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CIS

Colonia Libertad,

Avenida Bolívar # 103

San Salvador, El Salvador

Centroamérica

Teléfonos:

(503) 2226-5362              

(503) 2235-1330

e-mail: cis_elsalvador@yahoo.com

www.cis-elsalvador.org

February 13-March 9 2001

1. El Salvador and the Earthquakes

2. Damages Caused by the February 13th Earthquake and Some Damages from the January 13th Quake

3. The Responses from the Government, FMLN and the Civil Society

4. Popular Voice

El Salvador and the Earthquakes

During the last 55 days, El Salvador has been hit with 2 major earthquakes, various smaller quakes and thousands of aftershocks. The first earthquake, registering 7.6 on the Richter scale, was on January 13, 2001. This first earthquake devastated Usulután, La Libertad and La Paz and also caused major damages in Sonsonate, Auachapán and San Salvador. The second earthquake took place exactly one month after the first and registered 6.6 on the Richter scale. The second earthquake devastated Cuscatlán, San Vicente and La Paz. On Saturday, February 17th, four days after the second quake, a third earthquake rocked El Salvador. The third quake registered 5.3 on the Richter scale. Even though only 1 death and 3 injuries were reported after the third quake it is impossible to measure the emotional and psychological damages that it caused in a population that is seriously terrorized by the unrelentless movements. On Saturday, February 24th there were 5 quakes within 6 minutes - 3 of which were strong followed by 2 of lesser magnitude - all with epicenters in San Salvador. Classes were going to start again on February 26th but after that last set of quakes they were suspend until later notice because the fault line that runs through San Salvador had been activated. Classes finally resumed on March 1st, 2001. The last earthquake felt was on February 28th and registered in at 5.6.¹

The first and second earthquakes caused irreparable damages to the thousands of Salvadorans who are forced to live in houses of adobe or bahareque², on the edges and sides of mountains, in marginal communities and/or marginalized in the interior of the Republic. In other words, the people most affected have been the poor who before the earthquakes were already living in precarious and inhumane conditions. The official number of homeless after the earthquakes is 1,532,919.³ Which is to say, more than 25% of the population lost their homes.

The scientific explanation of the second earthquake given by a geologist of the Minster of the Environment is the following: The February 13th earthquake was a response to the complex pressures on the tectonic plate "Caribe". El Salvador is located between the “Caribe” plate and the “Cocos” plate. The January 13th earthquake was a movement of subduction (one plate moving on top of another). Even though the second quake was not an aftershock it was related to the first earthquake.

However, Sergio Paniagua spoke of a "ripping" of the Cocos plate.⁴ The great movement of the first earthquake activated the fault between Ilopango and San Vicente and also the fault running through the metropolitan area of San Salvador. This explanation is understandable. However, the socio-economic explanation of the enormous disaster produced by the natural phenomenon is more complex: vulnerability. The vulnerability of the country is the direct consequence of the neoliberal "development" model imposed by the ARENA government. According to the United Nations Development Program, poverty in the country has increased by 7%-10% due to the earthquakes and the losses represent 12.1% of the GDP, 43.5% of the export earnings (which is equal to the fiscal earnings of the State for one year) and 75% of the 2001 national budget.⁵

El Salvador is the only Central American country that does not possess a thorough study of the faults that run through the capital. It is also the country least endowed with teams to realize seismic studies in the area. It is the country with the worst scientific institution in this field - it has the least capacity to protect itself from natural phenomenons such as earthquakes. El Salvador is the most neglectful country regarding modern laws that regulate both anti-quake construction and urban planning in order to avoid such disasters. The effects of the lack of adequate prevention policies and the implementation of a unsustainable economic model are palpable. There is a lack of urban planning and construction norms. The university major in geology was suspended 30 years ago.

