[ home ]
[ history & mission ]
[ action alerts ]
[ archive ]
[ human rights network ]
[ election
observers ]
[ monthly
bulletin ]
[ delegations & brigades ]
[ integrated development ]
[ language school ]
[ solidarity crafts ]
[ volunteers ]
[ links ]
CIS
Boulevard Universitario #4
Colonia El Roble
San Salvador, El Salvador
Centroamérica
Tel/FAX: +503 226-2623
cis_elsalvador@yahoo.com
HEALTH CARE STRIKE AGAINST PRIVATIZATION CONTINUES
February 2003
The health care strike, which started on September 18, 2002, continues in El Salvador’s national health care systems. This strike includes the Social Security Institute (ISSS) and work stoppages at Ministry of Public Health hospitals, including Hospital Rosales. Decree 1024 was passed in September, preventing the privatization of the national hospital systems in El Salvador, and again with a 2/3 majority to prevent a presidential veto in October. However, the legislative assembly overturned the decree on December 19, 2002 with the ruling ARENA party able to buy off the votes of the PCN party who had previously supported Decree 1024.
Despite the resolve of El Salvador’s medical professionals who have been on strike for almost 5 months without salaries and the will of the Salvadoran people (80% of whom are against privatization according to a recent University of Central America [UCA] poll) the ARENA Government continues to serve the interests of the country’s wealthy elite and the international banking systems. The health care professionals and the majority of Salvadorans are against the privatization of the country’s health care system because it will raise health care costs to a rate that will prohibit 70% of the population, those unemployed or working in the informal sector (such selling newspapers, candy, picking coffee, subsistence agriculture, searching for shell fish, etc.), from acquiring these health care services. Additionally, the country’s approximately 18% of formally employed or working class Salvadorans, who pay into the social security system, will have their benefits greatly reduced. This will, in turn, increase profits for private insurance companies. Salvadoran medical professionals have seen the results of privatization of health care systems in Nicaragua, Chile, and other Latin American countries. Already, Salvadorans have been forced to accept the privatization of telecommunications, pensions, and electric distribution, which have driven prices up, not down as promised. Many people who retired in January of 2002 have not seen a penny of their pensions since retiring, now more than a year later, due to the privatization of the pension system. The ARENA government has been intransigent and unwilling to negotiate despite the popular outcry against privatization of the health care system.
On January 30, 2003, the police arrested striking 21 health care workers and one doctor. The strikers, who were holding up banners in front of the hospital, were arrested and accused of committing “terrorist acts”. These arrests came less than two weeks after the United States sponsored an anti-terrorism conference in El Salvador and promised funds to the Salvadoran government to combat terrorism. Evidently, Salvadoran authorities, akin to U.S. President George W. Bush, interpret that anyone who is not with you is a terrorist. Five days later the strikers were released from prison.
WHAT YOU CAN DO!
1. Support the CIS emergency fund! The CIS has started an emergency fund to support organized activities and help provide for the necessities of striking workers. The funds will be distributed between SIMETRISSS, STISSS, and SIGESAL, health care workers unions organizing against the privatization of the health care system. Your financial support of this fund helps these striking health care professionals continue the fight! Checks can be made out to the CIS and mailed to:
CIS
Colonia El Roble
Boulevard Universitario, Casa #4
San Salvador, El Salvador
Please make sure to include a note that it is for the health care organizing fund and drop us an e-mail so we can confirm that the check has arrived: cis_elsalvador@yahoo.com. We also have a U.S. address to which donations can be sent – which we can provide upon request.
2. WRITE or CALL!
§ President Francisco Flores
Address: PRESIDENCIA DE LA REPUBLICA
Carretera Santa Tecla
Colonia San Benito, No 5500
San Salvador, El Salvador
Email: casapres@casapres.gob.sv
Website: www.casapres.gob.sv
§ El Salvador Consulate or Embassy in your area:
Check out: www.embassyworld.com/embassy/directory.htm
If in the United States, you can find this information
at the following link:
http://www.elsalvador.org/home.nsf/infoconsular
§ Your congressperson
· Call for the establishment of a broad forum to build consensus around health care reform that includes medical professionals and representatives of civil society.
· Demand that hospital workers be allowed to return to their jobs without reprisals.
· Demand that the government stop the repression against health care workers and defend the right to organize.
For additional background information, you can check the following web sites:
Share Foundation: www.share-elsalvador.org
CISPES: www.cispes.org
NACLA: www.nacla.org