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Proceso 1121
November 10, 2004
ISSN 0259-9864
Editorial: The example of Costa Rica
Politics: The electoral results of the FMLN
Economy: The new agricultural policy
The example of Costa Rica
The judicial system of Costa Rica is giving an example of
effectiveness and decency to the rest of the Central American countries,
specially to El Salvador. In order to realize this, it is enough to make a brief
examination of the way in which the judicial systems of both countries are
facing their own critical cases of corruption. In Costa Rica, a couple of former
presidents have been accused, immediately and without any contemplations at all,
for committing fraudulent acts during their respective administrations –a third
one is between the eyes of the Costa Rican authorities-. It is about a couple of
important and influential people, resourceful enough to fool the justice system.
Nevertheless, nothing of the kind has happened: just like any other citizen who
could be accused of breaking the law, both of the former presidents have had to
respond for the crimes that they are accused of.
In El Salvador, before the famous case of corruption that took place in ANDA,
the person mainly responsible for the millionaire embezzlement -Carlos Perla-
managed to escape from the country and until now he has not paid for his crime.
His accomplice -Mario Orellana- is eagerly expecting the favors of the vicious
Salvadoran judicial system and whatever the manipulation of the law can do for
him. The situation of Orellana is a peculiar one because even if he is one of
the main suspects in this fraud, the Attorney General’s Office is treating him
in a favorable manner.
The public prosecutors keep their appeal based on a "criterion of opportunity"
-a legitimate resource, but that can be easily manipulated- to benefit Orellana
with a suspension of the sentence, in exchange for an allegedly valuable piece
of information that he would have revealed to the Attorney General’s Office
about the case. Judge Nora Montoya has insisted on the idea that the information
revealed by Orellana is irrelevant and that, therefore, he does not deserve a
special treatment. The public prosecutors, contravening their responsibility to
defend the interests of the people, they defend Orellana. And they defend him
with such energy and passion that it seems as if they were designated -mainly,
the "special public prosecutor"- to save him from the deserved punishment. The
public prosecutors involved with the ANDA case have become the defenders of a
former public official who profited from the public resources with a low sense
of morality. In Costa Rica, the public prosecutors fulfilled their work and they
did it with effectiveness; in El Salvador, the work of the public prosecutors
has not been effective, and they have not been able to defend the society from
the criminals.
What to say about the Costa Rican and the Salvadoran mass media before the
corruption cases that have affected their societies? In Costa Rica, the media
have not walked away with complicities of any sort with the former presidents
that have been accused of corruption. They have been treated as regular
delinquents; their conduct and their behavior has been considered embarrassing.
The former presidents themselves have not acted arrogantly. Instead, their
attitude has been of shame. Independently from the attitude of the defendants,
the Costa Rican media-compatible with the political culture of their country-
have not set any standards to make believe that there is something worthy to
praise in the conduct of the former presidents.
The contrary has happened with the Salvadoran media -specifically, with the most
important ones-. They torn their clothes denouncing corruption, but not all of
the corruption, nor with all of its implications. They like those cases of
corruption that can damage the image of the FMLN: here they take advantage their
sources, they do not miss an opportunity to invent complicities. On the other
hand, when some case of corruption explodes in the power circles of ARENA, they
act carefully. And if not, why they did not follow the tracks of the connection
between former president Flores and the corruption case at ANDA? Why they did
not investigate how Perla and Orellana moved the millions that they stole
through the financial system?
The most important Salvadoran news media –with a perspective that is compatible
with a political culture that praises, the abusive and the arrogant people- keep
looking for something positive in those who commit crimes. For instance, it
would be enough to mention the press coverage given to Yiomara Gomez de Orellana,
the accomplice of Mario Orellana -her husband- in the corruption case of ANDA.
