A Painful Peace : El Salvador After the Accords
Vilas, Carlos M.
The internal conflicts of the FMLN illustrate the difficulties of democratization and the consolidation of peace in a country still rife with suffering and inequality. "Joaquin was always...
...10.World Bank, El Salvador The Challenge of Poverty Alleviation, Report 12315-ES, (Washington, DC: World Bank, June, 1993...
...The elections of March, 1994 were the most democratic in Salvadoran history...
...If the new institutions are able to transform the living conditions of the majority of the population for the better, it will be due to the wisdom and perseverance of this latter group and other democratic forces in the country...
...The internal conflicts of the FMLN illustrate the difficulties of the transformation from a guerrilla organization to a political party.' These conflicts also point to the difficulties of democratization and the consolidation of peace three years after the signing of the Chapultepec Accords between the FMLN and the Salvadoran government.2 The fulfilment of the peace accords has evolved in an uneven manner...
...Last October, for example, Mejia Alferez had to give up his cabinet post and his "first successor" designation after being accused of corruption...
...This unevenness between a democratization of relations among "those of above" and the persistence of authoritarian relations for "those of below" must have played a role in the high rate of abstention-about 40%-in the March 1994 elections...
...Despite his differences with Cristiani, Calder6n Sol cannot openly confront the powerful "golden ring...
...The neoliberal nature of these policies makes the fulfilment of the accords even more difficult...
...16.FESSAL, Informe laboral 1993 (San Salvador: FESSAL, June, 1993...
...On October 4, 1994, the FMLN and the government signed a document promising to "cooperate closely and actively to assure the complete fulfilment of the accords still pending execution" by April 30, 1995 at the latest...
...The crime wave has been stoked by the presence of firearms in the hands of civilian groups and individuals, in spite of the disarmament campaigns organized by the government with the support of ONUSAL...
...Eduardo ChicAs, of the RN faction that remained within the organization, was elected vice-coordinator...
...These inequalities are exacerbated by the dismantling of the labor movement, which has been severely beaten down by the counterinsurgency, the war and the eco0 0 0 <c 10NALLA REPORT ON THE AMERICAS NACIA REPORT ON THE AMERICAS 10nomic situation...
...real achievements have been mixed with merely formal ones along with debilitating delays...
...The privatization of the banks under the 19891994 Cristiani government is considered the "founding act" of Cristiani's powerful group, whose members shared the newly privatized institutions among themselves...
...Of the 16 recommendations of the g 8NACIA REPORT ON THE AMERICAS NACIA REPORT ON THE AMERICAS 8UPDATE / EL SALVADOR Socioeconomic Report of the InterAmerican Development Bank, only one refers-in six lines-to the land question, and none to the question of employment.9 The question of poverty has been equally ignored in the latest World Bank report.10 There is an enormous distance between the peace accords and the economic and social policies of the government...
...In a tone of voice mixing irony and pain, a member of the former general command of the Farabundo Marti National Libera- At a San Salva tion Front (FMLN) ture of his par talked about ex-comandante Joaquin Villalobos' harsh public criticisms of the FMLN both within and outside El Salvador...
...The problem is, he doesn't always realize what his interests are...
...The pending departure of the United Nations monitoring mission ONUSAL-originally scheduled for April, 1995-has raised doubts about the fulfilment of the remaining accords...
...According to numerous independent observers, the FAES continues performing intelligence functions, also in violation of the accords...
...Though the existence of different perceptions, approaches and strategies within the FMLN is nothing new, the splintering off of the ERP and the RN in December, just before the FMLN national convention, was the culmination of a process which clarified the lack of interest among the leadership of those two organizations in a profound democratization or a popular social transformation...
...Fulfilment of the accords is incomplete in nearly all areas...
...Although he was later absolved of any legal wrongdoing, his departure cost Calder6n Sol a key ally...
...The contribution of government funds to the process of peace and democratization is minimal, and the programs inspired by the accords are being cut back...
