El Salvador Perspectives

Last week, El Salvador's governmental Advocate for the Defense of Human Rights  (Procuradora Para la Defensa de los Derechos Humanos, "PDDH"), Raquel Caballero de Guevara, issued a damning report concerning overwhelming evidence of extrajudicial executions by El Salvador's National Civilian Police (PNC).    The report, which covered the period 2014-2018, examined 48 "emblematic" cases of extrajudicial killings in which security forces executed 116 people. The report systematically gathered investigative materials on all the cases examined and was able to identify several patterns.  Most often this type of killing happened in rural areas of the country.   The victims were almost all male, between the ages of 15 and 24, but some were as young as 13 and 14.  More than 60% of the cases came from 2015-16, when the country's overall homicide rate was the highest in the world.  Although police reports claimed that more than 90% of those killed w...

Today is the final day of ten years of the left-wing FMLN in the presidency of El Salvador.   And so we take a look back at the legacy of the governments of the party formed by former guerrilla forces turned politicians after the signing of the 1992 Peace Accords. Unfortunately for the FMLN, the two presidents elected under the party’s banner end up dragging down its legacy.  Mauricio Funes enjoyed high popularity ratings and swept the party into the presidency for the first time in 2009.  Yet now Funes sits in exile in Nicaragua, with orders for his capture on corruption charges outstanding, and with investigative journalists detailing how he lived a luxury lifestyle fueled by public dollars in a secret account of the presidency.  Salvador Sánchez Cerén has not had charges of corruption leveled against him, but that might be the most positive thing one can say about his presidency.  As a leader, he has inspired no one and been largely absent from an...

From the outside looking in, the transition of power from the current FMLN government to the new government of Nayib Bukele and Nuevas Ideas is not going smoothly.  Following his election, Bukele has continued his rhetoric accusing the current government of incompetence and corruption. For example, yesterday as  video showed heavy rains flooding a hospital  in San Miguel, Bukele  tweeted  "Dejaron nuestro país en ruinas...Qué Dios los perdone."  ( They left our country in ruins...May God forgive them ). The outgoing administration has been accused of last minutes raises and promotion for government employees.   A new union was suddenly approved for workers within the presidency.  The government is blamed for shortages of medicines throughout the healthcare system. Today, the outgoing government delivered what it said were more than 100,000 folios covering 14 ministries and more than 80 government institutions.   The delivery ...

With one month to go before a new president takes office, the current president of El Salvador is blaming an upsurge of gang-related killings on the impending change of government.   The office of president Salvador Sánchez Cerén issued a statement asserting that police intelligence reports on the gangs had already predicted an upsurge in violence in the final two months of the current administration.   The purpose of this wave of violence is allegedly twofold -- to tarnish the image of the outgoing government and its effectiveness in reducing criminal violence, and to blackmail the incoming government into a position of needing to negotiate with the gangs.   The gangs purportedly want to lessen the strict control over their leaders currently in El Salvador's prisons and to reduce the level of police and military operations in gang territories. There has been no direct response by president-elect Bukele to the statement that the gangs are attempting to ...

Salvadoran president Salvador Sanchez Ceren recently returned from a trip to China.   The trip was his first since El Salvador broke diplomatic ties with Taiwan and recognized the People's Republic of China.   According to  Reuters , Sanchez Ceren returned to El Salvador bearing gifts : China will give El Salvador $150 million to spur development of social and technological projects, the Salvadoran president said on Wednesday , the latest sign of deepening ties between the countries that has alarmed the United States.... “This historic meeting between the governments of the People’s Republic of China and the Republic of El Salvador has produced excellent results,” Ceren said. “This confirms that the establishment of diplomatic relations with China is my government’s most important decision in foreign policy.” Speaking in Beijing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said the two countries had agreed to a series of cooperation projects, incl...

CID-Gallup released the results of recent polling of Salvadorans concerning their preferences for president. In the poll of 1205 adults, Nayib Bukele on the GANA ticket was the preferred choice for president of 45% of those polled, well ahead of Carlos Calleja of ARENA with 20%, and Hugo Martinez of the FMLN with only 7%.     27% of voters were still undecided. Bukele's results have increased four percentage points since the last Gallup poll in May 2018, while the other two major candidates have remained flat. 70% of voters say they are likely to vote on election day, February 3, 2019. One of the most interesting results of the poll was the question "what is the principal problem of the country?"  30% answered unemployment, 25% answered corruption in government and politicians, and only 19% answered lack of citizen security/crime.    In recent years, with high rates of homicide and extortion by the country's street gangs, crime had usually been the n...

The corruption trial of the former president of El Salvador, Antonio Saca, is drawing to a close.   Saca has already confessed to diverting more than $300 million in public funds.   Now he and his co-defendants will wait and learn their fate. The periodical El Faro has been reporting on the financial accounts which made this possible. Essentially, the Executive branch in El Salvador has been given a budget of funds by El Salvador's legislature which is treated as "under reserve" or secret.   These are discretionary funds where the president is supposed to decide where they should best be spent.    Presidents from both parties have treated these funds not only as discretionary, but as one for which they need not be accountable to anyone.   Government auditors are not granted access to the account spending.   No disclosure is made of how the money is used.   Presidential spokesmen refuse to answer questions f...