All the news about Orellana’s wife, far from emphasizing her complicity in this
crime, in the bland sentence that she got or in the embarrassing aspects of her
complicity, are focused on her beauty, her dark glasses, the way she walks, her
hair, the combination of her outfits, and her contemptuous attitude. When
reading about her, it seems as if the reporters are talking about a fashion
model, or, in any case, about a woman who is out of sight, someone that leaves
those who observe her with their mouth open. It seems as if those who write
about her would want to say that, by being the way she is, she could be excused
for just about everything: her contemptuous gestures or her participation in a
fraud that involves millions of dollars. In short, it is possible that Yiomara
Gomez de Orellana has all the characteristics that the press mentions, but none
of those features exempts her from her share of responsibility in a crime, or
from the fact that she could be considered as a delinquent, once the Salvadoran
justice has typified her like so with enough evidence .
The combat against corruption has to go through a more efficient judicial
system, engaged with the defense of the society’s interests. This also has to do
with the eradication of a culture of abuse followed by opportunistic
individuals. This culture will not be eradicated while the mass media continue
approaching the corruption subject in the way they have done it with Yiomara de
Orellana. It is one serious irresponsibility to communicate to the public that
she has a series of features -absolutely superficial, by the way- that are more
important than the fact that she has participated in a crime. When the media act
like that, they recreate in the mind of the society the belief that there are
people who deserve to be treated better than others, regardless of their crimes.
The way that the Attorney General’s Office is treating Mario Orellana confirms
that not all Salvadorans are equal before the law.
The electoral results of the FMLN
It is already official. Medardo González, the candidate of
the revolutionary socialist line, won the internal elections of the FMLN,
celebrated on Sunday November 7th. He now becomes the second general coordinator
of the left wing party since the adoption of the last statutes that stipulate
the secret vote of all of those affiliated to the organization, like a mechanism
to select their leaders. What are the main aspects that explain this triumph?
Will they contribute to reduce the tension inside the left wing party? Has the
FMLN become more mature since the last internal elections? Has the party been
strengthened in these last couple of years of orthodox management? These are
some of the questions that this article will try to respond to in the lines that
follow.
The internal balance of forces
Based on the last news, the socialist revolutionary line, with Schafick Handal
leading the way, has won the elections of last Sunday with a considerable number
of votes. If the multiple denunciations of fraud are left behind, this line
would have gained the coordination of 11 out of the 14 departments in dispute.
In addition, it would be ready to control most of the 56 chairs that the
national organism of general coordination of the party counts with.
These results would mean that the majority of militants of the FLMN that voted
on last Sunday approve of -approximately 54%- the performance of the
revolutionary socialist line. These militants would have valued the 800,000
votes that the party got in the last presidential elections. And vice versa,
they misestimated the critics of the "alternative through the change" –where
Óscar Ortiz was the leader- which believes that the orthodox are responsible for
the electoral defeat, due to their incapacity to open the party to the society
and quiet down the tone of their incendiary revolutionary speeches. In this
sense, the identity of the FMLN prevailed over ARENA. The militants of the FMLN
would have decided that the best political way is the confrontation with their
political opponents.
These results would reiterate, in addition, that in the political fight inside
of a party like the FMLN counts more with the control that it has inside the
organization than with all of the good intention speeches or the support from
the external elements. In some cases, this can be a counter-productive effect
because it sends the wrong message: other sectors can influence their
performance. Since the time when the Peace Accords were signed, different
political leaders within the left wing party have gone through the bitterness of
a defeat. They have paid a high price for their incapacity to connect themselves
with the feelings of most of their militants.
It is also necessary to notice that those that have been against the decisions
of the ones who govern the party have had to leave the organization. This rule
has been used without exceptions, even after the adoption of a mechanism of
internal democracy in the FMLN. The renovators were the last ones to pay because
of their rebelliousness. After the elections that took place back in November of
2001, this line lost its main leaders, among them the former candidate to the
general coordination, Francisco Jovel, who was expelled from the party.
