Laitn AMerica

Politics of Latin America

El Salvador

Country features

 Smallest in the region  No Atlantic coast  Overpopulated. Population density:

289 persons/km2  Long history of violence  Mestizo nation

 Mestizos (90%)  Whites (9%)  Indians (1%)

Historical background

 Liberal elites predominantly controlled politics during the nineteenth century  Free enterprise  Economic modernization  Coffee exports

 Land confiscation and intense enforcing of anti-vagrancy laws created one of the most unequal patterns of land-distribution in Latin America

 Coffee elites took the best lands in the country

Historical background

 As a result:  Several indian and mestizo uprisings

during the late nineteenth century  Violence was common in the

countryside  Violence was exercised by institutions

and paramilitaries  National Guard controlled the

population in the countryside and were answerable to individual landowners

The background of the 1932 Matanza

 La Matanza is the most single decisive event in Central America before the Nicaraguan revolution

 Attempts of reforms had been initiated in 1929 under a civilian president: Arturo Araujo

 But…the Great Depression impacted Salvadoran economy  Coffee prices fell and exports declined  Elites cut the already low wages of the agricultural

workers

 The Army toppled President Araujo because the government had not paid their salaries

The background of the 1932 Matanza

 Dictator Maximiliano Hernandez Martinez cut short attempts of democratic reforms during in 1931

 Peasants (mostly Indians) in the coffee plantations rose up against the regime

 Uprising was partially instigated and (ill)coordinated by the new-formed Communist Party

 Revolt was directed not only against government forces but also against landowners

 Rebels killed around 50 people, including some landowners

The 1932 Matanza

 The government and the landowners crushed the uprising

 Intense repression: more than 20,000 peasants (most of them Indians) were killed in a two-week period

 Communist party was banned and its leaders executed (including Farabundo Marti)

Area of La Matanza

San Salvador

The Aftermath of La Matanza

 La Matanza marked and traumatized both the oligarchy and the peasants  Anticommunist and anti-reformist  Fear of state violence

 Being an Indian became a synonymous with Communist: consolidated the idea of a mestizo nation

 People stopped using indigenous symbols and Indian culture disappeared

 Army consolidated power and elites were ready to yield it

The dictator Hernandez Martinez

 He initiated a long era of military dictatorships

 Protected the interests of coffee oligarchy  Initiated modernization programs in El

Salvador  Ruled with heavy hand. Stabilized the

country and the economy  Ousted in 1944 with a general student

strike following an attempt of coup from the some military officers

The military regimes

 The fall of Hernandez Martinez inaugurated a period in Salvadoran politics in which the military as institution ruled the country  Military created an official party (PRUD)

that would change its name in 1961 (PCN), and would rule the country from 1948 to 1979

The military regimes

 Attempts of reforms were repeatedly crushed by an anti-communist interpretation of politics

 Some military officers attempted to implement reforms that only managed to be partially implemented in the cities. Rural areas largely remained in a sort of oligarchic control

The military regimes between 1950- 1970

 Buoyant coffee prices, the US Alliance for Progress, and the CACM, contributed to economic growth

 Economic growth contributed to the grow of urban middle classes

 The CACM prompted industrialization and… expansion of trade unions

The military regimes between1950- 1970

 During the 1960s, the regime allowed the creation of opposition parties, in particular the Christian-Democrat Party

 This provided some legitimacy to the regime:  Fake elections  Held power at the national level  Allowed some opposition victories at the local

level

The 1969 Soccer War (La guerra del futbol)

 Demographic pressures and repression had prompted a slow Salvadoran migration to Honduras (more than 300,000)

 Commercial disputes between El Salvador and Honduras

 Honduras was trying to resist Salvadoran hegemony in the CACM

 Unpopular Honduran president (Col. Arellano) sought to reduce opposition in his country by launching a land reform that expropriated Salvadorans in Honduras

 Thousands of Salvadorans were expelled from Honduras

 Tensions rose over the classificatory matches for the Mexico 1970 World Cup

 War broke out when El Salvador invaded Honduras

The 1969 Soccer War (La guerra del futbol)

 The US and the OAS forced the Salvadorans to withdraw from Honduras and to reach a settlement