ARENA has not been characterized as having solid relationships with the villages which is to say most poverty stricken zones. Therefore, in the aid distribution process they have excluded people for being poor and/or their political identification. The official aid, that which has gotten to the communities, is insufficient. Much of the aid received by the government has been diverted, sold and politicized. Even though the levels of corruption (stealing) has not been as palpable as during the tropical storm Mitch, it still has existed. Furthermore, the government's plan does not have a long term vision - it ends with the construction of a provisional homes and does not analyze the causes of the disaster.

The population has raised voices of protest. Dozens of children, elderly, men and women have taken their demands for emergency aid and materials for construction to the Pan-American Highway. Homeless from various municipalities have taken the streets. Others have blocked principal streets in the capital. While others, visibly organized, have opted for soliciting a meeting with their respective mayor even though the media has run a campaign of defamation saying that "they tried to take the mayor's office".⁶ Additionally, the number of Salvadorans emigrating has considerably increased. On Friday, March 2nd the government of Mexico announced that it will start to deport undocumented Salvadorans via air. The Mexican government did not rule out reinforcing border patrols after expressing concern over the increase in emigrating Salvadorans. The General Director of Migration of El Salvador, Roberto Machón, talked of the exodus as possibly being long term based on the amount of destruction caused by the earthquakes: "The people are already conscious of something that is going to happen in May, which is the famine (for the poor)... they have two options: come to the city and beg, or leave the country."

1. According to the USGS this earthquake registered 6.1 on the Richter scale.

2. “Bahareque” is a type of construction used for walls. It consists of using long sticks then filling the space between the sticks with mud.

3. Source: Project Madrid Document, official document the government presented in Madrid.

4. Serio Paniagua is a Costa Rican Geologist cited from El Diario de Hoy, Monday, Feb. 26 2001, page 2.

5. Considering that the statistics of damages given by the UN Economic Commission for Latin America could have a margin of error of 10%, the damages caused by the earthquakes could equal the amount of remittances sent by families in the exterior which in 2000 was 1.7 billion dollars.

6. On Monday, February 19th earthquake victims of Izalco solicited a meeting with their mayor who then accused members of the FMLN of pushing the victims to demand aid.

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Damages Caused by the February 13th Earthquake and Some Damages from the January 13th Quake

They estimate that the deficit for the present year will be between 4% and 5% and inflation between 3.5% and 4%. The country will need 3 - 5 years for reconstruction. ECLA discarded the idea that El Salvador will reach the levels of economic growth as predicted by the government before and after the earthquakes.

1. La Prensa Gráfica, Monday, February 26 2001, page 10.

2. Includes homes destroyed, buried and severely damaged.

3. Includes homes destroyed, buried and severely damaged.

4. La Prensa Gráfica, Saturday, March 3 2001, page 24.

5. According to Jorge Zablah, president of the Salvadoran Foundation for Economic and Social Development (FUSADES).

6. La Prensa Gráfica, Saturday, February 17 2001, page 4.

7. Oscar Díaz, Manager of Street and Road Planning, Minister of Public Works.

8. El Diario de Hoy, Sunday, February 25 2001, page 11, Revista Vértice.

9. El Diario de Hoy, Saturday, February 24 2001.

10. Sunday, February 18 2001.

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The Responses from the Government, FMLN and the Civil Society

“The attitude of the president of the republic and his functionaries is ever more worrisome. They do not accept criticism. People that think differently are not good Salvadorans and the decisions that they make are impeccable, perfect and nobody can doubt them. Those that do not agree are converted into traitors of the Homeland.”¹