Will the same happen with Ortiz and his lieutenants. The adopted democratic
mechanism is supposed to assure the existence of the opponents. Juan Linz
believes that one of the virtues of democracy –in a society- is that in it,
"there are neither winners nor defeated ones in a long time". In that sense, he
proclaims that democracy is a pro tempore government: "This temporary dimension
of the authority derived from the democratic process is essential to guarantee
the freedom of the citizens to display their options and also to assure that the
following generations will be able to participate and that the citizens are able
to demand an explanation of the events and to make the people from an
administration responsible for their actions". Apparently, this principle has
not been adopted inside the FMLN.
The insufficient democratization of the FMLN
The left wing party usually appears as the main bastion of democracy in the
country. Its leaders usually appear as the only political party that has a
democratic procedure to choose its leaders, and that its candidates are
designated by their militants. From a strictly formal point of view, the
argument of the FMLN has a persuasive force. Whereas all the other political
parties of the country struggle on their way to reinforce the authority of their
leaderships, the FMLN decided, a few years ago, to give the words to their
militants.
However, the comparisons between the democratic ideal shown by the leaders of
the left wing and the other parties of the country cannot be taken further. Just
like the members of the FMLN are pleased to declare that the Salvadoran
democracy is merely formal, any spectator of the last elections and the general
behavior of the leaders of this party would make the same observation. In the
FMLN, the electoral democracy is purely a facade. The leaders of the party have
not been able to adopt the exigencies of a democratic behavior, the same that
they speak about in their critics against the operation of the Salvadoran
political system.
In addition, some have sustained -in the opinion of many militants of the FMLN-
that the process does not offer enough guarantees as to speak about clean and
honest elections. In this sense, the defeated ones usually refuse to accept the
electoral results. In 2001, before the announcement of the internal electoral
court about the triumph of Sanchez Cerén, the opponent, Francisco Jovel,
considered that basically the results announced by the authorities did not
reflect the will of the voters. "What we are evaluating, with the facts that we
have, is that the information has been manipulated because it has nothing to do
with the data that we have. A dishonest process can only create a fraud.
Therefore, the fraud won. It is a legal fraud ", declared then one of the
leaders of the FMLN.
In the present, there are several elements that allow to sustain that the
situation has not improved in the left wing party. Once again, the results
announced by the electoral authorities are not accepted by the candidates who
lost the elections. Some are speaking about critical frauds and about a
systematic exclusion of those affiliates that allegedly do not agree with the
orthodox tendency. In other words, from the point of view of the organization of
the voting system, the FMLN has not gone too far in the last three years.
It is important to discuss this point because it not only reminds us about the
history of the electoral events organized in the country before the Peace
Accords, but it also questions all the democratic speech of the leaders of the
FMLN. A first step towards the normalization of the political life consists
mainly of the suitable count of the votes. In the country, the constant
electoral frauds, among other reasons, led to a bloody civil war. That is why
now it is not possible to speak about democracy in the left wing party while
this one does not find a mechanism that allows it to accurately establish the
will of its militants.
Another relevant subject is the little participation of the party’s affiliates
in the internal elections. During the elections of 2001 less than 50% of the
affiliates participated in that process. Today, the situation remains the same.
Despite the fact that the lists have been depurated to make sure that those that
have the party’s identification do fulfill their responsibilities, it has not
been possible to end with abstention.
In this specific case, the FMLN works just like the Salvadoran democracy. That
is why Schafik Handal insists on the idea that the members of the party have to
become active militants; however, this request has not been heard. Schafik
Handal usually evaluates the reasons why the Salvadoran population stays away
from the electoral events through this perspective, that is why it can be said
that the internal procedures of the FMLN have not been able to mobilize its
militants because the party’s leaders have not been able to connect with the
interests of the affiliates and because they are too worried about the amount of
power that they can have. In other words, at this point, the FMLN is a party
that does not manage to convince not even half of its affiliated members.
