    The retrograde character of the Capitalist discourse in El Salvador must be noticed. Differently from some right-wing leaders of other places, who are willing to acknowledge the destruction that this economic conception has caused, the national ideologists are not willing to make any concessions. Their belligerent discourse against those who propose changes for the country, leaves no room for mistakes about the types of social relations that they advocate, and the kind of life that they dream about for the Salvadorans.

    In this context, it is no coincidence if the citizens decide to run away from such an inclement reality. Not only the difficult economic reality stands on the way, but also the right-wing thinkers’ discourse does not allow any possible exit for their causes. That is why fatalism is even more critical in our case.

    However, not only the right-wing pushes the Salvadoran population towards desperation. The left-wing’s performance contributes to increase that feeling of being trapped in a dead end. The performance of the main left-wing party leaves a lot to be desired, and somehow it supports the criticism and the propaganda that the right-wing throws against it. Their lack of imagination and their failure to understand the dimensions of the new struggle to change the world’s direction give the impression that they are not ready, nor interested, to support the social organizations with their demands for a new social, economic, and political order.

    Therefore, it can be said that the institutional left-wing is an accomplice of the right-wing’s greatness aura, and of the fatalism that this impregnates in the Salvadoran society. The political left-wing is not contributing with the possibility to dream with a better future, nor with the possibility to improve the situation of its most vulnerable members. It is evident that the leaders of the Salvadoran left-wing will not agree with such a severe perspective. They can say that their discourse against the economic power is not flattering at all with it. However, beyond the rhetoric considerations, the left wing has not been able to understand the new dimension of the social struggles, nevertheless to familiarize itself with the reality of those in need.
However, precisely to fight against fatalism, the World’s Social Forum took place last week in Porto Alegre with the presence of 50,000 delegates from different social organizations.

    Differently from the New York meeting, where the representatives of multinational companies and the most powerful countries where reunited, in Porto Alegre people were demanding more participation, and a change in the way how the world’s affairs were being handled. The delegates claimed for a new world, which could include all of the society’s members, independently from their economic possibilities, the color of their skin, or the country they originally belonged to. That is why the meeting of the civil society at Porto Alegre becomes important, because it represents an effort to redesign the destiny of all the countries. At least in this point, it can be said that there is a certain international agreement about the need to defeat the ideology that condemns a great majority to be forgotten.

    And the motto could not be another one but the declaration that another world is possible. This is a statement that not only challenges the established order, but that is also destined to shake the clogged minds out of the Neoliberal propaganda that defends the status quo. This automatically turns the Porto Alegre Forum into a struggle proclamation and into a program that can be implemented. Those who assume that another world is possible, prepare themselves to be active, and to understand that there is another way out to improve their lives. Those who believe in this possibility, understand that the dominant discourse does not have the last word. And that has been one issue the delegates insisted on at the World’s Social Forum.

    A particularity of that reunion is the leading role that the base groups assume, very much compromised and close to the ones that are excluded by the system. This could be considered as an affirmation of a society that takes a distance from the politicians. Politicians have not necessarily understood the importance of the struggle f those in need, or their relation with the circles of power. That is why they stand on the way of different popular projects. In that sense the Porto Alegre Forum constitutes an important message for the world of politics.

    Despite of that, there has been an important presence of politicians, Europeans mostly, willing –as some people said- to listen to the civil society’s claims against the Neoliberal “civilization”. Evidently, this is a gesture that has to be noticed, but without being naïve. It is not about an excessive suspicion against politicians. It is only about avoiding any kind of union that could break the original roots of the social movement. Politicians, whether if they belong to the right or the left-wing, have shown an astonishing capacity to recuperate the social movements, and make them lose their original objective.

    Finally, it is about keeping alive the possibility to construct another world. In El Salvador, the environment is hostile enough to keep that dream. In a certain way, the left-wing as well as the right-wing work together to kill the last chance of hope. That is why the Porto Alegre reunion could be very important for the Salvadoran social organizations. Not only as a motive to gather for a global social cause, but also to fight against a plague that commonly comes from the national politics’ environment: desperation and fatalism.

