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PROCESO — WEEKLY NEWS BULLETIN — EL SALVADOR, C.A.

Center for Information, Documentation and Research Support (CIDAI)
E-mail: cidai@cidai.uca.edu.sv

Central American University (UCA)
Apdo. Postal 01-168, Boulevard Los Próceres
San Salvador, El Salvador, Centro América
Tel: +(503) 210-6600 ext. 407
Fax: +(503) 210-6655

Proceso is published weekly in Spanish by the Center for Information, Documentation and Research Support (CIDAI) of the Central American University (UCA) of El Salvador. Portions are sent in English to the *reg.elsalvador* conference of PeaceNet in the USA and may be forwarded or copied to other networks and electronic mailing lists. Please make sure to mention Proceso when quoting from this publication.

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Proceso 1105
July 5, 2004
ISSN 0259-9864

INDEX

Editorial: TituloThe corruption inside the Executive power

Politics: TituloSadam before the presence of justice

Economy: TituloThe housing shortage

Editorial

TituloThe corruption inside the Executive power

It seems that the press has been set free to show the corruption acts that are taking place inside some of the public institutions that depend on the Executive power. To judge by the information revealed about the National Institute of Sports (INDES, in Spanish), the National Administration of Aqueducts and Sewages (ANDA), and the company that controls the emission of gas of the vehicles, the “prohibition” of the Flores administration would have ended, at least in a selective manner. The most important public officials seem to be prudent when they are asked to compare the administrations. The reports confirm the suspicions about the corruption inside the Executive power. However, that subject is more intense than the revelations of the media. During the Flores administration, the press was merciless with the Legislative and the Judicial power, but it overlooked the Executive as if it were the exception. It is interesting to observe how the public officials favor their partners and their friends, and how they also receive the benefits of their relationships. They alter the reference terms of the bids, they modify the offers, and they use the public funds with freedom because they pay more than what the goods and services they purchase actually cost. A relative or a friend at the head of a public institution is a unique opportunity to make a good profit at he expense of the public funds.

The immorality of the private business companies cannot be overlooked either. They cannot make a clean bid, they have to rely on their friends, on acquaintances, or even on bribery to do business. The private business companies claim that they have a blind faith in the free market, in a free competition, and they think that the state should not intervene in their business because otherwise they could not stay in the market. That is why these companies manage to place their representatives in the key positions of the government. This is how we can see one more time that the large private business companies go against the values of a proper governance, because they accepts to violate the most elemental rules in order to make profits. There are also the banks, the credit cards, the distributors of the public services, the public transportation companies, and the pharmaceutical companies, which take advantage of the helplessness and the ignorance of the consumers, all in the name of the freedom to do business. The present government seems willing to apply the law to this kind of companies. The challenge is enormous, because the government will have to face the wealthiest people, the same people that put the President where he is now precisely to avoid the changes. However, poverty cannot be fought back or human development cannot be promoted with such a savage capitalism as the one that we have in El Salvador. This wealth is placed above the legislation, and it sees the Executive power as a pleasing servant of its wishes. The reports on the governmental corruption also show us the reality of a group of private business companies that do not follow their own creed.

The press has focused itself on three cases connected with the vital resources of the country: water, the environment, and sports. With so much corruption, it should not seem strange if the quality standards of the water system are lowered, or if the environment becomes hostile (which can happen with a series diseases that could be prevented), or even if sports do not go anywhere in spite of the false expectations created by the sports commentators. The sports federations have not been investigated yet. There is also corruption there with a disguise of honor, where other congressmen and public officials can also be found. The sons and daughters of the members of the directive board are selected to represent the country, even if their performance is not the best. The same subjective criteria is used to accept certain invitations and that is how the official representatives are selected. The investigations should be extended to other branches of the Executive power, such as the Public Works Office, where millions of dollars have been used to build infrastructure with the help of the private business companies. That is why it is also important to take a look at the administration of the public transportation system, where there are plenty of clues to follow the steps of corruption.

