An Interview with Rubén Zamora
Huff, Melrose
Ruben Zamora was the presi- dential candidate of a coalition of leftist parties including the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN), the Democratic Convergence (CD), and the National...
...But ARENA is a single party, while the FMLN is made up of five different 8NACIA REPORT ON THE AMERICAS NACIA REPORT ON THE AMERICAS 8UPDATE / EL SALVADOR The rebuilding of civilian and military relations in this country seems paramount to me...
...For the last five years, ARENA's policy has been to destroy the coopera- tive movement...
...During your campaign, you talked with people in the banking industry and big business...
...The day after the elections, your staff seemed very discouraged...
...That makes a difference...
...I think this is good in the sense that people have to learn how to deal with elections...
...Well, I think that to talk about the cohesiveness of ARENA is an overstatement...
...The goal of the fight against impunity is to put people on trial and in jail for the crimes that they have committed...
...It surprised me to see both ARENA and the Left coalition supporting free markets, private enterprise, and export agriculture...
...Business is also concerned about reducing red tape, setting up the basic rules for the economic game, and developing a serious policy of concertacidn [mutual agreements] among management, labor and government...
...How can the Left achieve the same kind of cohe- siveness and political effective- ness that factions of the Right have achieved within ARENA...
...There is very, very serious internal fighting within the ARENA party...
...I think we can work together in all of these areas...
...One young man questioned why "we fought 10 years for 25...
...Right now, a lot of the surplus produced by this agricultural sector gets transferred to other sectors in the form of payments for credit, marketing, and inputs...
...The land reform was not successful, because the land reform that was implemented at the beginning of the 1980s was an instru- ment of counterinsurgency...
...We have already practically com- pleted what I call the negative part--cleaning up of the officers corps, reduction of the army, sep- aration of the army and police, and so on...
...Melrose Huff inter- viewed Zamora at his campaign headquarters in San Salvador on March 24, four days after the elections...
...But export agriculture in and of itself is not to blame for the problems of poverty and marginalization...
...Land reform is not the same as land distribution...
...Half of the people in the FMLN are partici- pating in the process for the first time...
...The Left in the United States argues that export agriculture has led to the concentration of wealth and land, and has tended to marginalize the poor...
...Calder6n Sol went on to decisive- ly defeat Zamora 68% to 32% in the run-off on April 24...
...acres [per landowner] in the Constitution...
...What are your views on the issue of impunity...
...political parties joined together...
...That has led to problems...
...Oh no, no...
...That's why the election of the new Supreme Court of Justice is so important...
...We have been going through a process of demilitarization since the signing of the peace accords...
...Zamora received 25% of the vote in the first round, compared to ARENA candidate Armando Calder6n Sol's 49...
...I think that we have to move from that polariza- tion into a new relationship in which the military are recognized as what they have to be: a legitimate part of society with a legiti- mate role entrusted to them by the Constitution, but subordinate to the civilian authority in politi- cal matters...
...Traditionally, you were either a slave of the military or an enemy of the military...
...The fundamental problem in El Salvador now is not a problem of land distribution...
...Doesn't it worry you that those people are still at large...
...And how do you see your relationship with the army...
...Through the mechanics of land redistribution not much more can be done in El Salvador, because quite a lot of land has already been distrib- uted, and there is this cap of 605 Ruben Zamora campaigning in Zacatecoluca...
...Export agriculture is associated with a pattern of land tenure that favors big landowners and big land holdings...
...Do you believe the Truth Commission report should be imple- mented...
...I think that we have to move from that polarization into a new relationship...
...Now, for the next five years, the rebuilding of civilian and military relations in this country seems paramount to me...
...Wouldn't there be a backlash from the Right if names were revealed and measures taken to bring the people named in the report to justice...
...The Right is going to act ac- cording to the political temperature of the country...
...To say that our policy is the same as ARENA's is absolutely crazy...
...What effect will the election results have on divisions within the FMLN...
...For instance, a lot of members of Congress switched from ARENA to other parties...
...Now you cannot see it, but at the beginning of the electoral process it was very evident...
...We can work with big business in the fight against smuggling, for instance...
...I think we are constantly mov- ing forward on the question of impunity...
...So you feel that the land reform was basically successful...
...How would you com- pare your position on export agri- culture with ARENA's...
...It's not the same for people like us who have been taking part in elections for years...
...We need to clean up the entire judicial process...
...Traditionally, you were either a slave of the military or an enemy of the military...
...Ruben Zamora was the presi- dential candidate of a coalition of leftist parties including the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN), the Democratic Convergence (CD), and the National Revolutionary Party (MNR...
...Yes, some people were disap- pointed...
...In what areas can you work productively together...
...If these small- and medium-sized producers are able to accumulate wealth, it would be possible to push forward a policy of agroindustry and utilization of the land that in the end is our only way to absorb the growing population that we have in the countryside...
...Yes...
...It worries me very much...
...The main problem now is how we enable the cooperative sector-which holds more than onethird of the best land in this country-and the medium- and small-sized peasant farmers to accumulate wealth inside the agrarian sector...
...Yes, all of it...
Vol. 28 • July 1994 • No. 1
