6-10-06, 9:16 am

June 1 marked the two-year anniversary of Tony Saca's inauguration as El Salvador's President. Social movement and religious leaders around El Salvador marked the day by protesting the social and economic policies enacted under Saca Administration. The anniversary is an opportune moment to revisit two years of Saca's term, reflect on how Salvadorans see their current reality, and ponder what the past two years mean for international accompaniment work.

Tony Saca hails from the ARENA political party, which has held the Executive office since 1989. Over the years, ARENA has proven to be a strong US ally and willing to implement US-backed pro-business policies. Saca has continued this tradition by ushering in the Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) and enacting fiscal reform that has shifted a greater portion of the tax burden onto El Salvador's poor.

Poverty Reigns at home, Jobs Created Abroad

The 48% of Salvadorans who live in poverty, and the hundreds of thousands who straddle the poverty line, have suffered serious economic blows. Campesinos, or subsistence farmers, continue to work long, sweat-filled days, but falling crop prices don't earn them enough to buy their kids' shoes, or pay for school supplies. In the cities, workers haven’t fared much better: according to International Labor Organization (ILO) almost 60% of Salvadorans work in the informal economy.

The plain numbers reveal that Tony Saca has aided more jobs for Salvadoran workers outside the country's border than inside. Saca's close ties with Washington spurred President Bush in February to sign another one-year extension of Temporary Protective Status (TPS) for 235,000 Salvadorans working in the US. Amidst opposition from anti-immigration conservatives in the US, Bush timed the move to sure up ARENA's chances for the Salvadoran mid-term elections.

President Saca has also guaranteed Salvadoran jobs in Iraq. The current Battalion of 380 troops represents the fifth consecutive contingent that El Salvador has sent since the 2003 invasion. El Salvador remains the only Latin American country to station troops there.

What's more, many Salvadorans work for private contractors in Iraq providing support services, such as laundry and food preparation, for US troops. Tragically, at salaries four times the Salvadoran minimum wage ($158/month), going to Iraq has become an attractive option. Salvadorans frequently joke that at least if a someone dies whileworking in Iraq, insurance will pay for the loss of life, in contrast to San Salvador, where 12 people die from street violence daily, without indemnity.

Tony Saca claims that the biggest accomplishment of his short term in office is the implementation of CAFTA. El Salvador speedily put CAFTA into effect ahead of its Central American counterparts, but the desired impacts have yet to take effect. It's true that many new US products are hitting the shelves of local markets. Shoppers can now buy Eggo waffles and Red Baron pizza, but these aren't the changes promised by officials when selling the pact three years ago.

“CAFTA had very little to do with job creation. It was about reforming the economy in a way that benefits transnational corporations,” said Raul Moreno of the Salvadoran Citizen Network on Investment and Trade. The anticipated economic development and job creation have not appeared, an outcome more in sync with the predictions of social movement and religious leaders.

Gauging the Salvadoran perspective?

A recent poll published in a national daily paper frames the contradiction facing Salvadoran perceptions of their President. While Tony Saca maintains a favorability rating of 64%, a majority of people expressed dissatisfaction with the government’s handling of violence, crime and the economy. A whole 62% of Salvadorans said the country is going in the “wrong direction.”

Whatever the President’s direction, Salvadorans have chosen to go North, ostensibly voting with their feet. Two and a half million Salvadorans stuck on U.S. soil did not cast a single ballot in the March elections. With abstention approaching 50%, would these economic refugees have voted to continue the status quo if they had had the chance?

After the election in San Salvador, spectres of electoral chicanery rose when the TSE, El Salvador´s Electoral Tribunal, refused to announce a winner in the San Salvador mayoral race. Voters took the streets and clashed with police to defend the 49-vote victory of Violeta Menjívar, the first female mayor in the city’s 480-year history. The urgent tone of the marches exposed El Salvador’s tenuous grip on democracy, one that refuses to let go. But the incident also exposed the forces that threaten democracy at every almost every turn.

Last month, more memories of El Salvador’s past eerily emerged when Human Rights Ombudswoman Beatrice Carrillo reported that armed “extermination groups” currently operate in the country. She stated that these groups are backed by people, “whose wealth and power guarantee them impunity.” Yet, despite continued impunity for the military front men and the intellectual authors of countless human rights violations, the people of El Salvador courageously continue the struggle for justice.

For example, the powerful decision in favor of the Serrano Sisters was a victory for the forces of justice. Even Tony Saca’s shameful response could not muffle the message: the Salvadoran government, and the death squads they directed, were responsible for their murders. The people would not rest until justice was done.

Lessons for International Solidarity

Two years into Tony Saca’s presidency, the international community still plays a critical role in quietly and humbly accompanying the Salvadoran people in their walk toward economic justice and ending impunity. The struggles today—the opposition to CAFTA, to the PPP, to mining, to highways paving over communities—are new faces of the same old economic inequality.

Our response is an unwavering commitment to walk with the people who non-violently defend their natural resources and way of life. The results of this commitment evade prediction. Who could have foreseen that the Sanctuary Movement of the 1980’s would have protected (and saved the lives of) the leaders of today’s powerful immigrant rights movement in the US?

We cannot know what will come of our acts. But we know that without action and accompaniment, inequality, impunity and injustice will continue to prevail. Seeds spring forth from fertile ground. We hope to provide the fertile soil for which a good harvest is guaranteed. We cannot predict when the harvest will arrive, but our faith tells us that a season in which we will harvest justice is on its way.

From CRISPAZ