On March 7th, the government met with the Advisory Group in Madrid to obtain funds for their "reconstruction". It is worth mentioning that the plan presented by the government excluded input from the rest of the society. They did not want to involve anyone except the president's functionaries, international advisors, and some advisors from the Minister of Economy. It was only a few days before the meeting that they let the National Development Commission. The government let them in because of criticism from the civil society and even the catholic church. In theory the government gave the Commission the responsibility of forming a process that would consult the citizens in order to enrich their already finished document. On Wednesday, February 28th, 6 days before the meeting, the Commission invited four mayors to participate in the meeting with the Advisory Group. It is almost needless to say that the thoughts of the mayors were not represented in the document since it already had been finished. Quintanilla Schmidt, vice-president, rejected the notion that the invitation was at the last minute. One night before the meetings, the Episcopal Conference met with Daboub asking to be included in the official group. Supposedly, the inclusion of the National Commission of Development (CND), Corporation of Municipalities of El Salvador (COMURES) and the Episcopol Conference presented an image of unity. The official group also included the president of ANEP (National Association of Private Businesses), ABANSA (Salvadoran Bankers Association) and FUSADES, among others. Many organizations from the civil society had asked to be included but the government's response was always rejection and domination. The first presentation of the government's document was presented behind closed doors to a select audience. Those invited were the National Association of Private Businesses (ANEP), the Salvadoran Foundation for Economic and Social Development (FUSADES), and the National Development Commission (CND). The government in their neoliberal logic continue to confuse the good of private companies with the common good of the country. The incorporation of the Commission was due to the popular discontent expressed about the government's exclusive character regarding the document. The controversial document is 18 pages and the "Recovery Plan" is 4.

The National Development Commission (CND) was converted into a fundamental part of legitimization of the Government’s strategy in the eyes of the international community given that the element of citizen participation contemplated by the international community in the Madrid Project 2001 is fundamentally based on the participation of this commission."In this context it is worth mentioning three things with respect to the role of the CND in the Consultation Group Meeting. In the first place, the CND is not going to Madrid to represent the civil society; nor is it trying, nor should it, nor can it do so . . . . In the second place, the CND has neither a reconstruction plan nor a large base of consultation to sustain it, there simply has not been the time to do anything serious, trustworthy, and consistent in this respect. In the third place, and this is by way of a personal opinion, the CND should know how to collect and project, before and overall after Madrid, the “bricks of social understanding” that already exist in the country . . . ."²

The day of the meeting, the Diario de Hoy published that the Spanish left had organized a march in front of the hotel where the Advisory Group would meet. According to this paper, government representatives suspect that, in some way, the march coincides with the arrival in Madrid of the FMLN’s general coordinator, Fabio Castillo y Hugo Martínez. "We cannot fool ourselves. This is connected. It is a new effort from the FMLN to depreciate a Government whose only intention is to obtain international help to solve our problems," said a “high government functionary” according to the Diario.

Even though the said document was not known by the majority of people, Flores sustained that all sectors participated. The Ministry of Economy said that the plan was in consultation with those affected by the earthquakes. Since the end of January, the Corporation of Municipalities of El Salvador (COMURES) had solicited a meeting with Flores to analyze the reconstruction program, but what they got was an invitation to accompany the official delegation 6 days before the meeting. The president of COMURES, Oscar Ortiz, publicly denounced the government for refusing to take into account the plans presented by the municipalities, which emphasize that the principal priority of the municipalities is that reconstruction does not augment marginalized zones and poverty.

The six political forces of the Legislative Assembly also stated that the President did not consult with them about the “reconstruction” plan. Not one of them was aware of the content of the reconstruction plan that the Government presented to the Advisory Group in Madrid³ "We are sorry that the plan goes with neither the national nor international feeling," said Salvador Sánchez Cerén, head of the FMLN’s legislative fraction, referring to the tactical requirement that potential partners present a country in agreement with one single plan.

On February 14^th the FMLN revealed that a delegation from the party would travel to Madrid to participate in the meeting, taking its own measures, since they had already had their first approach with the partners. "We will participate . . . we have a great responsibility in the Assembly and Mayors offices," said Cerén. The delegation was headed by the General Coordinator, Fabio Castillo. In his time, Flores said that he would not bring the FMLN as part of the official delegation, as he considered that since he was elected by the citizens he represented all of the population. For his part, Fabio Castillo visited Sweden, Norway, Finland, Denmark, and Madrid, where he presented the FMLN’s plan for the Advisory Group. The document the FMLN presents reorients the country’s budget and the international credit towards reconstruction, and proposes ways to reconstruct the country including the relationships of production, the territorial order, decentralization and strengthening of local governments, citizen participation and the conservation and rational use of natural resources. This plan has been strongly attacked by the right.