 More than 100,000 Salvadorans returned home  Honduras retired from the CACM and the CACM

was terminated

 Internal pressures mounted in El Salvador as a result of unemployed population

 The termination of the CACM affected Salvadoran economic performance

The economic crisis of the 1970s

 Forced return of Salvadorans from Honduras increased social pressures  Unemployment  Marginalization in urban centers  Lack of services

 The collapse of the CACM reduced job opportunities  Changes in the agrarian economy pushed thousands of

peasants off the land: cotton and sugar cane  Industrialization in the agrarian sector left many

without jobs  Economic crisis of the 1970s lowered the purchasing

power of the Salvadorans  Layoffs  Inflation

Opposition parties and electoral participation

 Opposition parties appeared during the 1960s  PDC (Social-Christians)  MNR (Social-democrats)  UDN (Communists and Socialists)

 These parties formed a broad alliance for the 1972 Presidential elections: UNO (Union Nacional Opositora)

 Their candidate (Jose Napoleon Duarte) won the election but was denied by electoral fraud: government put down attempted uprisings.

 Opposition leaders were sent to exile or killed  The coalition ran again for the 1977 elections, but

electoral fraud prevented their victory again

Popular mobilization during the 1970s

 Mass organizations promoted by the Church and the political parties increased from the late 1960s to the 1970s

 Labor unions (public employees and industrial workers) started to make demands and strikes rose dramatically

 Peasant organizations started demanding higher wages and land reform  The government promised to launch a land reform  Later, under elite pressures, the government backed

down  Social unrest increased

The formation of guerrilla groups

 In 1970, a faction of the Communist Party (UDN) split and formed the first guerrilla group: the FPL (Fuerzas Armadas de Liberacion)

 In 1972, after the electoral fraud, a group of Christian Democrats formed another guerrilla group: the ERP (Ejercito Revolucionario del Pueblo)

 In 1975, a split of the ERP formed another guerrilla group: the RN (Resistencia Nacional)

 In 1975, a fourth group appeared: Partido Revolucionario de los Trabajadores Centroamericanos –PRTC (Revolutionary Party of Central American Workers)

Government Reaction

 Military governments responded to popular mobilization increasing repression

 Paramilitary organizations linked to the state increased their activities killing and torturing dissidents

 Sought to suppress mass organizations and form an anti-Communist militia

 Prominent opposition leaders, Catholic priests, social activists were killed by death squads  18 priests and nuns killed from 1977 to 1982

Political murders

 From 1974 to 1977: ~ 14 per year  1978 – 1979: 278  1979: 1,030  1980: 8,024  1981: 13,353

Mass organizations and guerrilla groups

 Large mass organizations formed  Linked to different social groups  Linked to guerrilla groups

 Revolutionary orientation  Weapons began to arrive from Costa Rica

and Nicaragua  Guerrilla started to conduct some

operations  Guerrillas made money by kidnapping

wealthy Salvadorans, diplomats and foreign businessmen (South Africa, Japan)

1979 Military Coup: Regime Change

 Social unrest and political violence was widespread by 1979

 A group of young military officers allied with opposition leaders and staged a military coup against the regime

 Civil-Military Junta resulting from the coup received American support

 Carter administration resumed arms transfers to the Salvadoran military

 The Junta attempted to enact social and political reforms to stop the turmoil

 But…the hard factions of the military overtook the Junta, drove the moderate civilians out and hampered the reforms

 Activities of death squads continued and in 1980 they hit the most important Salvadoran social leader: Monsignor Oscar Romero

Archbishop Romero

 Leader of the Salvadoran Catholic Church  Influenced by Liberation Theology  Active critic of the military regime  Advocated for a non-violent exit to the

mounting political conflict  Denounced the human rights violations  Killed in March 1980 by a government-

linked death squad

Archbishop Romero

Civil War broke out in 1980

 Four guerrilla groups and the Communist Party decided to form one single organization: the FMLN (Frente Farabundo Marti para la Liberacion Nacional)

 Moderate opposition leaders formed the FDR (Frente Democratico Revolucionario) and allied with the FMLN

 Many social activists and opposition leaders joined the guerrillas or went into exile