...See also FMLN, Propuesta para lograr el objectivo del acuerdo del 4 de octubre de 1994, and Propuesta de Acuerdos Politicos a tomar respecto a las reformas al sistema electoral salvadoreho...
...This process of reunification continued into Calder6n Sol's presidency...
...In this congress, the RN decided to merge with the ERP and the National Revolutionary Movement (MNR), a small party which received a modest 9.4% of the vote and no seats in the National Assembly in the last elections, but which maintains membership in the Socialist International...
...The current activities of the death squads in El Salvador are similar to the so-called "mano de obra ociosa" (idle work force) of the paramilitary groups in Argentina at the beginning of the post- dictatorship period...
...In this respect, democracy has not advanced quite as far...
...In 1992 and 1993, remittances-almost entirely from the United States-were 14% higher than the total value of all Salvadoran exports, and represented over 10% of GDP...
...17.World Bank, El Salvador, and Ministry of Planning and Coordination of Economic and Social Development, Encuesta de Hogares de Propdsitos Miltiples, 1994...
...8. Interviews with FMLN sources, and Gerardo Alva Castillo, "A cinco anios de la ofensiva que cambio El Salvador," El Financiero (Mexico City), January 9, 1995, page 72...
...The difficulties of registration in the war zones, and the limitations to full competition between the parties do not invalidate the results...
...Both parties asked the UN to extend ONUSAL's term...
...Here we have seen the greatest delays in the implementation of the accords...
...The loudest denunciations have come from Colonel Sigfrido Ochoa and from the long-time ARENA militant Kirio Waldo Salgado, leaders of ARENA since its founding...
...Salvadoran elites now feel confident enough to be able to engage in these internal disputes without any real risk of losing power...
...The resentment reaches to sectors of the FAES who, after being displaced from positions of management of state industries, lost their traditional means of enrichment...
...15.Roberto D'Aubisson, an anti-Communist extremist linked since the 1970s to the intelligence services of the United States, was one of the founders of the death squads which have been active since those years...
...It is a vague position which has not yet been accompanied by a precise definition of the approach of the ERP to Salvadoran problems...
...The business and military groups which were marginalized by these movements, many of whom were linked to the security agencies, expressed their frustration, publicizing cases of corruption that involved ex-President Cristiani as well as the functionaries around Calder6n...
...Calder6n Sol's resignation of the ARENA presidency can be interpreted as an attempt to soothe the hard feelings, but a small group around Salgado has left ARENA to found a new party, the Liberal Democratic Party, from whose ranks they continue to denounce government corruption...
...They are over access to wealth and power...
...a list of 50 judges accused of corruption and unacceptable performance, President Calder6n Sol accused the agency of intervening in the internal affairs of the country...
...The naming of a new Supreme Court in July, 1994 after difficult negotiations raises some hopes, but in November, when DHONUSAL delivered to the court the new National Civil Police after capturing two suspected e outsKIrtts ol S)dn .lVdrUI...
...The agreed-upon composition of the PNC was 20% ex-members of the FMLN, 20% ex-members of the FAES and 60% civilian candidates...
...Sol Bang presided over the electricity commission of the Rio Lempa...
...By February, 1995, only 53% of ex-combatants and baselevel members of the FMLN and only about 30% of ex-members of the FAES had received lands-all told, a total of barely 17,000 beneficiaries out of 47,000 eligible recipients...
...Only 11.2% of the labor force-and only 6% of the manufacturing labor force-is unionized...
...vice minister of public safety, and other friends were appointed to important positions...
...Mejia Alferez became minister of agriculture, and was designated first successor to the presidency...
...The reduced size of the plots is a further obstacle to the development of productive and sustainable farming...
...615-628...
...This, in part, may be due to the development of a climate in which people are simply more willing to lodge accusations without fear of reprisals...
...6 In March, 1992, the Legislative Assembly passed a law creating a human rights prosecutor, but this office has insufficient resources, and its recommendations are frequently blocked by the lack of a response from the responsible organs of the state...
...69-83...
...Salvador SAnchez Cer6n ("Leonel GonzAlez") of the FPL was elected coordinator after Shafik Handal decided not to seek reelection...
