Deportation for woman who killed US veteran in El Salvador

US Veteran Michael Brown was murdered in El Salvador in February 2013 (see here and here). He was killed while stopping for what he believed was a checkpoint along a road in San Isidro, Izalco Sonsonate. His ex-wife tried to flee the armed men but tripped. She was eventually left unharmed.

According to initial reports, $1500 was found at the scene so authorities did not believe the attack to be robbery-related. They then claimed that his death might have been motivated by a crime of passion but authorities, again, produced no evidence to back that up.

Nuri Liseth Aquino-Torres, Brown's ex-wife, was taken into custody at her home in March in Utah after a Salvadoran court issued an arrest warrant for her in January 2014. She was then ordered removed from the US in July and deported in August. She is accused of having orchestrated her ex-husband's murder. Police are now again saying that the motive was money.

I had received emails after Brown's death indicating that his murder might have been related to sex trafficking and a pretty famous strip club in San Salvador - dangerous people with perhaps terrible implications depending on where the investigation went. They thought Brown's wife had worked in the club before Brown helped her get out and that he might have been involved in helping or planning to get other young, trafficked women out of the club. We'll have to see where this investigation goes but there's a good chance we'll never know what happened.

A push is on in the US to reunite families torn apart by El Salvador’s civil war

Argentina has been in the news recently as two grandchildren disappeared during that country's dirty war have been identified, including the grandson of the president and founder of the Abuelas (Grandmothers) de Plaza de Mayo, Estela de Carlotto. The whereabouts of children stolen during wartime continues to be an issue for numerous Latin American countries, including Guatemala and El Salvador.

A new campaign has been launched in the United States to help identify children stolen during that country's civil war. The English and Spanish campaigns targets Salvadoran Americans who are seeking their biological parents.

“Were you separated from your child during the war in El Salvador between 1980 and 1992?  The Pro-Búsqueda Association of Disappeared Children from El Salvador will help you: Text the word FIND to 99000, or write to info@probusqueda.org.sv.” 

A good number of Salvadoran Americans have already reached out to Cristián Orrego Benavente, the director of forensic programs at the Human Rights Center, at the University of California, Berkeley. Read the story here.

When Mothers and Fathers Migrate North

I just finished reading "When Mothers and Fathers Migrate North: Caretakers, Children, and Child Rearing in Guatemala" by Michelle J. Moran-Taylor (gated, ungated).

A substantial portion of Guatemala's population—about 10—15 percent of a population of 12 million—emigrates to the United States. Although this northward movement has produced significant social change, few studies have examined it from the perspective of the increasing involvement of household structures in transnational migration processes. Ethnographic research focused on transnational families reveals the social relationships that develop between caregivers and children and between parents and caregivers because of the necessity for transnational migration and identifies the emotional costs of these arrangements.

While violence and economic stress are clearly contributors to the recent surge in unaccompanied minors to the US, so too is family reunification. In this article, Moran-Taylor looks at what happens when one or both parents leave their children in Guatemala to seek out a better life in the US. In many ways, it isn't pretty.

Extended family, particularly grandmother and aunt caretakers, often watch the children of those who have left for the US. The caretakers raise the kids as their own. However, the parents who have traveled to the US often don't appreciate the sacrifice that their relatives are making in caring for the children. The children, while they appreciate the caretaker immensely, still have that unbreakable bond with their parent or parents in the US.

Over time, lots of negative effects are seen. The children left behind in Guatemala become almost single-mindedly obsessed with the remittances that they receive from the US. They get upset if they are interrupted or decreased. It often becomes the only thing that they care about.

The caretakers often have trouble when the parents send for the kids that had been left in their care. They've raised them as their own for years. The caretakers often do not want to expose the children that they have cared for to the dangers of the journey north through Mexico. That has led to conflict between the relatives. Sometimes they have paid their own way to accompany the children to the border.

They wanted me to send her [the niece] illegally. But I didn’t want to because I knew the mishaps she could potentially endure along the way. Because you hear of so many despicable things that happen, right? When we spoke on the telephone my brother-in-law would even insult me. He would say that I didn’t want to send their child because I was taking the money, the U.S. dollars they sent. But I never took any of the money for myself. I did, however, lump it together with mine to use for the household expenses, but even that wasn’t enough. They would send me $75 each month. And with these funds, I placed my niece in a private school. My youngest son, who just turned twenty, was very distressed about this whole situation. He then decided to go there [the United States] to accompany my niece along the way and drop her off at her parents’ house in Arizona. So now, there she is.