Civil War broke out in 1980

 The FMLN launched a major military offensive in January 1981 to overthrow the military, but failed…  The FMLN failed to create momentum among

the population: no insurrection  No elite support  At the last minute the government and the

military received support from the US  The FMLN pulled out from the cities and

transformed its military strategy to guerrilla war

Reconstitution of the government

 Civil-military junta reconstituted with more conservative elements from the PDC (Christian-Democratic Party)

 Government side was constituted of several factions: military hard-liners, economic elites, anti-Communists, conservative faction of the PDC

 Upon pressure of the US, they agreed to replace the junta with a civilian government and set dates for elections

US support

 Support from the US (first Carter, then Reagan), altered the balance of forces between the government and the insurgents

 The US provided huge amounts of money to the government: $6 billions during the war

 Military, technical, and economic assistance  The US pushed for some reforms that the radical

right opposed  The US also supported moderates in the

government while giving assistance to the military. In exchange, the right and the oligarchy did not overthrow the government

Political configuration

 Constituent elections of 1982 and presidential elections of 1984 gave power to the PDC  Left and the FMLN continued waging war

against the government  The right and the military continued repressing

population  The US kept the PDC government (President

Duarte) alive but with little power  President Duarte wanted a negotiated exit to

the war, but the military, the elites, the guerrillas, and the US wanted to win the war

The Civil War (1980-1992)

 Mexico and France recognized the guerrillas as a legitimate political force

 Twelve year long  It was fought in the countryside  More than 70,000 killed  500,000 refugees and displaced  Migration to the US, Honduras,

Guatemala, Costa Rica, and Mexico  The US supported government forces  Nicaragua (especially in the early days)

and Cuba supported the guerrilla forces

The Civil War (1980-1992)

 Human rights abuses decreased after 1985 (US pressure)

 Civil war stagnated  Despite substantial support, the Salvadoran

army wasn’t able to defeat the guerrillas in the countryside, and guerrillas could not topple the government

 Presidential elections in 1989 were won by the right-wing party: ARENA  Alfredo Cristiani (moderate businessmen)

Economic policies of the Christian- Democrat government

 Launched a land reform  Redistributive measures  Nationalized the financial industry  Controlled prices  Taxed coffee exports

 These measures, however, did not reduced the political conflict, and they failed to improve the economy

The Civil War (1980-1992)

 Peace talks resumed between the government and the guerrillas, but led to nowhere

 The FMLN launched a national offensive and took control of some cities and neighborhoods in San Salvador and major urban centers: November 1989

 After two weeks of intense fighting, the army regained control of the cities

The beginning of the end of the civil war

 An Army elite commando killed six Jesuits and two collaborators at the campus University of Central America

 The massacre prompted world condemnation and the US withdraw support to the military and pushed for a negotiated solution to the conflict

 The fall of the Berlin Wall and the electoral defeat of the Sandinistas in Nicaragua eased the American position toward war in El Salvador

The beginning of the end of the civil war

 The government and the guerrillas conducted peace talks from 1990 to December 1991, with the support and sponsorship of the United Nations

 Peace accords were signed in January 16, 1992, in Chapultepec, Mexico

 War formally ended in December 1991

Peace Accords signature

Salvadoran Peace Accords

 Goals:  End the Armed Conflict through

political means  Promote democratization  Guarantee respect for human rights  Reunify Salvadoran Society

Salvadoran Peace Accords

 It comprised:  Restructuring national electoral institutions  Creation of Human Rights Ombudsman Office  Elimination of Internal Security Institutions

 National Guard  Treasury Police  National Police  Municipal Police

 Creation of a Civilian National Police  Redefined the role of the military by removing them

from the control of the security institutions  Creation of a economic forum to carry out economic

reforms conducive to a more inclusive economic development

Salvadoran Peace Accords

 War effectively ended  FMLN demobilized, became a political

party and was allowed to participate in elections

 Security institutions were finally disbanded

 Military were removed from security apparatuses

 But… the Economic Forum never took off

Salvadoran Peace Accords

 UN Truth Commission found that 85% of human rights abuses from 1980 to 1992 were committed by government forces

 High ranking officials were removed from office but never faced trials

 The government passed a broad amnesty law ensuring that would not be legal recourse for crimes committed during the war: no one has been convicted for human rights abuses

