El Salvador Perspectives

Yesterday I quoted from the findings of the Congressional Research Service report on CAFTA which dealt with labor protections in El Salvador. Here is the section on environmental protection: Environment . In May 1997, the government of El Salvador passed an Environmental Law to complement its existing domestic environmental provisions protecting the country’s remaining flora and fauna. El Salvador is also a signatory of more than 51 international environmental agreements, including the Convention on Biological Diversity, the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna, and the Kyoto Protocol. Despite these conservation measures, some observers argue that El Salvador has the worst environmental situation in Central America. According to this report, El Salvador is the second most deforested country in Latin America, 90% of its river water is contaminated, soil erosion is pervasive, and air pollution is increasing. A lack of forest cover has incr...

The AP has an article this weekend which ran in several papers regarding the prospects of CAFTA's passage in the US Congress. The conventional wisdom has not changed -- the vote is too close to call and the opposition of Democrats, the sugar and textile industries may be enough to block passage. The Arizona Republic carries an article describing the split in Arizona's Congressional delegation over the issue. Another good source of facts and statistics about CAFTA is a report issued by the Congressional Research Service in November 2004. This 70 page report is certainly more balanced than the material on the US Trade Representative's web site. Here is a sample: Human Rights Watch recently reported that only 5% of the labor force in El Salvador is unionized, and even those that are unionized are minimally protected by a weak Ministry of Labor (MOL) and a corrupt judicial system. In June 2001, the ILO Committee on Freedom of Association noted that the country’s existing...

The firing of Mauricio Funes, and several of his co-workers at El Salvador's Channel 12 continue to stir protests and concerns about the freedom of the press in the country. Funes hosted a daily interview show which asked tough questions of those in power, and was fired at the insistence of the station's owners, the Mexican company AZTECA. Reporters Without Borders has a good article about the situation: The decision by Salvadorean TV station Canal 12 to fire news director and presenter Mauricio Funes and seven other journalists continues to elicit criticism from many quarters, including President Antonio Saca. "As someone who supports free expression, I regret that his programme has been stopped," said President Saca, a former sports journalist and radio producer, on 19 February, while stressing that he could not "meddle in company decisions as President of the Republic." Herminia Funes, the president of the Association of Journalists of El Salvador (APE...

The rhetoric of the left-wing in El Salvador in recent months continues to echo a refrain that violence is being perpetrated against activists in popular social movements as part of an ultra-right-wing campaign. Unexplained murders raise the spectre of the return of "escuadrones de la muerte," the Death Squads of the 1970s and 1980s. Such rhetoric is useful for rallying the faithful, but does it reflect a reality in El Salvador? Here are some of the events to which persons on the Left point in support of their fears: Salvadoran-born American citizen and labor activist, Gilberto Soto, is murdered while visiting El Salvador to discuss unionizing container truck drivers in the country. More here . The Procurator for the Defense of Human Rights receives death threats after reporting irregularities in the investigation of the Gilberto Soto murder. More here . The security guard of the Salvadoran Lutheran University is murdered, after being tortured, bound, and hung from ...

With one month until the 25th Anniversary of the assassination of Archbishop Oscar Romero in El Salvador, the Chicago Tribune ran a story today about the trial in a U.S. court which held an ex-Salvadoran military officer liable for the murder. On September 3, 2004, a judge in Fresno, California, found Alvaro Saravia had been part of the plot to kill Romero. It was the first time that the case of Romero, a beloved defender of the poor, had been heard in a courtroom. And as the country prepares to mark the 25th anniversary of the archbishop's death March 24, it provided what many consider the first bit of justice in the case.... Five days after the United Nations truth commission's report was published, the Salvadoran president, Alfredo Cristiani, pushed the blanket amnesty law through El Salvador's Congress.... The Fresno verdict has rekindled debate over the amnesty at a time when other countries in Latin America, such as Chile and Mexico, are witnessing new attempts to ...

Traci Carl of the Associated Press writes an article about the recent three day anti-gang conference held with US and Central American law enforcement authorities in San Salvador. The conference included a "made for TV" round-up of suspected gang members: Shirtless, handcuffed and bathed in the searchlights of a helicopter, 14 newly arrested Central American gang members were lined up along a chain-link fence Wednesday and studied by officials from the FBI, Homeland Security and California police looking for help with gang problems back home. As armed SWAT officers stood guard, the Americans grilled the gang members on their U.S. ties and snapped photos of familiar tattoos, the start of a cross-border effort to stop the gangs from moving between Central American and U.S. communities. Some 50 officials from El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala and the United States - including nearly 20 U.S. federal agents - were taking part in a three-day conference that included talking to ref...

My postings here have generally been in opposition to the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) as representing the elevation of business interests over the interests of the populations of the Central American countries. It is important, however, that persons who oppose CAFTA, take a serious look at the arguments being made by its proponents so that the arguments for and against can directly address each other. (I may be a little optimistic in assuming that political debate ever functions this way). Perhaps the best source for learning the arguments which the Bush administration will make to push the treaty through Congress in the next few months is the United States Trade Representative's CAFTA-DR Briefing Book . All of the major arguments over the treaty are addressed here from the viewpoint of the pro-CAFTA supporters. For opposing viewpoints try some of my earlier postings here , and here , and here .