Flores the supreme

El Salvador in the international community

The most recent relevant international news for the country are that the government has received a letter of accreditation for El Salvador to participate in the peace missions of the UN. This is how the Flores administration gains recognition for the country. Several local news media said that the recent discourse of the President before the General Assembly of the UN reaffirmed the positive image of El Salvador in the world. This opportunity would be considered as an award to the Salvadoran experience in matters of peace, the solid democratic institutional performance, and the allegedly successful process of professionalism experienced by the army after the Peace Accords were signed.

According to a press bulletin issued by the Ministry of External Affairs on October 23, “El Salvador has stood out for its successful experience with the process of peace, for its involvement in the development of the National Civilian Police, the ANSP, and other institutions connected wit the civilian security, and the State of Right as a result of the last decade’s process of peace, and for counting with a specially trained army (humanitarian tasks, support to the restoration of the public order, and the reconstruction of the territory after the natural disasters)”. According to the same source, “the participation of El Salvador in these operations creates an international prestige” and contributes “with the sophistication of the military and the police forces, together with the efforts to sustain peace in a world wide level”.

The economic dimension of the events could also be acknowledged. The Salvadoran government would be expecting certain economic profits for the Armed Forces and several superior officials who would be working in the United Nation’s system for the missions of peace. It is not odd to examine this issue. For instance, in Uruguay they expect to receive this year an income of approximately $20 million for the participation of several of its army officials in the missions of peace of the UN, according to El Diario del Pueblo (The Newspaper of the People). In the opinion of this newspaper, Uruguay has received, in the last 11 years, $129 million in this concept. This is how “the income for the peace missions is larger than the total sales of meat, which represent a total of $18.4 million, and larger than the sales of the mineral products, which were reported to produce $16.4 million, according to the statistics of the Central Bank of Uruguay about the country’s exportations for 2002”. These are eloquent pieces of information, since meat has been, for decades, one of the strongest exportation products of Uruguay.

In the Salvadoran case, the same press release of the Chancellery accepts that the letter of accreditation that El Salvador received to participate in this kind of missions organized by the UN “opens the opportunity for training and job positions inside the United Nations and International Missions for Salvadoran officials”. In this sense, it cannot be ignored that the pecuniary interest of the Armed Forces is behind the intentions to participate in the missions of peace of the UN. Several less developed countries that are not able to offer money for the peace missions that the UN has in the world, in the end receive the benefits of the funds destined for these tasks.

It is necessary to pay close attention to the alleged advances in the country and to the military institution, because that would explain the decision of the authorities of the United Nations. It cannot be denied that because of the Peace Agreements El Salvador has had a valuable experience in the internal peace affairs. In addition, the country has known ever since then an appreciable stability in its democratic institutions. However, it is not realistic to speak about these accomplishments as if they were the achievements of the present administration. In addition, The UN is not that strict when it comes to evaluate the level of internal democratization and the professionalism of the military institutions of the countries that perform peace missions in the world.

The victorious tone about the country’s accomplishments used to reveal the news about the letter of accreditation to participate in the world’s peace actions, is the same tone that encouraged the idea bout sending soldiers to Iraq. In addition, the present government feels compromised with the United States because of the alleged friendship between Flores and George W. Bush. Because of that friendship, the president had to make several decisions in the international scene, without worrying about the present reality of the country or about the national consensus that should envelope these decisions.

The presence of the Salvadoran troops by the side of the Anglo-American coalition in Iraq illustrates very well this whole situation. The decision to support the American intervention in the Arabian country did not count with the approval of the rest of the Salvadoran political forces. With lies and with ambiguous facts it was announced that the presence of the Salvadoran army in that country was the result of an agreement with the UN, because it had allegedly requested support for the Iraqi people. However, the objective is to actually support the American interests in that region of the world.

The personal ambitions of President Flores explain, in a considerable portion, the compromises that were acquired internationally. Flores dreams about becoming the Secretary of the Organization of American States. And because of that he does everything that he can to keep the Salvadoran presence in the international scene. The bottom line problem, however, is still the lack of consensus of the political forces about the presence of the country in that international scene. The aforementioned issues make the reality even more evident. For instance, differently from what is happening in Costa Rica, where several politicians agreed to support the candidacy of one of them for the secretariat of the regional organization, most of the local politicians, except for those close to Flores, hope that the President’s dreams about his international consecration do not come true.

Beyond the natural signs of the opposition’s envy about the probable designation of Flores as the leader of the Organization of American States, it is necessary to point at the division and the incoherence of the Salvadoran international politics. On the one hand, the participation in the international missions of peace or the postulation to occupy a position in a regional organization should be the culmination of a compromise with the multilateral resolution system of the international conflicts. However, the behavior and the discourses pronounced by Flores about these issues contradict this alleged compromise. Throughout his administration, he has demonstrated that he does not believe in democracy (he was the first one to acknowledge a military coup d’état in Venezuela). In addition, he has a dangerous conception about the multilateral actions (he thinks that the multilateral style rests on the will of the strongest one).