    In the middle of a deep social crisis caused by the most recent strike of the public transportation system, the first anniversary of the earthquakes takes place. These apparently different crisis are greatly originated in an inadequate institutional organization of the state and the society in general.

    The earthquakes alone would not have caused so much damage if there were plans to reduce the risks related with the construction of housing. The same thing can be said about the public transportation’s crisis, it grew worse because of the arbitrariness committed in the past when it came to assign the circulation permits and the definitions of the routes.

    Although it cannot be denied that part of the responsibility to protect against disasters is a social task, it cannot be ignored either that the state must play a determinant role, oriented to correct and regulate the prevention and the mitigation of disasters. After the most recent earthquakes and other emergencies, it was clear that neither the state, nor the population perceive the disasters’ risk reduction as a priority in their agendas.

    As it usually happens, once the commotion stage is over, and after a generalized demand for the prevention of disasters goes away, everything is at ease and everybody forgets about the whole problem. A year after the events, not much has been done to prepare mitigation and prevention plans because the government –after the emergency and the rehabilitation- went back to the same routine it had before the earthquakes: dollarization, an enlargement of the tax bases, and the restructuring and reduction of the state.

    This does not mean that some reactive activities -related to the institutional reform, the temporary and permanent home construction, and the rehabilitation of basic infrastructure- did not take place. This article will briefly describe the main effects of the earthquakes, and the characteristics of the reconstruction process.

Recapitulation of the damage

    The material impact of the disasters is not necessarily physical, or susceptible to be economically quantified, although this does not mean that this kind of impact exists. There is a politic and an institutional impact which, at least in the Salvadoran case, tends to become invisible before the physical character, more evident and dramatic.

    The most significant physical impacts were: 271,653 damaged houses, out of which 107,787 were inhabitable, and another 163,866 were not inhabitable. On the other hand, the Schools’ infrastructure suffered a significant damage as well: 232 schools received a red flag, 970 received an orange one, 560 a yellow one, and 885 received a green flag. That means that 33.4%, one third, of the infrastructure suffered damages caused by the earthquakes. The Health infrastructure was also affected: 113 health installations and 26 public hospitals were affected in different levels, obliging to evacuate the patients out of the most important hospitals of the country (Rosales, Maternidad, San Rafael, Neumologico, Usulutan, San Miguel, San Vicente y Zacatecoluca).

    As far as the roads’ infrastructure is concerned, the Panamericana road, the main highway for Central America, was interrupted at to ends by the landslides caused by the earthquakes. Another number of landslides became an obstacle at the secondary roads that lead to the mountains’ towns, at the time that other damages were reported at bridges, double level highways, and multiple infrastructure constructions.

    According to the CEPAL, the economic impact (which contemplates the impacts over the infrastructure, the environment, the loss of productive materials, the production and the decrease of the growth) of both earthquakes was more than $1,600 million, an amount equivalent to 12% of the GNP, and to 72% of the 2001 Nation’s General Budget.

    There were also considerable political effects that have not been completely examined, but that are very evident: an intensification of the conflict/competition between the central and the local governments, the conflict between the populations and the local governments, and the reinforcement of authoritative attitudes by the Republic’s Presidency.

A Year later

    The construction of housing and roads has been the main action line that the government took. If after the Mitch hurricane everyone thought that the river basins were the best option to prevent and mitigate, now the masonry housing construction seems to be the magic formula to avoid future disasters, although that does not mean that the government is completely dedicated to perform such task.