Before the meeting, but days after the expectation was created that the government had in its hands a plan for reconstruction, Juan José Daboub, Technical Secretary of the Presidency, clarified that the government had never said anything about a reconstruction plan, rather what the government had elaborated was a document quantifying the damages and destruction.⁴ When questioned about citizen participation, he respond that "the document is a list that comes out of consultations and tours made on the road, as well as from censuses taken in the communities." In the same way, when he was asked about the conditions that, according to him, the FMLN had put on working under the leadership of the president, and for which he refused to work with them, Daboub said, "800 people had to die so that they would approve the budget and the loans, and there are still three loans they have not approved. Now that another 300 have died, proof should be approving these loans." On the morning of February 20^th in a television interview, Daboub blamed the FMLN beforehand for the failure of the government at the Advisory Group meeting, that is to say that, in fact, the government was not going to receive financing in Madrid. Flores did something similar in the presentation of the “Madrid” document on February 15^th, making a “call” to the FMLN to “not provoke damages” to the process of petitioning help.⁵

What was achieved in the meeting were $1.3 billion in the course of the next 4 years. Only $300 million are donations. The rest are loans and re-orientation of credit. The $300 million donation includes all of the aid received until now by our country including the packet promised last week in Washington by President Bush ($110 million). Another $300 million are part of already existing loans, but they will be re-programmed under the good vision of the IADB (Inter-American Development Bank). The remaining $700 million will be given in the form of new loans from the IADB, the BCIE (Central American Economic Integration Bank), and the World Bank. The president of the IADB thought the meeting was a success. Apparently, the Isthmus countries welcomed the reduction of vulnerability was as a priority on the road to development. That night Flores recognized that his government would have to follow the road of credit in order to reach the $1,050 million that are needed to complete reconstruction. “Really, we hoped to receive more donations,” slowly said the Technical Secretary of the Presidency, Juan José Daboub. Another fact that should be taken into account is that the $1,300 million that El Salvador is counting on will be withdrawn over the next four years. This obliges the government to take the money necessary supposedly to confront the short term problems that the victims of the earthquake have set forth from other sources. Flores said that El Salvador still has a good capacity to acquire debt. The external debt of El Salvador represents 22% of the GNP or 30% of the total annual income. Nevertheless, Flores was optimistic that the legalization of another 150 thousand Salvadorans living in the US, announced by the US president, George Bush, will mean an additional income of $350 million in family remittances. During the Advisory Group meeting, it was stated to the president that some NGO representatives privately mentioned, during the Madrid meeting, that if he had opened a clearer bridge with the FMLN that perhaps the donations would have grown. Flores responded that since the first he had invited the FMLN to participate in the official negotiations to look for international cooperation, and that the FMLN had threatened the expulsion of anyone who accompanied Flores on delegations sent outside the country. He expressed that the statement is reversed; if the FMLN had collaborated, perhaps we would have obtained more resources. At the same time, he said that part of the future actions of the government would be directed towards asking for a greater collaboration in the reconstruction of El Salvador from private enterprise, in order to avoid public debt. He will also study the possibility of reconstructing highways through a system of private concessions and he will look for other new resources to establish new roads.