The government of El Salvador made a surprise announcement yesterday that it was establishing diplomatic relations with the Peoples Republic of China and severing its ties with Taiwan.  From Reuters : El Salvador’s president, Salvador Sanchez Ceren, announced in a nationally televised speech that his government had broken off diplomatic relations with Taiwan and instead established ties with China.  Sanchez Ceren said the central American country, which built ties with the Republic of China government in 1933, would see “great benefits” and “extraordinary opportunities” in the new relationship with Beijing....  Taiwan Foreign Minister Joseph Wu told reporters earlier that Taipei was not willing to engage in “money competition” with its giant neighbor.  He said El Salvador had been continuously asking for “massive funding support” since last year for a port development, but Taiwan was unable to assist with the “unsuitable project” after assessment. There wa...

As four prominent magistrates of El Salvador's Constitutional Chamber finish off their terms in office, they have directed that two dormant cases of murder by guerrilla fighters be reopened.    One of the case involves the abduction and murder in 1979 of South Africa's ambassador to El Salvador, Archibald Gardner Dunn.  From a 1979  UPI report of the kidnapping of the ambassador: SAN SALVADOR, Nov. 28 (UPI) — A group of armed men surrounded South Africa's Ambassador to El Salvador today as he left the embassy here, forced him into the back of a truck and drove off, witnesses said.  Embassy employees said there were 14 to 18 men in the group and that they were armed with submachine guns. The employees said the kidnapping occurred as Ambassador Archibald Gardner Dunn, 60 years old, walked out of the embassy with his chauffeur at about noon. From the BBC : Almost a year later, the left-wing rebel group Popular Liberation Forces said it had killed the di...

On many Saturdays throughout the year, president Salvador Sánchez Cerén takes his executive branch out to some community throughout the country.   The Festival para el Buen Vivir (Festival for Good Living) brings in one locations a multitude of government agencies.   The idea is that citizens from the local community will better be able to access government services in this one day when the services come to town.  There are free wellness checks and dental visits, cultural exhibits and lots of free handouts. Gobernando con la Gente  (Governing with the People), is the president's time to deliver a broadcast speech about all recent accomplishments of his administration.   He brings along other executive branch officials who also speak about how the government is fulfilling its promises to the country. There's also usually a delivery of notebook computers to some local schools, land titles to residents of some local community, and announcement...

There is currently a trial going on in El Salvador where the defendants are government officials and mediators charged with improperly granting concessions and benefits to leaders of El Salvador's gangs in connection with the so-called 2012 gang truce or " tregua ".   In the course of that trial, a gang leader who cut a deal with prosecutors testified last week that the country's leading political parties delivered a combined $350,000 to the gangs in return for delivering votes in the 2014 presidential elections. The witness goes by the moniker "Nalo" and his real name is Carlos Eduardo Burgos Nuila.   Nalo was part of the leadership of Barrio 18 Revolucionarios -- one of the two factions of the Barrio 18 gang in El Salvador.   Nalo was one of the gang leaders outside of the prisons who were called on to execute the orders of the imprisoned gang chiefs in connection with the 2012 gang truce. The ex-leader of the 18 Revolucionarios gang testified that the...

The Constitutional Chamber of El Salvador's Supreme Judicial Court (the "Sala") has again issued rulings which thwart initiatives of the FMLN government of president Salvador Sánchez Cerén.  Two decisions in the past two days further inflame the ongoing struggle between the Sala and the executive branch of the government in El Salvador. Yesterday, the Sala issued a ruling which overturned a pension "reform" which had recently been passed by the National Assembly.    The new law would have allowed the government to borrow against the national pension fund to finance government operations, up to a ceiling of 50% of the value of the pension fund.   The previous limit on borrowing was 45%.   The second ruling came today when the Sala ruled that the current budget adopted by the Natioinal Assembly was also unconstitutional.   The ruling sends the budget back to the National Assembly to fix. In May of this year, the country's attorney general had warned th...

The Public Opinion Institute at the University of Central America (IUDOP) released a public opinion poll Tuesday concerning Salvadorans' views of their government and the political parties.    The results for president Salvador Sánchez Cerén of the FMLN were not good.    His job approval rating on a scale of 1-10 has fallen to 4.79, the lowest of the past five presidents at the same point in their terms in office.  The results show a Salvadoran public who are very unhappy with the current administration: 61% say Sánchez Cerén is governing poorly. 68% have seen no positive changes since he assumed office. 59% cannot name any achievements during his administration. 57% believe the country is worse off than when Sánchez Cerén started as president. 70% believe the economy has worsened. 62% believe crime has increased. 66% believe that the exceptional measures have done little or nothing to reduce gang-related crime. 68% believe the president is...