In the three cases published by the press there is an evident absence of an efficient control of the public administration. Those institutions that are responsible for this duty, particularly the Comptroller’s Office and the Attorney General’s Office, have acted inefficiently and they have no excuse for that; they have used a considerable amount of the national budget. The officials responsible for these duties, those that allegedly control the situation, are so incompetent that, to judge by their declarations, they read in the press what is going on inside the public institutions they belong to, something that, according to the law, is their duty to investigate and control.

Because of this incompetence, the press has a key role to control the performance of the officials and the business people. It is true that their reports are not enough to create a judicial process, but at least those who have committed corruption acts are seen in the press and corruption becomes an issue that has to be discussed by the public opinion. And this is what they fear the most, because they are generally people that have an honorable image. However, to complete these assignment, the press has to be free, and in El Salvador the press is not. Its attitude during the Flores administration confirms it. The press did not dare to speak about the corruption of this administration until the very end. If the press and the citizenry had had that freedom during the last administration, the corruption at ANDA, and the corruption in sports would have been public issues on time and somebody would have been able to stop it. Now it is late to recover the money and to ask for a judicial solution because many alibis have been established. However, the press and the public opinion can still have some control over corruption, and they can do that more efficiently than the State’s institutions. The task is not easy and it is risky because it is about investigating the most hidden secrets of the economic and political power. Here is where the freedom of the press can be tested, and not when the media only speak about trivial issues. Freedom takes place in front of the power of the strongest ones, and by speaking about the shame of the weakest ones.

Politics

TituloSadam before the presence of justice

COn last Thursday, July 1st, Sadam Hussein was brought before the presence of Iraq’s justice. All of the international media covered the news about this case. The former dictator arrived wearing handcuffs, and a judge read to him the different charges that he has against him. This date will remain forever in the memory of all the Iraqi people. On the one hand, we have the reactions of those who sympathize with Sadam, the people that, according to the journalists, lived a happy life during his dictatorship. Those in favor of him, spoke about their indignation for what was happening with their former president. Some of them even swore before the cameras of the international media that they would be willing to give their blood for Hussein.

On the other hand, his detractors, those who were the main victims of the tyranny at Baghdad were asking for the head of the former president. For them, the only way to make him pay for his multiple crimes is to take his own life. With that, they expect to keep away forever the spectrum of the tortures and the humiliations that were the trademark of the regime. The trial of Sadam Hussein awakens strong passions and it shows the polarization of the Iraqi society.

However, even in this difficult situation, Sadam seemed defying and calm, willing to intimidate the young judge that read the charges against him. Sadam told the authority that he was being judged by the orders of the invaders. He refused to sign the document presented by the judge. In addition, about the charges for invading Kuwait, Hussein scolded the judge for defending those who had humiliated the honor of his country. The former president also questioned the legality of the tribunal. It seems that this will be the line of defense that his lawyers will follow. One of them declared that “the cause contradicts the international laws and the conventions of Vienna and Geneva because both of them consider that any agreement between an occupant and a provisional government is not valid, not valid because it comes form an order”.

A true trial would be, without a doubt, an extremely important event for most of the Iraqi people. The person who was the President of the Arabian state for more than three decades is accused of committing the worst crimes against his people. They are talking here about thousands of people that have been murdered and who have disappeared during a reign marked by terror. Any sort of suspicion or accusations (whether they could be proven or not) connected with a complot against the regime was paid with death, torture, or the disappearance of the accused ones. In some cases, even the families of the suspects paid for their alleged crimes. This was how Sadam and his men –among them his two sons, who died during a combat against the American occupation- controlled the destiny of the Iraqi people with an iron fist.

Because of all this, there is some truth in the political propaganda made by Bush and his allies. They rave about how they liberated the Iraqi people from a blood thirst dictator. Since the mass destruction weapons have not been found (and not even the connections between Sadam and Bin Laden), the horror of the former regime is being used as the new argument to justify the war. To speak the truth, most of the Iraqi people do not disapprove the result of the invasion that ended with Sadam’s reign. On the contrary, they criticize the chaos that took place after the war, the arrogance of the liberator, the new humiliations that they have suffered, and the incapacity of the United States to restore the safety of the country.

