[Cispes-update] National Emergency: Intense rains leave 192 dead

Tue Nov 17 19:18:16 EST 2009

National Emergency: Intense rains leave 192 dead

CISPES <http://www.cispes.org/>  update

November 17, 2009

Included in this update:

*	Jesuit martyrs receive El <>  Salvador’s highest civilian honor
*	29 years later, reparations for <>  Romero’s murder
*	2010 budget approved; FMLN continues <>  pushing for fiscal reform

On Saturday, November 7, intense rains produced by Hurricane Ida caused
major destruction in El Salvador leaving 192 people dead and 14,295 people
in shelters.  A month’s worth of rain (14 inches) fell in less than three
hours, causing floods and landslides that destroyed homes, roads, bridges,
and entire communities.  The departments of San Salvador and San Vicente
were the most affected.  Approximately 80 people are still missing as rescue
workers dig through the mud and collapsed buildings in search of survivors
and bodies.

President Mauricio Funes declared a state of National Emergency and the
Legislative Assembly quickly followed suit, declaring a state of National
Calamity—a measure that allows Funes’ administration to reallocate funds to
attend to the crisis.  According to Funes, the failure of previous
administrations to carry out risk-management projects has intensified the
gravity of the disaster, which is disproportionately affecting poor and
marginalized communities.  

Venezuela was one of the first countries to provide relief aid, sending two
airplanes full of food, supplies, and medicine on Monday, November 9.  Other
countries including Mexico, Brazil, Taiwan, and the United States also
responded to requests for aid with supplies and money.  Cuba sent a team of
doctors that are attending to the needs of the victims in San Vicente.
CISPES
<http://www.cispes.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=636&Itemid=
1>  has also raised $6,000 to send to organizations doing relief work.

Jesuit martyrs receive El Salvador’s highest civilian honor

On Saturday, November 14, hundreds commemorated the 20th anniversary of the
assassination of six Jesuit priests, their housekeeper, and her daughter at
the Central American University (UCA).  The ceremony included a candlelight
procession, musical and cultural acts, and a Mass in honor of the martyrs.
President Funes also honored the five Spanish priests with the José Matías
Delgado National Order—El Salvador’s highest civilian honor—in a public
event at the Presidential Home on November 16.  The Spanish priests—Ignacio
Ellacuría, Ignacio Martín Baró, Segundo Montes, Armando López, Juan Ramón
Moreno—were murdered on November 16th, 1989 by the US-trained and equipped
Atlacatl Battalion of the Salvadoran army along with their housekeeper, her
daughter, and Salvadoran priest Joaquín Lopez y Lopez.

The current rector of the UCA, José María Trojeira, highlighted the
importance of Funes’ decision to honor the martyrs, “in 20 years, not a
single State structure has made a recognition of the dignity of these
priests who gave their lives in defense of human rights
it was necessary to
recognize them.”  The perpetrators of the crime remain unpunished since the
1993 passage of an Amnesty Law that forbids punishment of crimes committed
during the Salvadoran Civil War; however, in November of 2008, the Spanish
High Court opened proceedings
<http://www.cispes.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=482&Itemid=
28>  against 14 military officials and ex-President of the Republic Alfredo
Cristiani (current president of the ARENA party) for the November 16
murders.

29 years later, reparations for Romero’s murder

Another major step in confronting government impunity surrounding the Civil
War took place on November 7 when El Salvador’s Ministry of Foreign
Relations announced it would make reparations for the 1980 murder of
Archbishop Oscar Arnulfo Romero and fulfill the 2000 resolution of the
Inter-American Human Rights Commission (CIDH).  Death squad operatives under
the direction of Major Roberto D’Aubuisson shot Archbishop Romero, an
outspoken critic of government repression and the plight of El Salvador’s
poor, while he was performing a Mass in San Salvador.  D’Aubuisson later
founded the ARENA party in 1983.

David Morales, director of the Ministry of Foreign Relations’ Commission on
Human Rights, explained that part of the reparations would include the
construction of a plaza in honor of Romero and the production of a video
about his life and accomplishments.  The CIDH resolution also calls for a
government investigation into Romero’s murder and the repeal of El
Salvador’s Amnesty Law.  According to Morales, the Funes administration,
including the Minister of Defense, is fully prepared to collaborate on the
repeal; however, the power to repeal the law rests in the hands of the
Legislative Assembly.  Within 30 days, the Funes administration will present
a report to the CIDH detailing the exact measures they will take to complete
the reparations and resolution.

2010 budget approved; FMLN continues pushing for fiscal reform

On Friday, November 6, the Legislative Assembly approved the $3.654 billion
2010 General Budget with 64 of the 84 total votes.  This budget covers basic
functioning of the government and is quite similar to the 2009 General
Budget. The Nationalist Republican Alliance (ARENA) party was the only
legislative fraction that did not give their votes, despite the
uncontroversial nature of the budget.  The 12
<http://www.cispes.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=634&Itemid=
28>  ARENA deputies who defected from the party on October 12 and formed
their own fraction—known as the Grand Alliance for National Unity or
GANA—voted to approve the budget, allowing it to pass despite ARENA’s plans
to stall it.

The next step for the FMLN and Funes administration will be the approval of
the 2010 Extraordinary Budget and the international loans to finance it.
The Extraordinary Budget totals an additional $404 million earmarked for
social investment in areas such as education, public health, public works,
and crime prevention programs.  It requires a two-thirds majority (56 votes)
to be approved along with its international financing.  Before the arrival
of the GANA fraction, ARENA’s votes would have been necessary for its
approval. Given the new Assembly composition, the FMLN can obtain a
two-thirds majority with support from GANA and the National Conciliation
Party (PCN).

Along with the 2010 Extraordinary Budget, a Fiscal Reform project presented
by the Funes administration is on deck for Assembly debate and vote in the
upcoming weeks.  The project entails a series of laws intended to close
legal loopholes that have allowed tax evasion to occur, thereby increasing
the government’s tax income by nearly $600 million a year.  The National
Association of Private Businesses (ANEP) has harshly criticized the reform.
Alex Segovia, Funes’ Technical Secretary, explained that this is one of the
most difficult reforms to pass because it affects the privileged business
sector.  “Who will this reform affect? It isn’t the poor, or the middle
class.  It is those sectors
that have the resources to study the laws and
elude them or, even worse, that have the resources to be able to evade
[taxes],” he explained.

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