[Cispes-update] President Saca offers $500 million to private and foreign banks

CISPES National Office cispes at cispes.org
Thu Dec 4 00:35:27 EST 2008


*President Saca offers $500 million to private and foreign banks,*

/*FMLN demands that the money benefit small businesses and the 
agriculture industry*/

December 4, 2008mujeres <#Salvadorans_Living_Abroad_Demand_the>

* *

 

*/Also in this update:/*

*·        *Mauricio Funes Travels to the U.S. to Meet with Leaders of 
Financial Organizations and the Organization of American States 
<#Funes_to_Meet_with_Leaders_of_Financial_>

*·        *Funes and Sánchez Cerén Promise to Govern with Policies that 
will Benefit the Women of El Salvador <#Funes_of_El_Salvador>

*·        *Salvadorans Living Abroad Demand the Right to Vote 
<#Salvadorans_Living_Abroad_Demand_the>

* *

In mid-November, Salvadoran President Tony Saca, following in the 
footsteps of his mentor and ally George W. Bush, requested a $500 
million loan from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) to inject 
liquidity into private and foreign banks. Citing El Salvador's 
Constitution, the opposition FMLN party (Farabundo Martí National 
Liberation Front) maintains that the loan must be approved by the 
Legislative Assembly. The Constitution of El Salvador requires all 
sovereign debt to pass a legislative debate and be approved by a 
two-thirds vote in the Assembly.

 

President Saca and his ARENA party (Nationalist Republican Alliance) 
contend that injecting money into the private and foreign banks will 
give Salvadoran businesses and industries access to loans. The FMLN 
wants conditions to apply to the IDB loan to make sure the money stays 
within the country and goes to small- and medium-sized businesses, as 
well as the agricultural sector.  Many international and domestic 
economists have agreed with the FMLN's proposal, advising Saca that 
giving the money to private and foreign banks would be a mistake.  
Renowned economist Juan Héctor Vidal explained, "In other circumstances 
these $500 million would be given through other intermediaries, but I 
would not give resources to the banks simply to palliate them; it is 
truly sad."

 

For many in El Salvador, the thought of taking on public debt to give 
money away to private and primarily foreign banks seems completely 
illogical as lay-offs and unemployment surge throughout the country. The 
Association of Cooperative Banks and Savings and Credit Unions of El 
Salvador has sent an open letter to President Saca, imploring that a 
large percentage of the $500 million loan be directed to its member 
institutions.  This would ensure that the money stays within the country 
and benefits the association's "thousands of clients that form part of 
the productive sector of micro, small, and medium businesses" in El 
Salvador, instead of simply giving more money to an already privileged 
business sector.

 


  *Mauricio Funes Travels to the U.S. to Meet with Leaders of Financial
  Organizations and the Organization of American States*

* *

FMLN presidential candidate Mauricio Funes traveled to Washington, D.C., 
in late November to meet with leaders of the International Monetary Fund 
and Inter-American Development Bank, as well as leaders of the 
Organization of American States (OAS).  The purpose of meeting with the 
financial leaders was to let them know "first-hand the situation of our 
country and our vision of the country that we will construct after June 
of next year."

 

The meeting with José Miguel Insulza, Secretary General of the OAS, was 
intended to discuss Funes' and the Salvadoran people's concern about 
potential fraud in the coming elections, to be held in January and March 
of 2009.  Polls currently show that a majority of the Salvadoran 
population is not confident in the integrity of the electoral process.  
The OAS previously issued a long list of suggestions to make the 
Salvadoran electoral process fair and transparent, but very few of these 
have been implemented.  One of the recommendations was to revise the 
electoral registry---due to a high number of irregularities and errors 
in the list of voters---and to open the registry to scrutiny by all 
parties.  Presently, only one FMLN official has been allowed to view the 
registry.  Despite the fact that this recommendation has not been 
implemented, ARENA has falsely asserted that the OAS has approved the 
electoral registry. 

 

Since Funes' meeting with Insulza, the OAS has created a new mission of 
80 observers that arrived in the country at the end of November to 
review and monitor El Salvador's electoral process.  The right-wing 
dominated Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) has been heavily criticized 
by the FMLN as well as the OAS for implementing a series of electoral 
reforms that allow for the possibility of fraud and irregularities in 
the 2009 legislative, municipal, and presidential elections.  Recent 
polling gives Funes a 14-point lead over ARENA presidential candidate 
Rodrigo Ávila, which has lead some observers to worry that ARENA may 
exploit the irregularities cited by the OAS to perpetrate fraud in an 
effort to hold onto power.

 


  *Funes and Sánchez Cerén Promise to Govern with Policies that will
  Benefit the Women of El Salvador*

* *

In a meeting with hundreds of women from San Salvador on Sunday, 
November 23, FMLN presidential candidate Mauricio Funes and 
vice-presidential candidate Salvador Sánchez Cerén promised to promote 
policies that will resolve the problems faced by Salvadoran women. "We 
can't conceive a democratic exercise if we don't have a vision of 
gender," declared Funes.

 

The FMLN has taken many steps to promote the participation of women in 
the political process, including a Women's Secretariat that concerns 
itself with this sole purpose.  40% of the FMLN legislative candidates 
are women and 30% of FMLN governed municipalities have women mayors. 
During the meeting, Sánchez Cerén pointed out that many of the women's 
proposals already make up a part of the FMLN ticket's governing 
platform.  These plans include improving the quality of jobs for women, 
closing the pay gap between men and women, recognizing domestic work, 
and providing women with access to healthcare, education, credit, and a 
dignified life.

 

The proposals of the women represented at the meeting pointed out that 
in the last 20 years of ARENA governance; there has been growth in 
"marginalization, poverty, and exclusion, which has its origin in 
machismo and the concentration of power in the hands of few."  This 
meeting continues Funes' and Sánchez Cerén's series of visits with 
diverse sectors of society as they develop a plan for governing that is 
inclusive and will serve the majority of Salvadorans.

 


  *Salvadorans Living Abroad Demand the Right to Vote*

* *

The demand for the right to vote was a central theme of the 6^th 
International Convention of Salvadorans in the World, which took place 
in San Salvador the third week of November.  There is currently no 
mechanism to allow the 2.5 million Salvadorans who live outside of El 
Salvador to vote.  Convention attendees gathered in protest at the 
Monumento a la Constitución to call for President Tony Saca to allow 
them their constitutional right to vote in elections in El Salvador.

 

Salvador Sanabria, executive director of the organization El Rescate in 
Los Angeles, pointed out the large role Salvadorans living abroad play 
in keeping the Salvadoran economy afloat.  "It's impossible that, after 
sending more than $3.6 billion in family remittances annually, the 
Salvadoran state denies the right to exercise suffrage and the ability 
to decide the destiny and future of this nation," said Sanabria at the 
demonstration.

 

The Supreme Electoral Tribunal's plan to install polling places in San 
Salvador for citizens living abroad is seen as pure show by many.  The 
demand for emigrant's suffrage is consistently denied by ARENA, as it is 
generally understood that Salvadorans general emigrate due to the 
deterioration of their economic situation in El Salvador, and would most 
likely vote for a change in government.

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