Sadam Hussein was not only a tyrant, but also his neighbors were victims of this delirious leadership. First, the republic of Iran, in the decade of the eighties; and then, during the nineties it was Kuwait. They both had to face the tyrant of Baghdad. In the first case, in spite of the support of the United States to the troops of Sadam, and the chemical weapons that he used against the people of Iran, he did not win. In the second case, it was a coalition of Occidental countries: France and Great Britain, among others, leaded by the United States, put Sadam out of Kuwait. This decision was the last nail of the coffin. After more than a decade of ruining the economy of the country, Sadam would pay for his invasion to Kuwait with Bush’s war.

Because of what has happened during his long administration, it is obvious that he has to give an explanation to the Iraqi people. The alleged criminals, regardless of their aristocracy, have to attend to court to resolve the problems of these countries. On the one hand, justice makes the criminals pay for their acts. Impunity has to end here, it is not compatible with the development of a democratic society. On the other hand, it is a mechanism that allows the society to return to the victims the dignity that was stolen away from them, a dignity that their murderers destroyed.

In addition, a serious trial against Sadam would set a good example for the Muslim countries of the Middle East, generally ruled by tyrants, willing to step on the most elemental rights of the people in order to take control of the power. Because of all those reasons, anyone could hardly object to the idea of a trial for Sadam Hussein. This is not about a vengeance. The objective is to end with a systematic practice of tortures and murders that compromised the destiny of the Iraqi society.

A trial of this nature should not only condemn, but it should also explain why a group of people was able to keep a whole country subjugated for so long. The cultural flaws that explain this reality have to be found in order to determine the amount of responsibility of the whole society. The new generations have to be prepared so these atrocious events do not tend to repeat themselves.

The most important question is if the present trial that the Iraqi Forces have prepared has the necessary characteristics to meet the former considerations. The authorities that are ready to judge Hussein cannot overlook the fact that they are taking orders from the American authorities. These authorities are illegally staying in Iraq, after ignoring the international laws. In this sense, there is a lot of truth in the declarations of Hussein. Bush is using the Iraqi authorities to make sure that he wins the next presidential elections in his country.

The new Iraq that they allegedly want to build should guarantee the independence of the judges, the impartiality of the system, and the equanimity of the judicial apparatus precisely because Sadam denied this right to the Iraqi victims for over thirty years. In this sense, the farce that is being organized in Baghdad, even if they are able to give the dictator a death penalty, will hardly be able to repair the damages of a society accustomed to the tyranny of its leaders.

Bush is raving about the fact that the tyrant has been taken before the presence of justice in order to regain the trust of the citizenry. In the present conditions, the process will only be useful to resolve several of the political problems of the invaders, and to fulfill the desire of revenge that the present leaders of Baghdad have. However, it will not help the Iraqi society to find a new way of democracy and justice.

Economy

TituloThe housing shortage

To have a home of their own is vital for a family. Inside this space the people find privacy, harmony, and they share a series of values and social ideas that determine the way in which the members of a family become part of the society. From an economic perspective, a home is a fundamental factor so that the families are able to fulfill their most important material needs. When a family does not have a home of its own, its members find a serious obstacle to develop their existence and become part of the society.

In this country there are different kinds of housing developments, their quality reflects the social and the economic conditions of the people who live in them. therefore, it can be an interesting factor to examine the quality standards of the lives of the people who live in a particular house. A considerable amount of people, due to their low income, find it difficult to purchase a decent home. The State is supposed to help the people find a home, enabling them to build a house with the minimum requirements.