These last statements about the role of private enterprise in reconstruction reinforce the fear that many have expressed: the sale of the reconstruction plan to private enterprise. The removal of rubble that obstructs the highways and streets in 6 departments of the country will be executed by 10 private businesses, who will employ two thousand workers from the affected areas.⁶ Supposedly, the objective is to generate employment in affected zones. For the removal of rubble in six departments, MOP (Public Works Ministry) will spend 33 million dollars⁷. Starting in May of this year, the permanent maintenance of the roads network in the national territory will be the responsibility of private business. Public Works will have one business in each department of carry out work throughout the year, with the possibility of renewal, in a month in which supposedly the highways and streets of at least ten of the country’s departments should be already free of the land slides caused by the earthquakes. The MOP has already contracted l0 businesses so that in a period of two months they can remove the earth that blocks the principal highways. “With the resignation of more than 6 thousand field and technical workers of the MOP, the government does not have another option but to contract private business to carry out public works development,” stated an article in the Diario de Hoy. In February, 7,048 workers were fired from the MOP under a pretext of “voluntary resignation”. According to the Vice-Minister of Transportation, Ricardo Yúdice, the object of the decree [by which the workers were forced to resign] is the modernization of the system and the efficiency of the proceedings. The privatization of Public Works is sure to increase the cost of reconstruction.

In addition to soliciting international financing, another of the government strategies for reconstruction has consisted in rejecting the remission of the external debt of El Salvador, which currently ascends to $3.3 billion dollars. Spain has been the only country that has pardoned the interest on the loan that El Salvador has with that nation. Non-official sources indicate that a variety of countries have offered to pardon the external debt, but that El Salvador, or better said, the ARENA government, has rejected the offers.⁸

Thursday, February 22^nd, President Flores attended the Legislative Assembly to ask the congressional deputies to approve a series of pending loans. The sum of the 8 pending loans came to a total of $260 million. “I ask you, with all the urgency my words can bring, to approve these $260 million for us,” said Flores. That day, the Legislative Assembly approved a loan for $20 million undersigned by the International Development Fund (IDF) and authorized the negotiation of $132.5 million, the sum of three loans from the Inter-American Development Bank. Additionally, four loans that were already authorized from the IADB for $55.6 million were left pending, as the votes of at least 56 of the 84 deputies necessary for ratification were not given. The reason that these loans were not approved was that the FMLN wanted to be sure that these loans could be reoriented towards the emergency and would not be used for their original destination. The next day, the president of the IADB, Enrique Iglesias, visited the country and clarified that the loans could be reoriented for the same items to which they were originally aimed. For example, the funds that originally were to serve to reform the hydraulic sector would now serve to decongest buried or blocked tubing. Therefore, they approved the loans, except for two, which could not be reoriented, that were assigned for the Financial System ($3.8 million) and for the General Accounting Office ($5.4 million). Four of the five credits approved on Friday will come from the IADB. The fifth will come from the BCIE. This same day, Flores signaled that he expects to close the breach between the funds that they have and those that are needed for reconstruction. According to Dabaub, the costs of reconstruction will reach $2.8 billion, and the breach that must be closed is $2 billion. The technical secretary of the presidency signaled that the first earthquake caused damages close to $1.3 billion and the second about $700 million.

In the same way, and consistent with his neo-liberal policies, Flores visited the president of the United States, Bush, on February 28^th and 29^th to solicit a commercial treaty preferential to the Central American region. Monday, February 26^th, the presidents of the region met in El Salvador for four hours to refine the agenda that the leaders would present before the Consultation group and to add to this the measures for El Salvador. The Central American presidents and councilors emphasized that day that they will fight to achieve a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with the United States and also included the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) in the petition. Carlos Flores Facusé, president of Honduras, said that before the FTAA, the first step is an FTA. “All the energy of the FTAs indicates that in the next years we will be a free trade zone. . . “This same day, a variety of Central American NGOs published a paid ad in which they declared their worries that the official proposals to the Consultation Group were concentrated with a priority on mega infrastructure projects that only facilitate the business dynamic of the strongest international investors and that they oriented the region to be a service lender, instead of strengthening productive sectors that could be important; the large majority of the Central American population has other priorities in facing the situation of structural poverty with which they are afflicted.⁹