Since her arrival over there [Phoenix], my sister and her husband don’t even write to me—and they don’t even want my niece to have anything to do with us. My husband now tells me: ‘you see… since you raised her, they don’t even want anything to do with you now.’ But my little niece still keeps in touch—she calls me when they [the parents] are not around. Her father, though, always tells her that she needs to forget about us altogether. After children who have been cared for leave for the US, the remittances to the caretaker (the grandmother or grandmother-in-law, sister, sometimes friend) end abruptly. They might have sent a few hundred dollars a month to an aunt to take care of their nieces and nephews but once the kids are no longer in their care, the relationship ends. 

There are a great number of actual family scenarios described in this 2008 article, most of them negative.

The Church and Central America

I'm starting my first week of class and my first semester as chair of the political science department so things are a bit hectic. Hopefully, I'll get matters figured out soon enough. Fortunately, we have a three-day weekend (four for me since I don't teach Tuesday) coming up. Now for the news.

W. Alejandro Sanchez writes on Pope pushes for beatification of Archbishop Romero. I still support Romero's canonization but I doubt that it will impact the violence and it might even make politics more divisive in El Salvador. I can't find the link but an opinion poll from a few years ago indicated that a majority of Salvadorans were unfamiliar with Romero.

Tim has a Pastoral initiative for peace coming from Christian and Catholic religious leaders looking to reduce gang-violence.

The Anglican-Episcopal Church in El Salvador has a new bishop, Juan David Alvarado.

The Guardian takes a stab at Pope Francis and liberation theology in a recent editorial. Here's what I wrote about possible changes in the Church should the Cardinals elect someone from Latin America.

Electing the next Pope from Latin America, or anywhere in the global south, would be symbolically important. Africa counts the fastest growing Catholic population, but Latin America is still home to the world's largest concentration of Catholics. While most Catholics today voluntarily profess their religion, Catholicism was violently imposed on the indigenous population that originally inhabited what we today call Latin America over five hundred years ago. And, it was only fifty years ago that Latin American bishops first travelled to Rome to participate in the Second Vatican Council after having been seen as second class for centuries. Given the large number of Catholics residing in Latin America and the global south, a successor from the south would be tremendously symbolic even if he were cut from the same conservative mold as his two most recent predecessors.

However, it is not all about symbolism. The selection of a Latin American pope might help to rejuvenate a Church that has lost ground in recent decades to Protestant and evangelical churches. It might help to heal the rift that occurred between those who supported a theology of liberation and those who preferred that the Church remain more traditional, some might say apolitical. Finally, the selection of a Latin American Pope might give added hope for the canonisation of the murdered Archbishop Oscar Romero of El Salvador.

However, in some ways, what might also change with the selection of a Latin American, African or Asian pope, is how the media, Catholics and non-Catholics listen to the Catholic Church. Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI, as well as their predecessors, have spoken very strongly not only on social issues, which get the most attention, but on issues such as the damaging effects of capitalism, poverty, inequality, climate change, the environment, migration, and war. Their stances on these important issues does not excuse them for the areas in which they have failed. But perhaps the selection of a pope from outside of continental Europe will force many to listen, not blindly of course, to what the Church has to say on many other important issues of the day.

In Guatemala, Elizabeth Bell writes about Francisco Marroquín: Guatemala’s first bishop and linguist. He has a park or two named after him in Antigua and a university in Guatemala City although I'm not sure what his connection to the individualistic thought of the university is. The community feeling at the Landivar and the UCA are just so much more appealing for my tastes.

So how about some links from Guatemala?

Senator Rand Paul was on Meet the Press this weekend discussing his recent campaign trip medical mission to Guatemala. He might understand the actual causes of undocumented migration to the United States, but publicly he finds it more opportune to attack President Obama on bogus charges. I am hopeful that providing improved sight to hundreds of people outweigh the politics of the trip.

Victims and killers - niños sicarios.

US trade officials give Guatemala more time to install labor overhaul

Under the labor plan, Guatemala has agreed to strengthen labor inspections, increase labor law compliance by exporting companies, improve the monitoring and enforcement of labor court orders and establish mechanisms to ensure that workers are paid what they are owed when factories close, according to the USTR. 

At some point the US is just going to have to go to arbitration or give up. I'm not sure anyone thinks that labor conditions or enforcement of laws on the books is going to happen within the next four months or even four years.

Guatemala declares drought emergency

The Guatemalan government declared Monday a state of public emergency in the country's 22 provinces as a result of the prolonged drought that has affected more than 200,000 families and caused agriculture losses in the millions.

Central America is a beautiful region with picturesque volcanoes and beautiful coastlines. Unfortunately even the most well-intentioned development projects are going to be and have hamstrung by flooding, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, rising sea levels, erratic weather patterns, and drought. There's a certain the US and Central American governments and agencies need to provide significantly more assistance to their populations not necessarily to improve conditions in the region but simply to prevent them from getting any worse.

Guatemala is in the final stages of purchasing two coastal patrol craft.