In order to cover the demand of homes that the less fortunate families have, there is an institution in the Salvadoran State that has this goal: The Social Fund for Housing Developments (FSV, in Spanish). This organization grants credits to the people who make low incomes and enables them to purchase and/or remodel their houses according to their own purchasing power. At present demand has increased. Inexpensive housing developments are not easy to find. In other words the State does not have a housing policy, and it is not able to resolve the demands of the people that make a very low income.

According to the Vice-Ministry of Housing, annually, there is a demand between 25,000 an 30,000 houses made by the people that earn a low income. However, this demand is much higher than the annual offer of this kind of housing. For the present year, the housing projects will not go beyond 18,000 units. Between 7,000 and 12,000 families that make a very low income will not be able to purchase a home.

In addition, we could speak about the qualitative housing shortage. There are people who have a house, but it does not come with the basic services: water, electricity, a phone. According to the Human Development Report, El Salvador 2003, the country needs to build 31,169 houses in order to end with the quantitative housing shortage, and 468,796 homes in order to provide the less fortunate families with a house. The housing shortage is therefore structured in the following manner: a 6.23% of quantitative deficit, and a 93.77% of qualitative deficit. This means that the State has to destine more resources to fix and remodel the existing houses, so that they meet the basic requirements of space and the necessary services are finally installed.

From another perspective, it can be said that most of the 499,965 houses that respond to the housing shortage are concentrated in the rural areas of the country. The housing shortage in the urban area is of approximately 138,548 homes, an amount that represents 27.71% of such shortage. In the rural areas, there is a lack of 361,417 houses, a figure equivalent to 72.29% of the shortage. Even if ten years ago some institutions tried to reduce the deficit, the numbers are still quite high. For 1992, the housing shortage was of approximately 595,102 houses; while for 2001 this number had been reduced to 508,807. In other words, around 100,000 houses have already been built. Nevertheless, this is not enough to alleviate the country’s housing needs, especially in the case of the less fortunate families.

Based on the formerly mentioned report, the necessary amount to reduce the housing shortage could add-up to $407.1 million. This amount is structured in the following manner: -The construction of new houses, $95.07 million.
-Remodeling expenses, $375.04 million (this includes the reparations and the installation of the basic services, such as water and electricity).

With this information, it is possible to calculate the necessary amount to eliminate the enormous demand of houses in a year. The estimate shows an amount between $21.35 and $36.6 million. This would be equivalent to less than 1% of the average GNP registered in the last years. However, the construction of these houses will not be a viable project in the short term due to the bad situation of the public finances.

Almost 24% of the already existing homes for the families that make a very low income do not have water services. The families have to go out and get their water from rivers, wells, or from lakes. Almost 75% of the people who get the water from these sources consider that they can drink this kind of water. However, recent studies indicate that almost one fifth of the people in this situation ignore that they are drinking water from contaminated sources.

On the other hand, almost 15% of the homes do not have electric energy. Even if this percentage is not very high, it does not consider the enormous differences between the rural and the urban areas of the country. In the urban areas, this service is practically universal, since more than 80% of the families have access to electricity, including the families that live in a situation of extreme poverty. In the case of the access to a phone line, only 45% of the homes have this service. In this case, just as it happens with the electric energy, there are enormous differences between the rural and the urban areas of the country. In the urban areas, 58% of the families have access to this service. While in the rural areas, only 22% has access to it.

It is necessary to make a considerable effort to create a housing policy in order to improve the life standards of the Salvadoran families, especially those of the people that live in the rural areas. The State has to fulfill its responsibilities and help these people find a mechanism to have access to a decent home in accordance to their income. What is the point of building houses that do not count with the basic services? Or what is the point of building houses that are practically beyond the purchasing power of most families? In this sense, the State has to see that the private production of homes of this nature is only viable if the production and the purchase of these housing projects has a subsidy.

It is also necessary to make a considerable effort to fulfill the demand for the basic services in many homes. The water services should be available to meet the demand, since this is a determinant aspect of the health of the families. The electric services and the telephone lines are also important. Therefore, it is necessary to establish certain priorities, this will enable the authorities to set some goals and obtain results in the medium and the long term.

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