Historical Profile of El Salvador

8/8/2019 Historical Profile of El Salvador

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Historical Profile of El Salvador:

In relation to the long-term vision of La Coordinadoraand the signing of the MOU/Convenion with MIIS

La Coordinadora

La Coordinadora is a grassroots movement representing approximately 35,000 low-income rural farmers and fishers in southeastern El Salvador. Established in 1996 bythirteen communities determined to survive the flooding of the Lempa River, thisdemocratic, representative organization now works to provide long-term solutions to thechallenges that its members face.

In accomplishing its goal of sustainable economic development, the Coordinadora facesmany challenges: flooding disasters, poverty, insufficient food production, illiteracy, alack of infrastructure, a lack of skills, dependency, government indifference [N.B. This

was written before the change of government occurred following the elections of Januaryand March 2009], and community violence, particularly due to gang activity and thewidespread access to weapons. Although it has made progress in all of these areas,considerable work remains to be done.

The Coordinadora has grown to include roughly 90 communities, each of which electstwo representatives to its general assembly. This popular, democratic movement hasdiverse leadership. It includes, for example, former FMLN (Frente Farabundi Martí parala Liberación Nacional) guerillas, former members of the Salvadoran Armed Forces,women, Catholics, and evangelicals. Beneficiaries directly participate in project designand implementation.

Some of the Coordinadora's accomplishments include:

• Quick and effective disaster response following Hurricane Mitch (1998), the 2001earthquake, and Hurricane Stan (2005)• Construction of 90 homes and a shelter that withstood the 2001 earthquake• Bay of Jiquilisco environmental protection• Development of local leadership• Creation of a democratic, representative organization in over 80 communities• 160 community organic farms• Twelve shrimp farms

• 450 cottage chicken businesses• 1,200 campesinos trained in “green” agriculture techniques• Local Zone of Peace• Successful mediation between rival youth gangs

Today, the Coordinadora continues moving forward by promoting sustainable agricultureand participation in local government. The Coordinadora also provides training inconflict mediation to community members. Their goal is that community members



themselves become the teachers, allowing development and change to come from withinthe community.

The Local Zone of Peace

In 1998, la Coordinadora's communities committed themselves to ending the violencethat has been endemic to the region since the end of El Salvador's civil war (1980-1992).They declared their communities a Local Zone of Peace and resolved to promotereconciliation, collaborative problem solving, and non-violent conflict resolution.

The best way to create peace is through the grassroots. Although the civil wars havestopped, few countries in Central America know peace because their societies use andaccept violence in daily life. Violence has actually increased for many in El Salvador since 1992. For that reason, the Local Zone of Peace serves as a pilot project in fostering justice, changing attitudes, and empowering local people through non-violent means.

The roots of violence in the southern portion of the department of Usulután (whichincludes the area where Team Monterey is working), go back to before the civil war,when the region was already known to be violence-prone. During the civil war, thesetendencies increased. Southern Usulután frequently served as a battleground between theSalvadoran Armed Forces and the FMLN, the rebel army. Following the Peace Accordsin 1992, the government redistributed much of the region's rich farmland to refugees andformer soldiers from the FMLN. However, under the guise of peace-making betweenformer enermies, but, in reality (according to some), in order to sabotage the former rebels and guarantee that the rich could take over those lands once again, the governmentresettled soldiers from its army in the same region.

Tensions and violence grew further as refugee youths were deported from the UnitedStates: many had become involved in Los Angeles street gangs and brought the drugsand violence back with them.

Work began in 1996 to create a Local Zone of Peace in southern El Salvador. Althoughthe United Nations Regions of Peace served as a model, this would become the first Zoneof Peace in the world built from the grassroots.

In order to break the cycle of violence, which the population accepted even if it did not participate directly, José "Chencho" Alas, a former priest and friend of the murderedArchbishop Oscar Romero, began giving Culture of Peace workshops in 1996.Building on the basis of local values and culture, these two-day workshops have helpedto heighten awareness of peace, human rights, and non-violent conflict managementmethods. They have also helped to identify and train local leaders.

Archbishop RomeroWhen Rome chose Oscar Arnulfo Romero to replace the liberal Archbishop Chávez asthe head of the Catholic Church in El Salvador 1977, they expected him to be politicallyconservative and to stay out of political matters.However, soon after his ordination, a



close friend of his and well-known peasant activist, Father Rutilio Grande, was gunneddown. The government refused to investigate. This incident, and his growing awarenessof the violence committed by the army against the poor, brought about a change of heartin Romero.