Guatemala: Inside the Border Crisis

And a not so atypical story - On Monday, Salvadoran police detained two Nicaraguans who were transporting nine Nepalese and three Bengalis on their way to the United States. They were apprehended while trying to enter Guatemala illegally.

Is Guatemala The Next Big Central American Must-See?

Everyone’s been to Costa Rica, most have hit Belize on a cruise ship, and let’s face it, the Yucatan Peninsula is pretty much been there, done that. Guatemala, however, is quickly becoming the new, fresh, must-see destination in Central America.

I only started going to Guatemala in the late 1990s when I heard the same thing. I imagine this is no different from what Guatemalans were saying in 1897. Here's Lisa Munro (maybe she'll post something on her blog or send it to me to post here)

The Central American Exposition flung open its gates to international audiences on March 15, 1897 in the capital city of Guatemala to celebrate the seventy-fifth anniversary of the nation’s independence. At the appointed hour, President Reina Barrios pressed a button that sent a telegraph over newly installed electrical wires with news of the exposition to distant regions of the globe. Parades and military bands played the new national anthem and accompanied the president, the exposition’s central committee, and other important guests to the fairgrounds.According to the official bulletin of the central committee, more than 40,000 people attended the exposition on the opening day.

Swept up in the global mania for world’s fairs, Guatemalan leaders and their fellow Central American counterparts seized on the idea of hosting an international exposition to refute their former colonial status, dispel prevailing stereotypes of their backwardness and barbarity and, in conscious imitation of the United States and Europe, promote their economic potential and draw foreign investment. World’s fairs allowed for the articulation of national ideals of progress, modernity, and visually illustrated a nation’s collective identity in an international context. Most expositions of the late nineteenth century attempted to promote a sense of national identity and pride by uniting citizens through exhibits that emphasized shared cultural values and important national symbols. 

Unfortunately, some things never change.

Canonization of Oscar Romero might not lead to peace but...

Tim Padgett argues for Saving El Salvador: Why The Vatican Needs To Make Archbishop Romero A Saint.

But this week Pope Francis, the first Latin American pontiff, finally pledged a fast-track beatification for Romero. Let’s hope his canonization comes just as quickly, because Romero’s sainthood is a spiritual and social tonic that El Salvador and Central America desperately need.

It could, in fact, help the region pull out of its homicidal tailspin.

I'm all for canonizing Oscar Romero. He is truly a man of faith who was murdered for professing the Catholic faith. His outspoken support for the poor and the oppressed led directly to his murder.

I hope progress on recognizing Romero a saint will help reduce the violence in El Salvador, but I don't think that there's any reasons to link the two. I also wonder whether it might make things worse. In Guatemala, there was some support for improving the justice system and recognizing the crimes of the past over the last few years. That all stopped when it came to prosecuting those who ordered the scorched earth program of the 1980s.

Similar things have happened in El Salvador. President Mauricio Funes and the last FMLN government apologized on behalf of the state for a number of civil war era crimes. They recently set aside some money for victims of the war. However, there has been push back against efforts by the Spanish judiciary to prosecute those responsible for the murders of the UCA Jesuits and staff - a constitutional crisis. The military would not cooperate with efforts to release records on the disappeared youth - instead, Pro-Busqueda was attacked. And the military will not stop honoring those accused of massive human rights violations.

Recognizing Romero as a saint won't go over too well with those who see him as a communist and as a person who was leading the country down the path of revolution. The Nicaraguan Church's support for the removal of Somoza was important to convincing many Catholics to give the broad-based but Sandinista-led insurgency an opportunity. Romero wasn't at the point of throwing the Catholic Church's support behind the guerrillas (he had just supported the October 15 coup) but there was fear that he would eventually. That was unacceptable.

Drug war and pandilla articles in LARR

The Latin American Research Review has two articles of interest to readers.The first is Drug Wars Collateral Damage: US Counternarcotic Aid and Human Rights in the Americas by Horace A. Bartilow of the University of Kentucky.

Abstract: Existing case-study research suggests that the recent increase in human rights violations in Latin America is attributed to the US-funded drug war. This narrative, which is referred to as the collateral damage perspective, stands in contrast to US human rights law, which makes governments’ respect for human rights a precondition to receive aid. The apparent endogeneity between aid and human rights introduces bias that casts serious doubts on the validity of the collateral damage narrative. In addressing endogeneity, this article presents a simultaneous instrumental variable analysis of the human rights effects of US counternarcotic aid in the Americas.

The results show that while counternarcotic aid to regimes increases overall violations of human rights, this effect is greater among democracies than autocracies. And with the exception of torture, this finding is consistent when disappearances, political imprisonment, and extrajudicial killings are also considered. The implication of this research suggests that policy makers in Washington risk losing regional support for US drug control policies if US laws that govern the allocation of aid are not effectively implemented.