In the present Latin American context, it would be deplorable if Flores arrives at the head of the Organization of American States. The team that presently leads the international politics of the United States gives plenty of importance to the bilateral relations and does not feel the same way about the multilateral model to resolve the international conflicts. In this sense, the President, due to his professional background, is the worst candidate for that position. Instead of supporting the collective efforts to face the problems of the region, it can be predicted that Flores will follow the law of the strongest one. And, in a context where the trade agreements and the fight against terrorism are discussed, this is not the best strategy that Latin America can choose before the presence of the United States.

The public health situation in El Salvador

Throughout the year, the Salvadoran population has been affected by an array of diseases. The public hospitals and the clinics have been full of patients. The oddest aspect of all this is that the same diseases attack the Salvadorans every year. This can lead anyone to think that the Government does not have any health programs to efficiently face this reality.

During the last year as well as in the present, the diseases that have repeatedly affected the health of the population are practically the same: critical respiratory infections, diarrhea, gastroenteritis, pneumonia, bacterial conjunctivitis, and dengue. In the present, it is necessary to realize that the number of those affected by bacterial conjunctivitis has increased, and that the cases of dengue have slightly decreased.

The respiratory infections are the most frequent enemy of the Salvadorans. A 19.1% of the population requested medical attention (in the public health system) because of the respiratory infections in 2002, and a 19.8% of the population have done the same in 2003. The second most common group of diseases that affect the population are diarrhea (3.0%) and gastroenteritis(2.9%). Both of these diseases are the reason why 20% of the population seek for medical attention in the Salvadoran public health system.

Dengue
Regionally, the dengue has been one of the diseases that has repeatedly affected the health of the Central American population with both of its variations, the hemorrhagic dengue and the classic dengue. So far, El Salvador is at the top of the region’s list with 2,243 cases of classic dengue. El Salvador alone has 56.1% of those cases. As for the hemorrhagic dengue, the situation is very similar. El Salvador has 35.8% (102) of the cases in its territory.

The statistics indicate that during the last three years, the number of cases connected with the dengue have not followed a pattern. In 2001, 14.8% of every 100,000 people was affected with the dengue. By 2002, this rate increased to 74.9%. For the present year, the formerly mentioned percentage has decreased (35.3%). Every year, most of these cases have to do with the classic dengue. In 2002 and 2003, different areas of the country were affected with the highest number of cases. During the year 2002, Santa Ana, Cabañas, and San Salvador were affected by the dengue. Presently, the areas with the highest percentage of cases are located in the central zone: San Salvador, San Vicente, and La Paz.

It is also necessary to mention that the highest number of cases is located in the urban areas, just like it happened in 2001. It is interesting to see that most of the national cases of dengue come from the urban areas, while in the rural areas the number of cases has decreased. In 2001, 58% of the cases were located in the urban areas, and the remaining 42% was located in the rural areas. This situation seems to be very different in the present. Practically 90% of the cases is located in the urban areas, and only 10% is located in the rural sector of the country.

The number of cases that have been handled by the public health system, from a gender perspective, has remained steady during the formerly mentioned years. Men and women are equally affected by the dengue. As for the age groups, children between the ages of 5 and 9 are commonly affected by the dengue -this group represents a little more than one third of the confirmed cases at a national scale (34.8%)-. The second age group that has been affected by the dengue are the young people between the ages of 10 and 19.

Conjunctivitis
The health of the population has also been affected by conjunctivitis. During the present year, the number of cases has gone beyond the expectations of the public health officials. During the last year 40,685 cases of conjunctivitis received medical attention, and this number only represented 0.5% of the total amount of the different cases that received medical attention in that year. Conjunctivitis became the fourth most common reason why the people attended to the clinics. Although the year has not finished yet, so far 153,919 cases of conjunctivitis have been attended. At a national scale, conjunctivitis occupies the third place as one of the most critical diseases, and it represents approximately 2.0% of the cases that are yearly attended by the public health system.

The cases of bacterial conjunctivitis increased by 278.3% between 2002 and 2003. The number of cases of hemorrhagic conjunctivitis considerably increased as well. In 2002, only one case of hemorrhagic conjunctivitis was reported by the public health system. So far for this year, 320 cases of hemorrhagic conjunctivitis have been reported. The number of cases has decreased during the last few weeks. A couple of months ago, approximately 500 cases of hemorrhagic conjunctivitis were attended every week; however, the number of cases has dropped to 300 cases per week for the present month.

The State
It seems that the public health policy of the present administration has not been at the height of the needs of the Salvadoran population. As it was mentioned before in this article, the symptoms and the diseases that threaten the health of the citizenry are always the same ones, and the State does not seem to come up with a systematic solution for such problem. That is why the outbreaks of the diseases that are formerly mentioned in this article are very frequent in the country, and they indicate the constant presence of a disease or a symptom that was allegedly under control.

An inadequate administration of the public health policy has usually a couple of dimensions. Many of the heads of the family cannot go to work, and this affects their domestic economy and the country’s productivity at a national level. On the other hand, the State has to make a series of expenses by investing considerable amounts of money in certain activities that are not effective enough to control these diseases. All of these aspects are definitively connected with the lack of preventive actions and the little information available about this subject. What actually happens is that, most of the time, the investments are made when a disease is already in a critical stage, affecting the health of the population.