He became an advocate of the poor, and encouraged them to resist their continuingexploitation by the country's elite. He spoke out against the Army's violence and humanrights abuses. His sermons, at their height, were listened to by an estimated 75% of thecountry's population. He had won the support and trust of the poor. The right wing wasincreasingly threatened by him, and so threatened him with violence.

The army did not tolerate this powerful, outspoken challenge for long. On March 24,1980, an assassin shot Romero in the middle of mass. More than 100,000 mournersattended his funeral. Army snipers fired on the crowd, killing dozens of people.Following these tragedies, many who had remained uncertain realized that peacefulchange was impossible. They took up arms against the government and army, beginning

the full-scale civil war.

Facts about El Salvador

Population: 6,822,378 (July 2006 est.)Comparative area: slightly smaller than MassachusettsClimate: tropical; rainy season (May to October); dry season (November to April);

tropical on coast; temperate in uplands.Infant mortality rate: National 24.39 deaths/1,000 live births Rural Usulután 38/1,000Current environmental issues: deforestation; soil erosion; water pollution; contamination

of soils from disposal of toxic wastesLife expectancy at birth: 71.49 yearsPopulation growth rate: 1.72% (2006 est.)Population using adequate sanitation facilities: 40% (2002) (rural) Net migration rate: -3.61 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)Adult literacy: National 80.2% Rural Women Usulután 59% Rural Men 69%Gross National Income per capita: $2,350 (2004)

Rural Women Usulután $865 Rural Men $2,548Population below poverty line: 36.1% (2004 est.)Salvadorans living in the U.S.: estimates range from 650,000 to 2 millionPopulation using improved drinking water sources: 68% (2002) ruralExports: $3.586 billion (2005 est.)

Offshore assembly exports, coffee, sugar, shrimp, textiles, chemicals, electricityPartners: US 65.6%, Guatemala 11.8%, Honduras 6.3% (2004)Imports: $6.678 billion (2005 est.)

Raw materials, consumer goods, capital goods, fuels, foodstuffs, petroleum,electricity

Partners: US 46.3%, Guatemala 8.1%, Mexico 6% (2004)Remittances: estimates range from $2.2 billion to $3 billion per year



[The above data comes from:2006 CIA World Factbook: www.odci.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/es.htmlUNICEF country statistics: www.unicef.org/infobycountry/elsalvador_statistics.htmlUnited States Census Bureau: www.census.gov]

A Brief History of El Salvador

At the time of the Spanish conquest, in the 16th century, between 100,000 and 130,000indigenous Mayans and Nahuatls lived in Cuscatlán, the region that today we call ElSalvador. The Spanish Conquistadores behaved in Central America much like they did inthe rest of the New World: they took the best land for themselves, imposed their language, religion and culture on the native population, and then enslaved it as well.

The Spanish settlers cultivated indigo, cocoa, and balsam. They dominated the NewWorld economically, politically, and culturally through the beginning of the nineteenthcentury. Following a civil war in Spain, most of the Spanish colonies in the Americas

won their independence around 1820.

In Central America fighting broke out among the elite who continued fighting oneanother until 1842. When the dust cleared an oligarchy of fourteen families controlled ElSalvador. Those same fourteen families continue to dominate the country to this day.

During the nineteenth century coffee became the primary crop of El Salvador, driven byconsumption in Europe and the United States. To obtain workers for this labor-intensivecrop, the coffee growers coerced rural farmers by dispossessing them of their traditional,communal lands and imposing debt peonage. The profits from coffee productionremained in the hands of the Salvadoran elite and their European business partners.

In response to campesino uprisings beginning at the end of the 19th century (becausethose rural farmers were less than happy with their situation) the government created a National Guard (Guardia Nacional) in 1912. This body kept "law and order," by whatever means necessary, throughout the 20th century.

The Great Depression severely damaged the coffee-dependent Salvadoran economy: thevalue of coffee fell 60% between 1929 and 1932. Native Americans, campesinos, andurban workers organized, many through the nascent Communist Party and FarabundoMartí's Red Aid. However, a 1932 popular revolt of the poor, following a military coup,ended in the massacre of an estimated 30,000 people by the armed forces, led byPresident General Maximiliano Hernández Martínez. Martí became a national martyr andhero. For more than sixty years the military continued to control the presidency and thecountry.