The second article is  Pandillas and Security in Central America by Thomas C. Bruneau of the Naval Postgraduate School.

Abstract: This article introduces the topic of pandillas (street gangs) and their implications for security in Central America. There is minimal scholarly literature on pandillas and security. In part this is due to serious challenges in analyzing pandillas. First, pandilla members consider truth to be situational; data derived directly from them is suspect. Second, those who know most about them are involved in NGOs that rely on foreign assistance for their work. The project reports they produce go to funders abroad and are generally not published. Third, to research and write on pandillas is dangerous.

I can't say that the articles excited me too much but maybe they'll work for you.

MS-13 leader freed in Guatemala

I'm having a hard time following the story on Ángel Gabriel Reyes, one of the national leaders of Mara Salvatrucha in Guatemala (un ranflero (cabecilla nacional) de la clica Locos Centrales Salvatruchas y su principal zona de operación es el municipio y departamento de Chimaltenango). He had been in a Guatemalan prison since December. While out on a medical visit earlier this week, however, three armed men freed him. They also took the guards' AK-47 and 9mm pistol (not sure if plural).

According to this article from El Periodico, Reyes was expelled from El Salvador after completing a ten-year prison sentence for his involvement in the murder of 237 people. That sure seems like very few years for such a rap sheet. While life imprisonment is not always the solution, how does someone directly involved in the murder of 237 people only receive a ten-year sentence?

However, in this other article, Reyes, another Guatemalan gang leader, and five Salvadorans were arrested on November 20th as they traveled with false documents from Guatemala to El Salvador to meet with other gang leaders from Centrales Locos Salvatruchas. This particularly click is known for running arms trafficking and extortion rings out of San Salvador. After Reyers' arrest on lesser charges in El Salvador (illicit association), he was handed over to Interpol which handed him off to Guatemalan authorities. Prensa Libre reported in February that he had been arrested November 26th in El Salvador because of his tattoos which I imagine is their way of saying illicit association. The men were originally stopped, it seems, because they were driving with their headlights off. Finally, this Prensa Libre article makes no mention of the circumstances surrounding his arrest, just his escape.

I'm guessing that the El Periodico article simply had this (En septiembre de 2013, Reyes fue expulsado de El Salvador, luego de cumplir una condena de diez años por el delito de asesinato de 237 personas) wrong. He was wanted in Guatemala for assassination; he hadn't served anytime, other than preventive holding, in El Salvador.

Anyway, his arrest and deportation is a strong sign of cooperation between El Salvador and Guatemalan authorities. He could have been prosecuted on lesser charges in El Salvador and then simply disappeared but he was sent to the country where the charges were more serious. Bilateral cooperation and regional cooperation is another challenge that the Central American, Mexican, and US governments need to continue to improve upon.

However, the fact that one of the national leaders of the MS-13 in Guatemala can be freed within months of his arrest while going for some food during a medical exam is unacceptable. El Salvador and the US have their own problems but why are they going to trust the Guatemalan authorities and penitentiary system when individuals wanted in the murders of over 200 people can so easily escape?

Overcrowding, deplorable conditions, and too many people spending years in a jail without trial are three problems that get the most attention when looking at Central American prison conditions. However, it is clear in Guatemala that another problem is the fact the prisons do not have the resources to medically treat inmates. They need to transport prisoners to facilities in other parts of the country. That led to Reyes' escape and to problems related to Byron Lima leaving prison whenever he wanted. I can't say that we should expect prisons to be staffed with medical professionals anytime soon, but we are likely to continue to read stories about people escaping until they do.

A speedy canonization for Oscar Romero

In May, there were conflicting reports from the Vatican as to whether or not the beatification of Salvadoran Archbishop Oscar Romero was entering its final stages. Those rumors came two months after we had heard that there was a good possibility that Romero would be recognized a saint within three years.

Now we hear that Pope Francis had lifted the ban on Romero's beatification which had been holding up the process. Beatification would move Romero once step closer to sainthood. The Pope made the encouraging comments on his way home from South Korea.

Francis told journalists traveling home from South Korea that Romero's case had previously been "blocked out of prudence" by the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith but has now been "unblocked." He said the case had passed to the Vatican's saint-making office.

The congregation launched a crackdown on liberation theology under then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, fearing what was deemed as Marxists excesses. The movement holds the view that Jesus' teachings imbue followers with a duty to fight for social and economic justice.

Francis said of Romero's case that "it is important to do it quickly," but that the investigation must take its course.

He declared that Romero "was a man of God" and suggested that he wanted to expand the church's concept of martyrdom to include a broader field of candidates.

Unlike regular candidates for beatification, martyrs can reach the first step to possible sainthood without a miracle attributed to their intercession. A miracle is needed for canonization, however.