According to the government, the objective of the application [for a FTA with the US] was to multiply the generation of employment and augment the commercial possibilities for the five countries. Juan José Daboub signaled that Canada and Mexico are benefiting from the preferential customs tariffs and the free entry to the nation mentioned and that Central America could also benefit. However, the reality of Mexico enters into a contradiction with what Daboub said.“ . . . the North American Free Trade Agreement has been central to the crisis and the public policies of Mexico. The Agreement, in addition to closing a cycle of structural reforms of a neo-liberal cut implemented since 1982, came to inaugurate a new process of de-nationalization and trans-nationalization. Starting with its vigorous entry, the processes of privatization, deregulation and opening have excellerated, placing Mexico in a situation that is extensively vulnerable to the opinions of the large investors and to the transnational businesses and the changes of the US economy . . . . The mirage can not supplant the reality: the Agreement has been very far from creating the jobs that are required, improving salaries and the living conditions of the population. . . . . Its impact in terms of generation of employment, salary and living condition improvement has been null. . . . The economic, social, and environmental indicators of Mexico show a severe deterioration and an enormous asymmetry and disadvantage in relation to our North American counterparts. The deterioration of the social indicators has reached worrisome levels in the areas of nutrition, health, housing, and education, where children, indigenous people, and the elderly are the most vulnerable.¹⁰ These are the “benefits” that the government of El Salvador wants the population to enjoy.

On the night of Wednesday, February 28^th, Flores arrived in Washington, DC.  On Thursday he met with the International Relations Committee of the House of Representatives, and later with Jesse Helms, president of Exterior Relations of the Senate. The press did not have access to either meeting. Supposedly, as many democrats as republicans expressed their support to Flores and committed to serve as spokespeople to urge the full House and Senate, and the executive, to approve an emergency packet for El Salvador. Flores asked that the exportation quotas for textiles and sugar be eliminated.

In the 15-minute meeting between Bush and Flores, that took place on Friday, March 2^nd, Bush promised to give $110 million to the country, out of which $52 million are for this year and the rest is for the next year. Given that the U.S. spent $6 billions in financing the war and destruction, the amount pledged for reconstruction is shameful. Additionally, he agreed to authorize temporary resident status to the Salvadorans who live illegally in the United States, except for those who had committed a crime or who had entered the country after February 13^th. According to the calculations of the government of El Salvador, the TPS could benefit around 150,000 Salvadorans and will represent a considerable increase in family remittances to El Salvador, which last year were over $1.7 billion. The TPS began on Monday March 12^th and will last until September of 2002.

1. El Salvador Proceso, Weekly, UCA, number 938, Feb. 7, 2001, “ARENA en los ojos”.

2. Roberto Rubio, executive director of FUNDE and member of the National Development Commission.

3. La Prensa Gráfica, February 15, 2001, page 37.

4. Interview given to the Prensa Gráfica.

5. This presentation was the same as mentioned before, that was only given to ANEP, FUSADES and the National Development Commission.

6. El Diario de Hoy, Saturday February 4, 2001, page 8.

7. José Ángel Quirós, Minister of Public Works.

8. Diario Co-Latino, Wednesday February 14, 2001, page 11.

9. La Prensa Gráfica, Monday, February 26, 2001, page 75.

10. “Free Trade: promises versus realities”, compiled by Beat Schmid, Ediciones Heinrich Böll, “North American Free Trade Agreement: Backfire – an evaluation of the 6 years since it came into force”, page 153.

