[Cispes-update] One year of CAFTA in El Salvador: Unfulfilled Promises and More Protests

[CISPES National Office]

One year of CAFTA in El Salvador: Unfulfilled Promises and More Protests

CISPES Update

March 5, 2007 

 

            Thursday March 1 marked the first anniversary of the
implementation of the U.S.-Central American Free Trade Agreement (DR-CAFTA)
in El Salvador.  While Presidents Bush and Saca met in Washington DC and
made statements about how beneficial CAFTA had been for “everyone,” back in
El Salvador the social movement, youth groups, economists, and the FMLN
party all disputed those claims.  

            There were two protests marking the CAFTA anniversary and
calling for a reversal in the agreement.  On Wednesday, February 28, youth
organizations shut down the Boulevard Constitución, one of the main roads
into and through San Salvador, in a peaceful protest.  The riot police moved
in and broke up the protest, arresting 27 young people for “public
disorder.”  The youth were held for over 24 hours, but had been released by
Friday.  Then on Thursday, another group of protestors marched to demand
that CAFTA be repealed.  Campesinos, students, informal vendors, and other
social movement organizations went to the Supreme Court to demand that CAFTA
be repealed.  The FMLN echoed those criticisms, calling on the Supreme Court
to declare the agreement unconstitutional.  The CD/DVD vendors movement
participated in the Thursday march, calling attention to the way the
implementation of CAFTA has criminalized their only means of survival.  

            The year anniversary proved an important moment for debunking
the government’s promises about the boon CAFTA would bring for all
Salvadorans.  Even the U.S. and Salvadoran governments’ official numbers
show that El Salvador’s trade deficit with the U.S. has grown, with U.S.
exports to El Salvador far outweighing Salvadoran exports to the U.S.
According to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Salvadoran agricultural
exports to the U.S. fell 3.7% in 2006, and U.S. imports to El Salvador grew
by 17%, the greatest rate of growth since 1970.  The Latin American economic
think tank CEPAL reports that inflation went up slightly from 2005 to 2006
in El Salvador.  Foreign investment in El Salvador went from $300 million in
2005 to $222 million in 2006, whereas in Costa Rica – where CAFTA has not
been implemented – foreign investment is eight times higher.  The protests
and denouncements last week all pointed out these contradictions and called
on the government to reverse this trend by seeking economic programs that
diverge from the “free” trade model.  Huge protests occurred in Costa Rica a
few days prior to the anniversary (see www.stopcafta.org
<http://www.stopcafta.org/>  for more information.)

 

Saca and Bush meeting: False Hope for Immigrants

 

            On February 27, Salvadoran President Saca made another trip to
Washington to meet with President Bush.  Unlike past meetings during which
Saca had come with a propagandistic mission– publicizing his supposed
support for Salvadoran immigrants during campaign season – this time the
purpose of the visit and the declarations emerging from it were much more
vague.  Instead of directly requesting an extension of TPS (temporary work
permits that benefit 225,000 Salvadorans living in the U.S., Saca and Bush
focused more on security and organized crime, while Bush praised Saca’s
friendship.  In their remarks to the press, Bush and Saca mentioned
immigrants, but without a concrete proposals to assist those with TPS, not
to mention the large number of Salvadorans deported from the U.S. each week.


 

Finally, the meeting also gave Bush an opportunity to meet with an ally in
Latin America before going on his trip to Central and South America this
week, where friends of the Bush regime are few.  There are major protests
planned for a Bush’s visits in Mexico, Guatemala, and Brazil. 

 

Guatemala murders still under investigation

 

            Four Guatemalan police who confessed being involved in the
murder of the three Salvadoran legislators and their driver were detained on
February 23.  One of them was the head of the Guatemalan special police unit
against organized crime, another was a high-ranking police official, and the
others were investigative agents.  On February 25 they were being held in a
Guatemalan maximum security prison when they were murdered in their cells.
Although officials initially claimed they were killed in a prison riot,
witnesses say a group of men in military-like clothes and ski masks walked
into the prison and then through a number of locked doors without anyone
stopping them, before carrying out the murders.

            More details continue to emerge about the crimes.  Another
Guatemalan police officer has turned himself in, and the head of Guatemalan
Criminal Investigation, Victor Hugo Soto, was removed from his position on
Saturday.  However, there have been differing versions coming from
Guatemalan and Salvadoran authorities about evidence in the cases, leading
to tensions between the two governments.  Organizations in Guatemala and El
Salvador speculate that the murders are connected to organized crime and
drug traffickers embedded high in state powers in both countries.  An FMLN
Deputy to the Central American Parliament, Leonel Bucaro, says that the
crimes show that the structures of death squads were not dismantled by the
Peace Accords in either country.  Today, Human Rights Ombudswoman Beatrice
de Carrillo said that the crimes touch such high levels of power in both
countries and could potentially expose serious corruption. “I am sure that
we will never get to the bottom of this delicate situation.  I think that
both countries are trying to diminish interest in the case.”

 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.people-link.net/pipermail/cispes-update/attachments/20070305/b3b4d610/attachment.html