...The report of the commission shows a metamorphosis of the death squads in their structure, functioning and objectives...
...While the reports of the Human Rights Division of ONUSAL (DHONUSAL) show a noticeable improvement in this area, my own interviews suggest a less well-defined panorama...
...After a work stoppage of several days, they were granted the right to organize, and are now formulating a full set of demands...
...We are speaking, of course, of an extremely vulnerable source of national income, highly dependent on the immigration laws of the United States...
...According to various measurements, between a half and two thirds of Salvadorans now live in poverty...
...The Christian Democrats, for example, were badly beaten in the last election, having received only 18% of the vote after reform-minded voters deserted the party for the leftist alliance which backed the candidacy of Rub6n Zamora...
...The government as well as international organizations have paid almost no attention to this problem...
...These bitter internal conflicts, in other words, are not over questions of policy...
...He was also a founder of ARENA...
...In the countryside, the figure is closer to 80%.17 The high proportion of the population in poverty, the inefficacy of the government's response to the situation, and the long delays in landtransfer and reinsertion programs have left migration and family remittances as the principal means of survival for about a third of Salvadoran families...
...Both have denounced Cristiani and Calder6n Sol for betraying the ideals of D'Aubisson, an indirect way of complaining that they have been left out of the game...
...ding The government has not yet solved the case...
...549 (July, 1994), pp...
...1 In this context, the divisions in the FMLN raise questions about the future of democratization and social transformation in El Salvador-the two issues over which the recent war was fought...
...Despite the disappointing results for the left, these were the first elections in which real opposition was possible, and the results were respected...
...The advances achieved in democratization and peace cannot hide the suffering that remains...
...For the first time, El Salvador has a parliament that reflects all the political currents...
...Since these accounts pay no interest to deposi- tors, the bank (and Cristiani) has access to large sums that can be lent out at very profitable rates...
...The crisis within ARENA exists most visibly as a split between the confidants of ex-president Alfredo Cristiani ("the golden ring") and the group that has formed around President Calder6n Sol...
...Now they ces the depar- are officially called m the FMLN...
...The reduction in size-by 50%-and responsibilities of the FAES is not, however, reflected in its budget...
...2. An earlier evaluation of the peace accords can be found in Jack Spence, George Vickers et al, A Negotiated Revolution...
...Between June, 1992 and June, 1994, none of the 75 most serious DHONUSAL accusations of violations of the right to life led to convictions...
...4. Informe del Grupo Conjunto para la investigation de grupos armados ilegales con motivacion politica (San Salvador, July 28, 1994...
...The ebbing of political violence has not been accompanied by an equivalent reduction in "common crime...
...This makes the peace process all the more dependent on international support which, as time passes, is diminishing...
...A Two Year Progress Report on the Salvadoran Peace Accords (Cambridge, MA: Hemispheric Initiatives, March, 1994...
...Since Cristiani's purchase, all state enterprises have maintained their checking accounts at that bank...
...The next round of privatizations will probably deepen the competition among business groups, and this will no doubt be reflected in the ranks of ARENA...
...Advances in democratization and demilitarization, for example, coexist with delays in the reform and purging of the judiciary, in the transfer of lands, and in the reinsertion of ex-combatants into civilian life...
...7. For a good analysis of the elections, see Jack Spence et al, El Salvador: Elections of the Century (Cambridge, MA: Hemispheric Initiatives, July, 1994...
...3 This past February, UN Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali decided to extend the ONUSAL mandate for six months, until the end of October, NACLA REPORT ON THE AMERICAS 0 0 5UPDATE / EL SALVADOR though with a severe reduction of personnel and resources...
...11.See Alvaro de Soto and Graciana del Castillo, "Obstacles to Peacebuilding," Foreign Policy, No...
...14.Together with Roberto Murray, Borgo is one of the most powerful businessmen in Central America...
...illegal armed groups with political motives...
...Another difficult issue has been the transfer of lands to ex-combatants, and the reinsertion of these excombatants into civil society...