Traditionally, the church has restricted the martyr designation to people who were killed out of hatred for the Catholic faith. Francis said he wanted theologians to study whether those who were killed because of their actions doing God's work could also be considered martyrs.

"What I would like is that they clarify when there's a martyrdom for hatred of the faith — for confessing the faith — as well as for doing the work for the other that Jesus commands," Francis said.

Questions over that distinction have been at the root of the theological debate over whether Romero was killed by El Salvador's right-wing death squads for professing the faith or because of his political activism in support of the poor.

I'm not sure there'll be an announcement before the 35th anniversary of Romero's death which will occur in March. However, it does sound that Francis is hoping to speed up the process. Perhaps an announcement will come before Francis makes a trip to the east coast next September.

While there has been no official announcement, it appears that Francis is interested in giving speeches at the United Nations in NYC, Family Day in Philadelphia, and Congress in Washington, D.C.

Joint US-Guatemala anti-drug program failure

The Washington Examiner has a report on the difficulties that the US confronts transferring responsibility in the war on drugs to Guatemala with Joint U.S.-Guatemalan anti-drug program jeopardized by Central American government's late payments. In 2013, the Obama administration encouraged the Guatemalan government to operate its own an anti-narcotic air wing rather than rely on the US. That also seems consistent with President Perez Molina's repeated calls for the US to provide his government with the support necessary to fight the war on drugs. However, the Guatemalan government's failure to pay for the program has resulted in such poor maintenance of the helicopters that, at times, only one of six have been capable of operating.

Washington donated six upgraded Huey II helicopters, a modernized version of the Bell UH-1, to serve as Guatemala’s new anti-drug air fleet.

The Obama administration heralded the program and assisted the Guatemalan government in an award of a three-year contract to the two companies.

Guatemala’s President Otto Perez Molina and U.S. Ambassador Arnold Chacon watched from a viewing stand Oct. 8, 2013, as the six helicopters flew in formation over Guatemala City's La Aurora air base.

Perez hailed the helicopter transfer as “a vote of confidence for Guatemala from the United States,” according to Dialogo, a military magazine published by U.S. Southern Command.

As early as December 2013, however, it became clear the Interior Ministry was having trouble making the monthly payments on time, according to a knowledgeable individual who was willing to speak only on the basis of anonymity.

The Guatemalan government was three and a half months behind in its payments by June of this year.

The failure to pay on time dramatically affected the availability of the helicopter air fleet by hobbling the company’s ability to maintain an adequate inventory of spare parts, according to a second knowledgeable individual.

Only two of the six helicopters were airworthy due to lack of parts on multiple occasions, and there have been times when only one of the helicopters was airworthy.

None of the helicopters met the 120 hours of flight time required for training purposes during the past three months. The contract required training for 12 Guatemalan Air Force pilots.

People rely on the military because they have little trust in the police. The US relies on its own counter-narcotic support because it has little faith in the region's capabilities and, at times, willingness.

We can't operate an a fleet of six helicopters so let's go out and purchase two patrol boats. That would bring our total number of patrol boats to two. Maybe that'll work.

Catching up with Central America

Pablo Lastra has a good post on Who Counts as a Refugee in US Immigration Policy—and Who Doesn’t for The Nation. He surveys some of the keys changes to US immigration law over the last thirty years as well as the multiple reasons why people from Central America are fleeing the region for the US and elsewhere.

Recent commentary on the border crisis has tended to caricature the reasons people migrate—It’s the violence. It’s jobs. It’s the permisos. In reality, people’s reasons are complex and multiple. Maria, for instance, was seeking economic opportunity, but she was also fleeing her partner’s abuse, and the looming threat of retribution by the gang if she couldn’t keep up with her “rent” payments. In Giovani’s case, he needed protection that his government and his father could not provide, but he also missed his mom; they hadn’t seen each other in almost half a decade.

And here are a few other articles held up in draft form these last few weeks.

Tim Johnson goes back to U.S. export: Central America’s gang problem began in Los Angeles. I'd say that the only thing that he left out was that California began deporting Central Americans en masse following the Rodney King riots. It's not clear that the federal government would have adopted this approach a few years later had it not been for those riots.

Gabriel Stargardter has another really good piece on E-coyotes use Facebook to track the people they’re smuggling into U.S.

Carlos Rosales looks at El Salvador's gang problem: the truth behind the truce.

Deborah Levenson writes about The Little Veins of Central America 

My Spanish slowed down in order for my Mexican friends to understand me

Go check out A View From Within: How First Generation Salvadoran Americans See Themselves & Why It Matters. It contains a number of interesting reflections on what it means to be a minority within a minority.