The FMLN after the elections
After the results of the elections were revealed, the FMLN is expected to find a
certain internal stability. At this point, one hopes that it can be able to
efficiently deal with the electoral propaganda of ARENA and start the way to the
next legislative and municipal elections. Once the elections are over, the left
wing party would have to worry about closing the gap of acceptance that its main
opponent has reached in the public opinion in the last months. This is the most
suitable moment to show that the party has an internal unity and to present a
coherent speech before the population about its political strategy. FMLN would
have to begin to fulfill its tasks as the democratic opposition to ARENA.
However, the announced electoral results do not predict the celebration of an
internal cohesion. Even if it is true that the line that pursues the
transformations does not have enough power as to become an obstacle for the
adequate performance of the party’s directive board, still, it has a good chance
to be heard. The members of the party are at the head of many important
municipalities and occupy a place in the Legislative Assembly. In addition, the
considerable amount of power that the orthodox count with can lead to think that
they could easily be tempted by that and exclude their opponents. On the other
hand, the disappointing result of those that allegedly plead for a change in the
conduction of the party threatens their possibilities of obtaining a nomination
in the next legislative and municipal elections. In other words, the ingredients
are complete for the FMLN to keep their internal confrontation.
The new agricultural policy
During last the fifteen years, the governmental policy has
been indifferent to the situation of the agricultural sector. The ARENA
administrations have granted more privileges to the sectors that develop
commercial activities and services. Throughout the 20th Century, the country was
characterized by the production and the export of agricultural primary goods. By
the end of the Century, by means of the economic policies of the government, an
economic model was created and it negatively affected the traditional
agricultural producers of the past, and, simultaneously, it intensified the
poverty level in the rural areas of the country. The agricultural sector was
shaken as well, mostly by external factors that determined the behavior of the
Salvadoran economy. One of those factors was the crisis that some primary
products usually go through in the international market, and the presence of new
producers of agricultural goods with greater levels of productivity in the
international market.
Over 10 years ago, the official party launched the process of commercial
openness and, with it, the reconstruction of the economy towards the sector of
services. At the time, many analysts noticed that the situation of the land had
not much to do with the design of the State’s policies. At present, the apathy
of that past is in the fact that the largest portion of the extreme poverty
levels is concentrated in the rural areas of the country. In addition, this
situation not only intensified the poverty levels, but it also influenced the
departure of many Salvadorans.
The fourth ARENA administration has stated that it intends to implement an
agricultural policy able to resolve the agrarian problem. President Elías
Antonio Saca accepts that he will have to do, as soon as possible, what the
former presidents did not do during the last administrations. This policy of
doing things in a rush is not good at all, especially now that a couple of
important aspects come together and they will determine his situation in the
next years: the Free Trade Agreement (TLC, in Spanish) with the U.S.A., and the
arrival of China to the World-wide Organization of Commerce (OMC, in Spanish) in
2005. Everything seems to indicate that the previous presidents that led the
country did not have a clear vision of what a nation is in regard to the future.
Despite the fact that the same party is still in the Executive power, and the
fact that since 1989 it has been speaking about globalization, efficiency,
infrastructure, and technology, it still has not done much to face the new
world-wide economic challenges.
The agricultural conjunction
During this week the Salvadoran Foundation for the Social and the Economic
Development (FUSADES, in Spanish), presented a report that discusses the decline
of the agricultural sector, and some actions conducted by the government to help
this area. Both FUSADES and the government think that the productive conversion
is necessary to continue in the market. The agricultural goods that were
competitive have been affected by the strong fluctuations of prices in the
international markets, and by the low levels of productivity; for that reason,
they consider that it is necessary to encourage a line of new agricultural
products that can be competitive.