Through the 1940s the government discouraged industry (and the development of aworking and middle class). A new government in the 1950s, under Colonel Osorio,opened opportunities for the development of a middle class and industry, hoping to co-

http://www.census.gov/

http://www.census.gov/



opt them while using them to improve the country's economy. Repression of the politicalopposition continued.

A coup by junior officers in 1960 replaced a widely unpopular and corrupt regime withone that held popular support and created a brief hope for democracy and free elections.

However, the U.S. government, preoccupied with the specter of communism followingCastro's triumph in Cuba the year before, opposed free elections and denounced thisgovernment as communist. By early 1961 the army had imposed a token civiliangovernment, which immediately won the Kennedy administration's support and economicaid. The "danger" of democracy and free elections had been averted and the status quo preserved.

The U.S. Alliance for Progress (a Kennedy administration project throughout LatinAmerica), U.S.A.I.D., and the Peace Corps built schools and contributed to the lives of the poor. The U.S. government also gave substantial material and technical support to themilitary. U.S. investors helped build Salvadoran industry. Workers did very well,

especially while the short-lived Central American common market boosted the economy.However, the wealthy landowners refused to make land available to campesinos; rural poverty and unemployment grew. El Salvador had more democracy and freedom thanneighboring states, and had no active guerilla movements in the 1960s, making it ashowcase of U.S. diplomacy. The political opposition grew in strength and influence, led by figures such as the mayor of San Salvador, José Napoleón Duarte.

An economic downturn in 1967 caused unrest and strikes, which the military brutallyrepressed. However many remained optimistic about positive political change in the near future. Long simmering tensions between El Salvador and Honduras exploded into the"Soccer War" of 1969. Though economic disaster followed, the president became a war hero and his ruling party, during a brief period of war euphoria, won the 1970 legislativeelections.

Around this time sectors of the Catholic Church, especially the Jesuits, began activelyopposing the status quo. Liberation theologians began organizing the poor to demand justice in their lifetime, not just in the afterlife. In addition to many priests sharing thelives of the poor and helping them like never before, the poor also took active part in their social-political-religious awakening. Because of a severe shortage of clergy, especially inrural areas, lay-preachers often lead parishioners in reading and (re)interpreting the Bible.

The 1972 presidential elections marked the end of an era. Although José NapoleónDuarte, the candidate of a coalition of opposition parties, appeared to have won, themilitary, through vote fraud, proclaimed their candidate the victor. Napoleón Duartefailed to rally popular support to challenge their authority. Demonstrations and repressionincreased. There was a failed coup. The military attacked the National University andinvaded the Venezualan embassy (to remove and torture Napoleón Duarte, who had takenrefuge there). With the road to legal change effectively closed, some members of theopposition took up arms as guerrillas.



Despite political repression, foreign investment and the economy grew in the early 70s.Slums grew as well. 41% of the rural population was landless in 1975. The land-holdingelite blocked US-supported land reform proposals by the government. Revolutionarieskidnapped and ransomed the wealthy. The right wing formed death squads. In a scenereminiscent of the 1968 Tlatelolco Massacre in Mexico, or our Kent State, the military

carefully engineered a massacre of student protesters on a bridge in 1975.

The 1977 presidential elections were more blatantly fraudulent than the previous. Protestsfollowing the elections ended in another well-planned massacre by the militarygovernment. The elite and the military also targeted activist clergy, torturing andmurdering them. It is at this time that the newly appointed Archbishop, Oscar Romero, became an activist and demanded an end to human rights violations. In the face of Carter administration investigations of these violations the Salvadoran government refused toaccept further military aid. The Inter-American Development Bank withheld economicaid pending an improvement in human rights, but only for eight months. Popular protests,and massacres and terrorism by the Salvadoran government and military, increased.

In 1979, the Organization of American States and the U.S. State Department issueddamning human rights reports on El Salvador. On May 9 of that year, CBS cameras gaveU.S. audiences a shocking view of events: footage of the National Guard shooting peaceful demonstrators on church steps. National and international protests grew.October 15th brought a coup and a new government made up of a military and civilian junta, but they continued to use violence against the Salvadoran people. Right-wingforces continued to block reforms sought by centrist and left wing members of the junta.U.S. military aid flowed again, and Salvadoran troops resumed training at the notoriousSchool of the Americas in Panama (now located in the state of Georgia, United States).