    From the report presented by the National Fund of Popular Housing (FONAVIPO, in Spanish), it can be inferred that the government would have built a total of 8,310 houses, out of a 36,000 total, that is, a little more than the 23% out of the total number planned. The remaining 27,7000 (67%) would have been built by over one hundred other institutions (churches, cooperation agencies, non-governmental organizations, friendly foreign governments, migrant groups, and company unions, among others). This piece of information suggests that the “externalization of damages”, a result of the destruction of houses, is being absorbed mainly by the national and international cooperation, and, in addition, that during the first year, a 13% of the total housing needs –caused by the earthquakes and disasters of 2001- have been covered.

    The government's participation has been much more decisive in the roads' infrastructure reconstruction and rehabilitation field (especially as far as the Panamericana road is concerned). It's participation has been also active at the reconstruction of the controversial Boqueron road, financed with a "immediate" loan of 60 millions of colones, granted by the Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo (BID). In the case of the Panamericana road, a lot of money has been spent to build slope controls and to hold back the possible landslides.

    While the government has made an effort throughout the year to rehabilitate the roads -which are at the time rehabilitated in a 100%- the basic social infrastructure has not run with the same luck, the hospitals suffered such a critical damage that at least in the case of the "San Rafael" Hospital, located at Nueva San Salvador, it has not been properly repaired. At this hospital, many areas continue operating at precarious temporary tents.

    The infrastructure of the public education's system is another large task that the government assures to be facing. According to the Minister of Education, Evelyn Jacir de Lovo, for the reconstruction they have counted with 25 millions of colones from the nation's budget fund, 66.8 millions of colones in "reorganized" loans, and 14.6 millions of colones in donations. This means that the government has only provided the Ministry of Education with a 23.5% of the total resources dedicated to the reconstruction of the public education's infrastructure, while  76.5% has been granted by external actors.

    According to Jacir de Lovo, "from 2,647 damaged schools, we are working on the definitive reconstruction of 2,473. We only have 174 unattended schools, although the educational service is working". These numbers raise doubts about how the unattended schools are actually "working", since, despite that the new school year has already started, many educational centers do not count yet neither with the basic infrastructure not with furniture, an already accurate need even before the earthquakes. The fact that the Mister of Education herself had inaugurated the school year at an educational center where some sections do not even have classrooms or desks turns out very symptomatic.

Perspectives

    Most of the government's effort has been oriented to the physical reconstruction. The only different construction activity performed has been the reform of a part of the state's institutional sector, related with the disasters' area. Basically, the efforts have been concentrated in only one -and a new- institution: The Ministry of the Environment's National Service of Territorial Studies, and also in other ministries responsible for the prevention of environmental threats. In addition,  risks analysis' system is supposed to be generated.

    Additionally, three quarters of the housing and infrastructure of the construction or reconstruction projects have been possible because of the international cooperation's help, mainly through loans and donations. Even the new territorial studies' institution depends, mostly, on the international cooperation.

    Very little attention has been dedicated to search for new ways of development that help to reduce the risk of future disasters: the appropriate technology to construct earthquake resistant buildings, an encouragement of the local skills, the modernization of the state's approach to the  civil protection, a reform of the educational programs to include the risk administration task, and the definition of strategies to incorporate the risk management tasks into the development initiatives.

    The considerable  housing and social infrastructure's deficit is a clear demand for the government to at least redefine and give some importance to the housing, education, and health access. It is questionable that the government and its financial sources consider as a priority to invest in the construction of double level bridges, or in the construction of a beltway in San Salvador, when most of the earthquake victims are still inhabiting shacks with no basic services, and while the peasants suffer the impacts of a severe dry season that came after the earthquakes, and that threatens to continue in 2002.

    The government has not shown enough political will to technically approach the vulnerability and the risk reduction problem. On the contrary, it took an authoritative posture, and this has not contributed to face and resolve the country's problems. Despite the overflow of accusations, recriminations, proposals, and suggestions that came after the earthquakes and the disasters of 2001, the Salvadoran society has not improved its risk reduction perspective. Hopefully, a new disaster will not be necessary to rediscover that reality.
 
 
 

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