...Now they are operating in a decentralized manner without the coordination of the past...
...1 4 Calder6n Sol's group is made up of several of the politicians and businessmen who separated from ARENA after the 1984 elections in which the party's candidate, Roberto D'Aubisson, was defeated by Christian Democrat Jos6 Napole6n Duarte.' 5 At that time, the breakaway movement was led by Hugo Barrera, the vice-presidential candidate of ARENA and compadre of Calder6n Sol...
...he split in the FMLN is just one ingredient in the crisis facing Salvadoran political organizations in general...
...The climate of insecurity is heightened by continuing deathsquad activity...
...In the meantime, one part of the ex-guerrilla movement-led by the ERP and RN-has accepted the divorce of institutional change from substantive political and social changes, and has incorporated this UPDATE / EL SALVADOR in its approach to politics...
...Meanwhile, the separation of these two organizations was deepened with the RN's party congress in February...
...Others-apparently the majority in the FMLN-persist in their efforts to link democratization with social changes, and to approach the political system as an arena to fight for real improvements in the standard of living...
...When Calder6n Sol resigned the presidency of ARENA, Domenech assumed the position...
...The current panorama combines institutional democratization with unjust social and economic inequalities...
...El Salvador's crime wave includes attacks on businesses, private homes and means of transportation, acts of violence committed by gangs (maras), and kidnappings for ransom...
...94 (Spring, 1994), pp...
...6 dor press conference, Joaquin Villalobos announ ty the People's Expression of Renewal (ERP), front Sancho ("Ferman Cienfuegos") left the FMLN, though smaller factions of both groups remained within the organization...
...12.See Francisco Sorto and Alexander Segovia, "iHacia d6nde se dirige la priva- tizaci6n de la banca...
...9. Inter-American Development Bank, Socioeconomic Report: El Salvador GN- 1800 (Washington, DC: IDB, June, 1993), pp...
...U Notes 1. See Shafik J. Handal and C. M. Vilas, The Socialist Option in Central America: Two Reassessments (New York: Monthly Review Press, 1993), p. 127 and following...
...8 In addition, those who did succeed in obtaining land have had trouble getting credit, technical assistance and training...
...5. DHONUSAL, X and XI Informe del Director de la Division de Derechos Humanos al Secretario General (San Salvador, 1993 and 1994...
...The report of the Truth Commission blamed him for massive human rights violations, including the assassination of Archbishop Oscar Arnulfo Romero while he was celebrating mass in March, 1980...
...Sancho and Villalobos explain their rupture as a product of ideological redefinition: a leaving behind of the leftist dogma and militaristic authoritarianism of the other three organizations, and its replacement with a supposedly more modern style of politics...
...12 (1992...
...4 On November 10, 1994, a death squad assassinated former FMLN comandante David Merino...
...According to public-opinion polls, Salvadorans consider crime the most serious problem in the country...
...Calder6n Sol himself remained within ARENA, and when he became the mayor of San Salvador during Cristiani's presidency, he dedicated himself to bringing his departed friends back into the party...
...See also the editorial "Violencia institucional- izada" in ECA, Estudios Centro- americanos, No...
...After strong pressure from the UN Secretary General and the international community, Alfredo Cristiani's ARENA government publicly agreed to investigate and punish these deeds...
...The FMLN thus emerges from the convention as a party of tendencies...
...N combatants march into San Salvador deman omised them in the peace accords...
...Day-to-day insecurity persists, with death squads continuing their operations with new faces and in new ways...
...In February, 1995, the government authorized the FAES to patrol the rural areas of the country-a decision severely criticized by the FMLN, the Democratic Convergence, and the Christian Democratic Party as a violation of the accords, but celebrated by the National Association of Private Enterprise (ANEP...
...The government's rhetoric of peace and democracy fools no one with respect to its unwillingness to make further advances or to consolidate what has already been achieved...
...6. Interview with Benjamin Cuellar, director of the Human Rights Institute at the University of Central America (UCA...