In March 1980, a program of U.S.-supported "Agrarian Reform" was initiated by themilitary junta (which included the Christian Democrat José Napoleón Duarte). Militaryrepression accompanied the insubstantial agrarian reform (an average of ten people per day were killed). Archbishop Romero publicized the atrocities. On March 23, he calledon the soldiers to stop killing their brothers and sisters in his nationally andinternationally broadcast radio program. The following day an assassin took his life in themiddle of mass. At his funeral, six days later, the military opened fire on and bombed themourners. Twenty-six died and more than two hundred were wounded. By May, militaryactions against guerillas had resulted in the deaths of 1,800 non-combatants.

In September, with all possibilities for non-violent resistance closed to them, civilianorganizations and unions joined with leftist guerillas to form a unified front against themilitary junta: the FMLN (The Farabundo Martí Front for National Liberation). Reagan'selection as president of the United States gave the ruling elite and military confidencethat military aid would continue to flow despite their human rights abuses.

On December 2 the military attacked, raped, and killed four U.S. women (one Ursulinenun, two Maryknoll nuns, and a lay missionary). International outrage followed;



however, the Carter administration suspended military and economic aid only briefly.The junta restructured, with Napoleón Duarte as a figurehead president.

President Reagan, and his Secretary of State Alexander Haig, created a new front in thecold war. They "found" evidence that the FMLN was part of a communist beachhead in

Central America that would end with a Soviet invasion of the United States. TheEuropeans and others refused to buy into this theory, though the U.S. press reprinted itgladly. Military and economic aid dramatically increased although the U.S. public waswidely and actively opposed. The death toll by 1981 increased to 1,000 per month.

Reagan increased U.S. loans to El Salvador's government from $5 million in 1980 to$533 million in 1985, most of which was funneled to the military. The Catholic Churchcharges that during the first six months of 1985 government troops carried out more than3,000 political assassinations. The FMLN focused its attacks on the country'sinfrastructure. In the long run, this did more harm than good as it turned the poor againstthem because they suffered most from the economic losses that followed.

Violence continued throughout the 1980s. The FMLN boycotted the 1984 presidentialelections. José Napoleón Duarte, the centrist candidate, narrowly defeated the right-wingARENA party's candidate, Roberto D'Aubuisson (associated centrally with the deathsquads and the murder of Archbishop Romero). ARENA's candidate, the wealthy businessman Alfredo Cristiani, did win the 1989 elections, however.

The civil war lasted until the signing of the Chapultepec Peace Accords in January 1992.It is widely believed that the murder of the 6 Jesuits, their housekeeper and her 15 year-old daughter at their residence at the Catholic University in San Salvador in 1989, whichunleashed world-wide horror and condemnation, precipitated the process of peacenegotiations. Both the FMLN and the government's National Guard and Treasury Police(involved in death squad activities) agreed to disband. The army would reduce itsnumbers by half. Various other reforms and safeguards were agreed to as well. By thecivil war's end, more than 1% of the country's population had been killed, and 15% hadfled abroad.

The FMLN participated, as a legal political party, in the 1994 elections. However, theylost to the ARENA party's Calderón Sol in run-off elections (which some, though not theUN observers, declared fraudulent).

ARENA also won the March 1999 presidential elections. Despite the gains made sincethe end of the civil war, President Francisco Flores faced problems such as rural andurban poverty, the maintenance of political and economic stability, the rebuilding of theinfrastructure, public health, and education promotion. Furthermore, he had to confrontthe challenge of keeping Salvadorans who left the country out of the country. Not onlywould the U.S. government's threatened deportation of the exiles exacerbateunemployment problems, but it would also cut off family remittances, which are a major source of national income.