“People didn’t understand that part of being Latino meant that there was a whole continent full of people with sub-cultures, so trying to enlighten people of my differences was sometimes annoying and difficult. Some didn’t want to hear it and just wanted to categorize everyone as ‘Mexican’ buy some were so interested. They wanted to know everything about the food, and mostly the language and accent. In other words, what makes me unique and awesome is also what makes me easily dismissed…

Growing up was kind of difficult since the vast majority of everyone else in our neighborhood was Mexican. Especially as a kid it would kind of suck because others would gang up to make fun of the Salvis. But I felt it helped me to embrace my identity because being Salvi is what set me apart from everyone else. However, I had to develop mechanisms to exist in that reality. My Spanish slowed down in order for my Mexican friends to understand me. Ultimately though, I feel like my family’s culture is what really kept me grounded in my identity. We would link up every weekend and hang out with all my uncles, aunts and cousins. We would be secure in our Salviness then.” —Betsy, 23, Bell Gardens, CA

The untold history of unaccompanied minors

Fusion has an interesting video collection of The untold history of unaccompanied minors.

We talked to 11 scholars and activists who think the United States, a self-professed nation of immigrants, does have a moral obligation to provide asylum to Central American minors, many of whom — experts argue — are fleeing violence that resulted from U.S. foreign policy.

The clips include opinions from Leisy Abrego and Dana Frank as well as several non-academics.

You can't just flee to another town. You need to leave the country.

Some links to posts about El Salvador that I found interesting this week.

In El Salvador, Jesuit program offers alternatives to gangs, emigration

The Jesuit-run educational program, Fe y Alegria (Faith and Joy), attempts to provide alternatives to emigration and gangs through educational and vocational programs, which provide skills for achieving success in both work and life. It also provides psychological assistance for students, tries teaching values that go beyond the workplace and helps students reach for higher goals, such as attending high school and college. Administrators acknowledge it's no easy task, while success is relative.

"Success for young people here can't (always) be a university degree. It can be having a job and being able to bring home beans for the family. ... It's very relative," said Alexander Ayala, director of a Fe y Alegria training center in Soyapango, a suburb of San Salvador.

"This is success for many young people: that they can go and get a job, that they know they can help the household," he said. "When they achieve this they can set a higher goal. It's cyclical."

The Deadly, Invisible Borders Inside El Salvador - You can't just flee to another town. You need to leave the country.

How Not to Repeat the Failures of El Salvador's Gang Truce

I suppose you are not referring just to El Salvador.

No. Throughout the world, when a war breaks out between criminal groups, the authorities try to calm things down. But how do they do it? Well, when there are strong institutions, normally they try to correct the principal problem that led to the conflict between the groups. The problem with the maras in El Salvador is that this cannot be done, because it is something so big, the chain of deaths is so long, that ending the fighting between them is not easy.

....

Sadly, but it has been that way since long before the gangs. In El Salvador we have had incredibly high homicide rates at least since the 1960s, and I say that as a way of explaining how Salvadorans relate to homicides. 

I remember fifteen years ago hearing that before the wars, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Colombia were the region's three most violent countries. They didn't become violent with the wars.

El Salvador Community Police Force: A Sign of What Is to Come? The Nicaraguan Embassy sent out a note highlighting the development:

The Nicaragua Preventive Proactive Community Model is being emulated in other countries. This week, the government of El Salvador began to implement a Community Police Model to fight delinquency and organized crime. Mauricio Ramirez, Director of the El Salvador National Civil Police (PNC), said the Community Police Model is a new approach to deal with insecurity and violence caused by “maras” (gangs). "Agents will have to establish a relationship with the community, identify their problems and work with them to find solutions". He also announced that in the coming days the government will appoint members to the Comprehensive Citizen Security Council. 

Poverty Reduction in El Salvador shows positive trend for 2009 - 2013. Official statistics say that poverty has fallen from 41 percent in 2011 to 29 percent in 2013. More good economic news that contradicts the unaccompanied minors narrative?

Housekeeper and Two Accomplices Murder Judge and Wife in El Salvador. Good old-fashioned robbery and murder. It's not all gangs (still often the scapegoat) and organized crime (under-reported scapegoat).

Calvo gains certification for working conditions in El Salvador...Must be CAFTA's fault.

PLO Executive Committee member, Dr. Hanan Ashrawi, met with Sigfrido Reyes Morales, the President of the Legislative Assembly of El Salvador, and his delegation, at the PLO headquarters in Ramallah, and welcomed them to Palestine.

Finally, the July update on El Salvador from the Center for Democracy in the Americas.