On June 1, 2017, president Salvador Sánchez Cerén completed his third year in office.  El Salvador's progress under his administration has been mixed at best.   Here is an overview. One achievement of the current administration was a significant increase in the minimum wage in the formal sector.   Although the minimum wage still does not cover a minimal cost of living and agricultural workers lag well behind manufacturing jobs, the increase was significant. The government continues to expand the successful Ciudad Mujer program which focuses on providing social services to women in an integrated fashion at several locations around the country. Economic growth in the country remains positive but low.   The government reported its most recent annual economic growth rate at 2.4%, below a regional average of 2.8% and below the rate needed to see much improvement in the lives of working Salvadorans. The government's finances are a mess.   There is a stal...

The stalemate between El Salvador's majority political parties over resolution of the government's fiscal crisis continues.   The government lacks the cash to pay its bills and needs the approval of the National Assembly to issue bonds to borrow the needed funds on international markets.   The FMLN government, however, needs the concurrence of the conservative ARENA opposition to obtain the required votes in the legislature. Yesterday saw protests blocking various thoroughfares in the country, as local mayors protested the government's delay of transfer payments to the municipalities.    Those payments, which go by the acronym FODES, are the major revenue source for local governments. US Ambassador Jean Manes to El Salvador sent out a tweet from her account calling it "disappointing" that the parties had not been able to come to an accord and saying perhaps it was time to put everyone together into a room and not leave until there is white smoke. Pre...

El Salvador is in the midst of a financial crisis.   Its government is running out of funds to pay its bills; the political parties are deadlocked in negotiations to find a solution; and there are suggestions the government might even default on its debt. From Bloomberg : El Salvador President Salvador Sanchez said the government was in a state of emergency as he pushed lawmakers to agree to a global bond sale to ease a liquidity crunch.  A "lack of liquidity" must be solved this year to "avoid negative consequences of greater dimension," Sanchez said in a televised address, as yields on the Central American nation’s debt soared.  The government is willing to reach an agreement on a fiscal responsibility law in congress that would include tighter spending rules, Sanchez said, while calling on lawmakers to approve a $1.2 billion bond sale. Standard & Poor’s placed El Salvador on credit watch last week and said the country’s B+ rating may be downgraded if ...

They are images that hearken back to the bloody years of El Salvador's civil war.   Heavily armed troops deployed in front of National Palace and Metropolitan Cathedral in San Salvador's historic center.   On Tuesday, the government of Salvador Sánchez Cerén made a public show of the deployment of "Task Force Historic Center" which includes 800 military and police. From the Facebook page of the Salvadoran armed forces : The historic Center Task Force was deployed this day in 29 sectors with the objective of reducing the activity of criminal structures and bands of organized crime that affect the citizenry and the commercial activity in the zones involved.   All this done through joint permanent patrols by foot and vehicle, the capture of criminals in the act or per judicial order, guaranteeing with this free movement and healthy living in the Salvadoran capital. This deployment is part of the ongoing "exceptional measures" which the Sánche...

Salvador Sánchez Cerén completed his second year as El Salvador's president this week.    Recent public opinion polls show that slightly more Salvadorans currently approve of his performance than disapprove, but his approval ratings are well below the ratings of his two predecessors, Mauricio Funes and Tony Saca, at similar points in their administrations. According to a La Prensa Grafica poll in May 2016, 48% of Salvadorans approve of the job Sánchez Cerén is doing while 44% disapprove.   That is a marked reversal from February when only 36% approved and 55% disapproved.  In February, murders in the country had skyrocketed to their highest levels, prompting the government to introduce "exceptional measures" to combat crime including greater militarization of public security efforts and crack downs on gang leaders in the prisons.  Salvadorans give Sánchez Cerén an average rating of 5.6 on a scale of 1 to 10 on his job performance in the LPG survey.  In...

The homicide rate in El Salvador dropped more than 40% from March to April this year, and yesterday the government issued orders to arrest more than 20 people involved with the 2012 " tregua " or gang truce which produced a similar homicide reduction of more than 50%.  The confluence of these two events is emblematic of the confusing state of public security policy in El Salvador. Murders dropped from more than 600 per month in the first three months of the year to 352 in April.   The causes are disputed according to Insight Crime : El Salvador's government has claimed credit for a dramatic drop in homicides last month, but the country's powerful criminal gangs say they are behind the decrease in violence.   April saw 352 people murdered in El Salvador at an average of approximately 11 homicides per day, according to police statistics. Overall, this represents a 42 percent drop from the total number of homicides registered in March, reported La Prensa Grafica ....

El Salvador's top government leaders have been meeting to consider implementing "extraordinary measures" including the possible declaration of a "state of exception" to combat gang violence.  A declaration of a state of exception could involve the suspension of certain constitutional protections, the imposition of curfews, and the ability to detain persons without cause for extended periods of time. InsightCrime reported : On March 8, El Salvador 's Supreme Court, President Salvador Sánchez Cerén, and lawmakers considered a plan to implement a state of exception in the country's most violent municipalities, reported La Página . The proposed state of exception would likely affect at least ten municipalities, including the capital city of San Salvador. If implemented, the state of exception would provide authorities with broad powers to suppress public meetings, restrict freedom of movement, and monitor mail, e-mail, telephone, and social media com...