...Correctly or not, ARENA and the elites feel that they won the war...
...Joaquin Villalobos' self-definition as a "social democrat" involved his misunderstanding of the social dimensions of democratization and the corresponding programs of the peace accords, especially the transfer of lands and the social reinsertion of ex-combatants...
...Translated from the Spanish by NACLA...
...The government now intends to deepen its neoliberal policies...
...This will mean a reduction of public spending, more privatizations, broader deregulation, the enactment of regressive taxes, the adoption of efficiency criteria that marginalize broad sectors of small and medium producers, and little generation of employment...
...This March, a number of maquiladora workers-mostly women-led effective protests against the dismal working conditions in that sector...
...Joaquin was always like that...
...For these new "social democrats," democracy consists of playing the institutional game, independently of the substantive questions of employment, access to resources, social welfare, and the active enforcement of human rights...
...7 The democratization of El Salvador also, of course, demands profound changes in the political culture of authoritarianism of the elites...
...and Juan Jos6 Domenech was given the presidency of the soon-to-be-privatized state telecommunications company...
...Nor does it specify which of the many problems faced by El Salvador the ERP considers to be most urgent...
...There is Demobilized r thus a double conflict to demand lar within ARENA: between the "golden ring" and the once powerful forces they displaced, and between the political intimates of Calder6n Sol and the elements of his government who belong to Cristiani's group, the most prominent of whom is Vice President Eduardo Borgo Bustamante...
...In 1994, the value of remittances rose to $950 million...
...The National Civil Police has now been deployed throughout the country...
...Curiously, As the FMLN consolidates, the groups that remain within it now exist as tendencies of opinion rather than separate organizations...
...In late March the three groups formally constituted themselves as the Democratic Party, though the programmatic definition of this party has yet to be announced...
...Demilitarization has extended to government enterprises and agencies, including telecommunications, customs, utilities, ports and others, whose direction had previously been assigned to military officials...
...Their areas of work include bank robberies, kidnappings for ransom, and drug trafficking...
...Progress in questions of protection from abuse, or in the resolution of cases, has been a good deal less dramatic...
...1 6 The new institutional environment, however, may favor renewed working-class mobilization...
...s for public safety and human rights, the situation is better, but far from satisfactory...
...The road is long and filled with difficulties and temptations...
...3. This accord replaced a similar one signed on May 19, 1994, which was only partial- ly fulfilled by the government...
...In general, the resistance of the FAES to complete demilitarization contrasts starkly with the rapid conversion of the FMLN into a civilian organization...
...Recent events indicate that even modest reform may be too much for the oligarchs of El Salvador...
...In addition, FAES is the only branch of the state whose budget is not submitted to civilian control...
...Many have abandoned their plots and have swelled the ranks of migrants to the United States...
...The various security corps have been dissolved and the new National Civil Police (PNC) has been deployed throughout the country, taking the place of the old, corrupt National Police which functioned as a part of the FAES...
...The military budget for 1995 is almost $100 million-about 8% of government spending-about equal to that of 1993, and only 6% lower than 1992...
...The delays in judicial reform have created additional obstacles to the full protection of human rights...
...3-13...
...The training of this new police force is the responsibility of another new institution, the National Academy of Public Safety (ANSP), largely staffed and advised by police agents from the United States, Sweden, Spain and other countries...
...His investments include TACA, the largest airline in Central America, and one of the eight largest in Latin America...
...The recommendations of an investigative commission, however, were not complied with by the subsequent ARENA government of Armando Calder6n Sol...
...According to U.S.AID functionaries, the land-transfer program has stalled due to the lack of good will on the part of the government-an opinion which is shared by the FMLN...
...The three organizations that remain within it-the Popular Liberation Forces (FPL), the Central American Revolutionary Workers Party (PRTC) and the Salvadoran Communist Party (PCS)-as well as the split-offs from the ERP and RN, now exist as tendencies of opinion rather than separate organizations...
...Mejia Alferez, for instance, became the right-hand man of his mayoralty...