Very powerful people and groups fighting against a better life for all Guatemalans

Guatemalan President Otto Perez Molina has been on the offensive since taking office in 2011. He made a big splash by firmly advocating for changes to regional drug laws, including perhaps decriminalization and legalization of certain drugs. Guatemala hosted a General Meeting of the Organization of American States in 2013 where drug policy took center stage. He and his administration have also dedicated numerous resources to attracting increased foreign direct investment.The country also hosted what appears to have been a successful Investment Summit in 2013.

Government representatives, including the foreign minister, traveled to the US in late 2012 to lobby for more favorable evaluations on various indicators used to determine whether or not the country could qualify for a Millennium Challenge Corporation Compact. I'm not sure how successful they were but they did receive a Threshold Program for the first time. Compacts are in the hundreds of millions of dollars while Threshold Programs are in the tens of millions. In 2014, FUNDESA and CACIF have traveled to the US for much the same reason. They also recently hired Otto Reich to lobby on their behalf in the United States ($113k for five months of work).

This week, Guatemala City will play host to the Americas Society / Council of the Americas' first "Latin American Cities Conference." It's another opportunity for Perez Molina, the government, and the people of Guatemala to demonstrate that they are not international pariah represented in foreign media outlets. I am somewhat sympathetic but, really, not that much.

Guatemala's economy has grown steadily and its homicide rates have been heading in the right direction for several years. If you'd have to pick among the three Northern Triangle countries, I'd say Guatemala has the most potential. However, extreme poverty, inequality, and violence continue to make Guatemala a difficult place to live. It remains a dangerous place for journalists, workers, and human rights advocates. The rule of law remains weak and the government and economic elites' support for those trying to help strengthen it (CICIG, Claudia Paz y Paz, and Yasmin Barrios) is negligible (at best). There are pockets of hope but those with power really just seem to care about themselves.    

El Faro's La Sala Negra has a report on how those in power tried to prevent Paz y Paz from doing her job during her four years as Attorney General. Congress did not appoint members to the AG's advisory council (a body tasked with administrative decisions, which prevented Paz y Paz from removing any of the offices 286 prosecutors and staff, some of whom were believed to have been corrupt of useless. The country's attorney general was inhibited from making moves in the areas of customs and the environment, sources of corruption and repression respectively.

Nomada also has a report on how even after the powers behind the throne in Guatemala successfully overturned the Rios Montt conviction and cut short the crusading Attorney General's term by several months, they haven't given up trying to make her life a living hell. She has been prohibited from leaving the country. Her bank accounts have been frozen.

There are indeed signs of hope in Guatemala but just like the attacks against the peace accords, constitutional reforms, CICIG, and Paz y Paz, there are very powerful people and groups fighting against a better life for all Guatemalans.

R.I.P. Mr. Williams: Education and Formation

Two classic films for all those who pursue teaching: Education and Formation.

Dead Poets Society



Good Will Hunting




R.I.P. Mr. Williams.

IDB extends $100 million dollar loan to El Salvador

The US and the international community seem to have so many programs going on in Central America that it is somewhat dizzying. Here's another $100 million loan for El Salvador through the Inter-American Development Bank:

The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) has approved a $100 million loan to promote access to investment credit for micro, small and mid-sized companies (MSMEs) to strengthen their productivity and competitiveness.

The IDB operation will function as a global credit program that will assist the country in supporting productivity growth and competitiveness of micro, small, and medium sized enterprises (MSMEs) by improving their access to medium and long-tem credit for production-oriented projects. By working through the development bank of El Salvador (BANDESAL) second tier platform, the program will reach most MSMEs through the country’s banking and non-banking financial institutions. 

Boosting productivity is key to increasing living standards and reducing poverty in the country. El Salvador’sproductive structure is based on services and consumption. Its productive structure has changed over the last two decades as a result of the structural reforms implemented in the early 1990s. In 1990 the agriculture sector generated 17.0 percent of GDP, but by 2013 its share had fallen to 12.19 percent, while sectors such as commerce, restaurants and hotels increased their GDP shares in the same period from 18.1 percent to 20.1 percent, and financial establishments and insurance from 2.2 percent to 3.6 percent.

“The new, more service based economy needs stronger and more productive smaller firms that can promote the development of the country’s exports and create more jobs. This project is squarely aligned with that objective.” said Maria Netto, IDB Project team leader. Over the next four years the project aims to finance more than 1,000 MSMEs and nearly 500 MSMEs led by women.

The IDB financing consists of $100 million from the ordinary capital, with a 25-year term, a grace period of 5.5-years and an interest rate based on LIBOR. The executing agency is the El Salvador Development Bank (BANDESAL).

If this is not part of the Partnership for Growth, it should be as the program looks exactly like what that US initiative is designed to do.

Dinorah Azpuru on Visualizing the Complexity of the Border Crisis

Dinorah Azpuru has some analysis of the unaccompanied minors border crisis for Americas Quarterly with Beyond the Blame Game: Visualizing the Complexity of the Border Crisis. You can see read about the complexity of the problem which is represented in the figure above by click on the link. Here's her conclusion.