According to the organization, the products that could be considered with the
objective of participating in the international market would be: coconuts,
loroco, avocado, and sugar, among others. These products would resolve, to a
certain extent, many of the imbalances that the country has in commercial
matters. The conversion and the diversification of the land would be important,
because the problems of productivity and trade would be attacked, that is, the
roots of the economic stagnation. This policy must be conceived as part of an
integral governmental plan, aimed to create new sources of work in the rural
areas. This, at the same time, would be connected to the implementation of a
poverty eradication program. More than an assistance program, the intention is
to create more sources of work in the rural areas, through the articulation of
agricultural conversion programs and plans to eradicate poverty.
The governmental plan for the agricultural sector
This week, the government announced that it will create the Encouragement Fund,
Development of the Competitiveness for the Farming and the Rural Conversion.
With this initiative, the intention is to invest approximately $3.5 million to
create 35,000 new jobs. Previously, the Salvadoran President created new
programs to benefit the agriculturists, such as the beginning of the cotton
seedtime, in Usulután.
The governmental lines of work in agricultural matters are drawn up in a
document called The Relevant Aspects of the 2004-2009 Governmental Plan.
According to that piece of information, the most important challenge in the
farming policy consists of converting the sector and rescuing the levels of
profitability, looking for new technologies. These efforts would be aimed to
increase the productivity levels, so that it is possible to be at the height of
the prices in a world-wide scale. In this direction, a modernization of the
public sector (related to the agricultural activities) would take place, which
would include certain organizations of the State such as the National Center of
Farming and Forest Technology(CENTA, in Spanish), the National School of
Agronomy (ENA) and the Fishing Center (CENDEPESCA).
The document is clear when saying that the conversion will have to come up with
benefits in the short term, and, with that objective in mind, it would take
advantage of the commercial agreements with other countries or regions. From the
governmental perspective, it is intended to solve the problems of the sector’s
conversion in the short term and, at the same time, to make profits.
Nevertheless, a responsible way to approach the problem of the sector would not
agree much with the work program of the Saca administration. To speak about
transformation and productive conversion for the land is to talk about the
alteration of the production processes (of the agricultural goods), which also
reconstructs the way in which these are commercialized in the market.
The limitations that the State has, in the sense that it lacks a long term
perspective, do not allow to determine the proportions of the agricultural
productive conversion problem in a more responsible manner. Although some
specific policies have to be adopted to take care of the urgencies, it is also
necessary to design an encouragement policy, a policy connected with the
economic needs of the country. But to solve the crisis, from a wider
perspective, a commercial agreement with the U.S.A. is not enough. The
government does not have to be limited to think that a commercial agreement with
that country will be enough to diversify both the agricultural and the exporting
sectors.
In that sense, one of the main bets of the government is to exploit the
potential nostalgia market in the U.S.A.. The enormous amount of Salvadorans in
that country would demand those products that have traditionally characterized
the diet of the Salvadorans. However, the problem is that, according to some
studies made by FUSADES, there is such a variety of products of this nature
that, at the time of evaluating the levels of productivity and competitiveness
in the international market, these products would be disqualified because they
would not to fulfill the necessary requirements. Within a program of productive
conversion these agricultural products would not have the opportunity to become
profitable goods.
In addition, when speaking about productive conversion, the government forgets
that in order to become a specialist in the production of new agricultural goods
it is important to consider several aspects:
1. To evaluate the economic cost of cultivating fruits and vegetables.
2. To analyze the nature of the products that will be cultivated. To cultivate
vegetables could represent a moderately profitable activity, but often
characterized by an expensive production. Certain types of vegetables need quite
an amount of care during their development. To cultivate them demands a suitable
amount of knowledge, as well as certain technical and financial resources that
are not within the reach of most small producers.
3. To analyze the different aspects of the "rural culture", a main feature of
the Salvadoran farmer. To cultivate many of the essential agricultural products
is an action connected to a certain form of life for the rural inhabitants.
Therefore, a conversion and a productive diversification do not exclusively
involve questions of a technical nature, but also social and cultural aspects.
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