...Further, the economic commitments that the Salvadoran government has made to the international lending agencies make the process even more difficult...
...Revista Politica Econdmica (San Salvador), No...
...The country has achieved a climate of tolerance, and diverse parties and currents of opinion coexist, but the persistence of great social inequalities calls into question the effectiveness of the rights of citizenship...
...Many of the individuals I interviewed indicated that the Santa Lucia Drug Store, also owned by Cristiani, had a thriving business in medical imports during the years of the war and the Cristiani presidency...
...1 2 Cristiani himself was Vol XXVIII, No 6 MAY/JUNE 1995 9UPDATE / EL SALVADOR primus inter pares in this group and, by all accounts, saw his private fortunes grow during this period.13 The business and military groups marginalized by Cristiani saw in Calder6n Sol the possibility of recouping their losses, but these expectations were once again frustrated...
...The new political tolerance refers much more to the relations among the political elites than to the relations between those elites and the people who continue to live in poverty...
...Last December, Villalobos' organization, the People's Expression of Renewal (ERP, originally the People's Revolutionary Army, with the same initials), together with the smaller National Resistance (RN) of Eduardo Carlos M. Vilas is a sociologist and histori- an at the Center for Interdisciplinary Research at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), and a member of NACLA's editorial board...
...With more than 21% of the vote, this alliance of the FMLN and Democratic Convergence (CD) became the country's second most powerful electoral force...
...it maintains its own secret budget entries, managed by its Ex-FML commander in chief...
...Hugo Barrera became the members of the armed forces occupy the National Assembly nd and credit...
...Even during the war, he always said that in politics, he had no friends or allies, only interests...
...Violations of due process have been cited as among the most serious concerns...
...According to these same sources, CISA, Cristiani's travel agency, booked most of the official trips during the presidency of its owner...
...Joining the breakaway were Guillermo Sol Bang, Alberto Mejia Alferez, Juan Jos6 Domenech and other relatives and business associates of Calder6n Sol...
...With respect to the question of demilitarization, approximately half the troops of the Salvadoran Armed Forces (FAES) have been demobilized, and the entire high command that conducted the war has retired...
...His most recent book is Between Earthquakes and Volcanoes: Market, State, and the Revolutions in Central America (Monthly Review Press, 1995...
...See also Ricardo Cordova Macias, "El Salvador en transici6n: El proceso de paz, las eleciones de 1994 y los retos de la gobernabilidad democrdtica," in Documentos de Trabajo (San Salvador, Fundaciin Ungo, 1994...
...13.Cristiani took advantage of the bank pri- vatizations to buy one of the country's three biggest banks, Banco Cuscatl~n, at a bargain price...
...Vol XXVIII, No 6 MAY/JUNE 1995 7UPDATE / EL SALVADOR Because the FMLN could not fill its quota, however, the number of civilian candidates was augmented, though some ANSP foreign observers suspect that many "civilians" are members of the FAES and the old National Police...
...The land pr president is still authorized by Article 168 of the Salvadoran Constitution to deploy the FAES "for the maintenance of internal peace, tranquility and public safety," and the FAES, by the end of 1994, was deployed in 14 points of national territory, engaging in activities the peace accords had assigned to the PNC...
...All of them are contending with enormous tensions in the difficult transition from dictatorship and electoral fraud, through a period of counterinsurgency and war, to peace and democratization...
...The combination of open unemployment and underemployment totals around 42% of the economically active population...
...This raises the hypothesis that beyond microstrategies of family survival, remittances constitute an element in the macroeconomic plans of the government and international lending agencies...
...The PNC is an improvement over the old police force, though over the past few months, there have been an increasing number of complaints A member of of brutality and rights criminals in th violations...
...Nevertheless, democratization has been real...
...This attitude justifies the claim of the FMLN and human rights organizations that impunity has not yet disappeared...
...This situation feeds the frustration of the ex-combatants on both sides...
...At the end of 1993, death squads assassinated a number of FMLN leaders, and made attempts on the lives of others...
Vol. 28 • May 1995 • No. 6