El Salvador Today

Hurricane Mitch in 1998, the drought of 2000, and the earthquakes of 2001 have taken aheavy toll in lives and on the economy. Corruption in the government and private sector continues. The government has tied the country’s future strongly to the United States,

dollarizing the economy in 2001 (only a year before the disastrous effects this had inArgentina became clear) and instituting neo-liberal economic reforms that make thecountry even more dependent on U.S. trade. These same reforms are underminingdomestic agriculture, which cannot compete with cheap US imports (cheap because theyare subsidized by US taxpayers). The centerpiece of the Salvadoran government’seconom ic development plan features maquiladora assembly plants like the ones alongthe US-Mexico border, which generate only low-paid jobs and frequently devastate thelocal environment. In addition, competition from China and other lower-wage countrieshas prevented the maquilas from producing the expected jobs and economic growth.

The healthcare strike of 2002-2003 is representative of the challenges that the Salvadoran

healthcare system faces. Doctors, nurses, and other medical workers went on a nationalstrike after the national government announced plans to privatize the healthcare system.After nine months of a paralyzed healthcare system, the government and striking medicalworkers and doctors negotiated a settlement assuring that the health system would not be privatized and that union members would not be penalized for participating in the strike.

The 2004 ratification of the Central American Free Trade Agreement, or CAFTA, by theSalvadoran legislature and the subsequent ratification by the U.S. Congress stand asimportant economic and political events for El Salvador. While many governmentofficials support CAFTA, some regional and community leaders as well as many labor and environmental organizations oppose the treaty. CAFTA continues to be a contentiousissue throughout Central America as both sides attempt to characterize and quantify itsimpact.

The growth of tourism is another important economic development that promises toimpact the Salvadoran economy. As the country moves farther and farther away from the period of the civil war and becomes more politically and economically stable, foreigntourists are looking to El Salvador’s beautiful countryside as a destination. Following anincreasing trend throughout Central and South America, the government is attempting tocapitalize on tourism by adapting its policies to favor this source of economic growth.

The 2004 Presidential elections resulted in another victory for the ARENA party, withAntonio (“Tony”) Saca winning a five-year term. International observers, Salvadorannews sources, and the New York Times were critical of what they called Americanintervention in the election (Jeb Bush, then-governor of Florida and brother of then-President Bush, traveled to El Salvador where he was said to have “exerted pressure” onlocal officials to ensure the vote for Tony Saca). There were also local and internationalconcerns about the behavior of the ARENA party prior to the election, with someobservers and news outlets suggesting that ARENA propaganda played a large role in thefinal outcome.



Tropical Storm Stan hit El Salvador hard in October of 2005. With local news sourcesestimating damages to El Salvador total $1.4 billion, Stan’s effect have been felt longafter the flood waters receded. There were numerous reports that the government wasslow responding to the needs of the rural communities, especially the Bajo Lempa region,

after the storm hit and that basic aid like food and water were barely trickling in to thearea.

Remittances continue to play a large role in the Salvadoran economy, accounting for atleast 16% of the nation’s GDP. While this money from family and friends in the UnitedStates has served as a lifeline for many Salvadorans, many are worried that remittancesmay have negative effects in the long run. Some studies show that families spend most of the money from remittances on household consumption instead of using the money for investments or education.

On January 18, 2009, El Salvador held congressional and municipal elections to elect

mayors as well as “diputados” to the Asamblea Nacional. For the first time in its history,the FMLN registered significant gains in numerous “alcaldias” throughout the country aswell as in the Asamblea Nacional, particularly from regions especially hard-hit during thecivil war. The executive director of La Coordinadora, Aristides Valencia Arana, withwhom Team Monterey has worked for the last three years, was elected “diputado” to theAsamblea Nacional from the departmento de Usulutan, which will usher in a new era for the work of La Coordinadora.

On March 15, 2009, anxiously-awaited presidential elections will be held in which theleading candidate, Mauricio Funes, a prominent journalist representing the FMLN, has been hailed as the Barack Obama of El Salvador. There is widespread, enthusiastic hopein the country that he will not only win the elections, but will work in tandem withPresident Obama to bring about profoundly needed and desired changes in the economicand political panorama of El Salvador.

Post-script: Mauricio Funes, in an historic victory, was indeed elected president of ElSalvador on March 15, and assumed office on June 1, 2009. Since then, he has facednumerous challenges from the conservative political and social establishments, despitehis moderate or compromising stance on many issues (not unsimilar to the politicallandscape in the United States). Nonetheless, a number of promising and long-neglectedhealth, environmental and educational programs have been launched or enhanced under the aegis of more progressive or pro-active ministers and municipal authorities.

Documents

Historical Profile of El Salvador