The End of the Salvadoran War

 The celebration of periodic elections did not end the war in El Salvador

 But the agreement between the main political forces in the country

 International intervention was key to this outcome  United Nations  Friends of El Salvador: Mexico, Spain, Costa

Rica, and Venezuela  The support of the US for the peace project

Economic policies in the transition

 Neoliberal reforms started to be implemented in 1989 and were deepened after the end of the war  Reduction of public sector  Reprivatization of the bank industry  Liberalization of prices

 Economic elites accepted and engaged in peace accords because they realized they couldn’t carry out these reforms under war and political conflict

El Salvador after the peace accords

 Political system became competitive  Electoral participation of all political forces  No ideological constraints to party formation

 Police forces were separated from the military

 Political violence was significantly reduced  Transformations in:

 Socioeconomic relations and class structure  Political regime  Political culture

Transformations in socioeconomic relations and class structure

 Before the civil war  Oppressive labor relations enforced by the state  Expansion of economy was not the result of internal

markets, but the redefinition of property rights  Rigid class structure: high inequality

 After the civil war  The agricultural infrastructure was destroyed  Export agriculture decline and the commercial

sectors boomed: elites moved from agriculture to commerce

 Urbanization increased  Emigration increased and remittances became a

fundamental income for the country

Transformations in the political regime

 Before the civil war  Exclusionary nature of the regime  Military and agrarian elites ruled the country  State forces were devoted to ensure economic

and political exclusion through violence  After the civil war

 Regime accepted real contenders  Possibility of alternation  State forces were not devoted to ensure

exclusion  Civil liberties can be exercised

Transformations in the elite political culture

 Before the war, elites  Used violence to remain in power  Relied on the military to control economy

 After the war, elites  Used electoral competition to remain in power  Built an electoral base among middle-class and

peasants  Acceptance of democratic rules: elections and

rights

Transformations in popular political culture

 Before the war, people  Had a political culture of self-

deprecation, fatalism, conformism  No attitude for social mobility: few

incentives for personal and community development

 After the war, people  Engaged in social participation and

mobilization  Exercised rights

Shortcomings of democracy

 However, quality of democracy remains weak

 Low rates of voting  Institutional weakness  High rates of crime and violence  Continuing poverty and social

exclusion

Low voting rates

 No more than 60% population participate in elections

 El Salvador is a “new democracy,” people should be participating

 No engagement of politicians to the population

 Disconnection between politics and popular will

Institutional weakness

 No participation, no accountability: politicians manipulate institutions to their own interests

 Little transparency  Fundamental problems of the country

keep unresolved  Regulation of electoral institutions are

weak  Rule of law does not apply to all the

population

Crime and violence

 Extremely high rates of violence  Judicial and security institutions

incapable of granting the most basic right: life and security

 Penetration of drug cartels  People support draconian measures

and authoritarian leaders seeking for security

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

P o

rc e

n ta

je s

.

18.1%

Frente a desempleo alto

52.4%

Frente a mucho crimen

51.9%

Frente a mucha corrupción

Fuente: Barómetro de las Américas por LAPOP 95% Intervalo de confianza (Efecto de diseño incorporado)

Condiciones en las que se justificaría un golpe de Estado

Conditions under which people would support a military coup

Unemployment

Crime Corruption

Poverty and economic exclusion

 Poverty declined but still very high  El Salvador is still in the cluster of

the poorest nations in Latin America  Main income of the country is not

internal production but remittances from Salvadorans living abroad

 Wages remain low and unemployment is widespread

Conclusion

 19th century:  Liberal elites controlled politics while

coffee elites took the best lands. Both contributed to unequal land distribution and export oriented economy based on coffee.

 Violence was used by individuals/groups (from below) and the state (from above.)

Conclusion

 20th Century  El Salvador will have military

authoritarian regimes from most of the century. They will be supported by the economic elites (landowners.)

 Violence from above and below will continue. Ex: La Matanza, Guerrilla organizations and Civil War.

 Peace Accords put an end to Civil War.

Conclusion

 Peace Accords and the transition to democracy brought about economic, political and social changes.

 However, democracy in El Salvador faces multiple challenges.