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Popular Voice

A demonstration of hundreds of peasants, mostly women, children, and the elderly, who came together under the name “Committee in Defense of the Earthquake Victims of El Salvador” invaded the streets of San Salvador in the afternoon hours on Tuesday, February 27^th. With cries of “We’re Hungry” and “Fair Distribution”, the protesters asked for a new orientation for the distribution of construction materials and donations and accused CONASOL and the municipal governments of misdirecting international aid. Oswaldo Guerrero (member of an organization of ex-paramilitary members) championed the movement. The demonstration was violently repressed by the anti-riot police with tear gas. “I don’t understand why they use tear gas when there are children and elderly present . . . ,” said Dieter Drussel, representative of the Swedish NGOs in El Salvador, who was present at the march. The anti-riot police kept the protesters from arriving at the buildings of the International Fairgrounds¹ For FESPAD, the police committed a crime according to Free Transit and Free Expression and Organization in cordoning off the streets to not allow free passage to the hundreds of victims, who were peacefully demanding aid. Because of this FESPAD has asked the Legislative Assembly to appeal to the Minister of Public Security, Francisco Beltrán Galindo, and the director of the PNC (National Civil Police) Mauricio Sandoval. Jaime Meléndez Ventura, manager of the Center for Penal Studies of El Salvador (CEPES), explained that the PNC is accustomed to blocking the streets whenever there is a demonstration, when it has no legal basis for doing so. “The National Civil Police is only authorized to intervene in the moment that a peaceful manifestation becomes violent, but it does not have the right to interfere with the free passage of people, much less to dissolve a peaceful demonstration,” he sustained.

On Thursday, February 29^th, thousands of earthquake victims took to the streets to demand basic staples, homes, and medicine from the government. According to the victims the aid has been politicized and only central government supporters receive the aid. At 9:00 am that morning, protests stared in the department capitals of Usulután, San Vicente, La Paz, Ahuachapán, and La Libertad. The press gave the most coverage to the Apopa victims who blocked the Highway Troncal del Norte then marched to the Feria Internacional (where COEN is stationed). The victims later changed the course of the march because the police had blocked the route. On 5^th of November street police detained the marchers from proceeding. Other manifestations concentrated around El Salvador del Mundo and yet another tried to make their way to the Feria but was blocked by the police. According to the Minister of Interior, the protests were a strategy implemented by the Left in order to try to "ruin the image of Flores (in Washington)."

Other organizations are preparing for a true reconstruction which takes into account the feeling of the majority who find themselves in miserable living conditions due to the economic model imposed by the government. There had been coordinated proposals that included the vision of social and economic justice. COMURES, the Salvadoran Civil Society for Reconstruction and Development, the FMLN and around 80 NGOs, among others, have protested recognizing the fact that the earthquakes have deepened the poverty given that they hit the poor (those who are traditionally most vulnerable). The government on the contrary has been closed, exclusive, overpowering, and even has openly lied to the population saying that the earthquakes will not affect the economy and that the living conditions of the population were not related to the resulting disaster. In the same manner, there is a complete secrecy around the last earthquakes. The government has tried to minimize publicity of their impact and the damages that they caused. The populations has perceived that they no do not want to or cannot explain the disaster with reason therefore the population is disoriented and worried.

On Wednesday, March 7^th the FMLN presented their reconstruction plan which is based on a Reconstruction Fund. It is made up of three large sections. The largest parts have to do with the Executive Branch. The Fund should not only include the participation of the ministers but also the municipalities and private business. In order to finance the Fund they propose using money from the sale of ANTEL and the international reserves which the Central Reserve Bank is using to carry out "monetary integration" (dollarizaton). They also propose pardoning the external debt and using that money for the Fund. Furthermore, they propose supervision over the fund. According to the FMLN, the four central themes of reconstruction are: national solidarity; use of public resources; private investment; and foreign cooperation. On the legislative front, they (FMLN) propose ending the dollarization and approving law that would place a moratorium on embargoes. They also propose carrying out an education reform focusing on a technical vocation. They also propose elaborating a reconstruction budget accompanied by tributary reform and restructuring of the public debt. In addition they propose a moral reconstruction of the country. The FMLN believes that the physical reconstruction process will take 15-20 years.

El Salvador has been in a permanent emergency starting before the earthquakes, emergency that has been generated by the neo-liberal economic model. However, true reconstruction requires citizen participation, the implementation of a new economic model, the creation and observation of construction laws and disaster prevention plans. Macro-economic indicators and profit are prioritized at the cost of human development, productivity, safety, and the environment.

1. Diario Co Latino, Wednesday February 28^th, page 2.

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