The previous analysis shows the complexity of the so called “border crisis.” . As a result, the approach to solving the problem has to be comprehensive and multi-layered. There is no point in playing a blame game that oversimplifies the situation and only offers palliatives without addressing the multiple root causes of migration.  

That same complexity calls for a collective effort. It is evident that the three Northern Triangle countries will not be able to solve the problems by themselves—and although many international actors will provide them with assistance, the issue is particularly relevant for the United States, where the problems of the Northern Triangle are having clear and present consequences. 

The presidents of the region have called for the U.S. to implement an equivalent of “Plan Colombia” for Central America, but any solution should go beyond the mere investment of millions of dollars; no plan can work if key actors within those countries—including government leaders, opposition political parties, civil society and business elites—do not come together with determination to fight not only against organized crime and gangs, but also against their own internal disagreements, corruption and inequality.

I'm not that optimistic that there's going to be any huge breakthrough in the near-term. The countries of Central America don't have a great history of working together although they seem to be trying to do so in their approach to the US in this current crisis. The US also doesn't seem to be willing to make a large Plan Colombia-type investment for the region. The focus is most likely going to remain on incremental improvements.

Coming of Age in El Salvador

Jim Winship, Professor in the Social Work Department at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater had an op-ed last week on U.S. has some responsibility for child migrant crisis at the border.

Whatever short-term steps are taken, there also needs to be a long-term commitment to job growth in El Salvador, which would permit the re-integration of gang members into society. Of course, this is not just the responsibility of the U.S. The political parties in El Salvador, as polarized as those in the U.S., need to be able to work together. The Salvadoran elite, largely uninvolved to this point, needs to commit resources to a solution.

Without a concerted effort to change the dynamics of opportunity and security in El Salvador, I am convinced that the migration will not stop even if laws affecting unaccompanied minors change and there is expanded border control. Migrants will return to the dangerous routes through the Arizona desert or come by small boats up the California coast.

This short-term crisis will turn into an ongoing tragedy.

Jim also has a new book on Coming of Age in El Salvador (on which I gave him some feedback pre-publication)

Coming of age, becoming an adult, is difficult in any time in place. In El Salvador, there are a range of external forces—including the economy, violence, the pull of migration—that make this very challenging. In this book, Jim Winship combines his research and that of others, his experiences in El Salvador over the span of four decades, and stories of young people to produce a work that will lead to greater understanding of a country and its people.

Congrats on the new book and on your upcoming Fulbright to Colombia.

So who were they before they were the FMLN?

Alberto Martin Alvarez and Eudald Cortina Orero have a interesting new paper on the origins of the People's Revolutionary Army (ERP), one of the FMLN's political-military organizations in the newest edition of the Journal of Latin American Studies. Here is the abstract for The Genesis and Internal Dynamics of El Salvador's People's Revolutionary Army, 1970–1976:

Using interviews with former militants and previously unpublished documents, this article traces the genesis and internal dynamics of the Ejército Revolucionario del Pueblo (People's Revolutionary Army, ERP) in El Salvador during the early years of its existence (1970–6). This period was marked by the inability of the ERP to maintain internal coherence or any consensus on revolutionary strategy, which led to a series of splits and internal fights over control of the organisation. The evidence marshalled in this case study sheds new light on the origins of the armed Salvadorean Left and thus contributes to a wider understanding of the processes of formation and internal dynamics of armed left-wing groups that emerged from the 1960s onwards in Latin America.

I think we all know the basic story that several former Communist Party supporters gave up on the electoral route to power and helped form the ERP (and the FPL) and that divisions within the ERP, made more than apparent by Roque Dalton's murder, led to a split within the organization which then led to the establishment of the FARN a few years later.

However, Martin and Cortina go into much greater detail on the origins of one of the major political-military groups that eventually comprised the FMLN. The founders of the ERP and its antecedent El Grupo were drawn more from certain social Christian-oriented groups particularly active at the UES and other academic institutions in the late 1960s / early 1970s. The youth group of the PCS that also contributed members was less important at least in terms of early leaders and recruits. The ERP in the first half of the 1970s "was not yet a unified organisation, but rather a sort of federation of small armed groups that acted in coordination with each other."

In 1973, a small group headed by Francisco Jovel and others split from the ERP because they believed the party should lead a broader-based coalition against the regime. The remaining ERP were more committed to a militaristic approach. The dissident group would form the Workers' Revolutionary Organisation which would eventually morph into the PRTC (another of the FMLN's organisations) a few years later.

In 1974, a similar division occurred between the Resistance (Eduardo Sancho and then Roque Dalton) and those who sought to militarize the organization in preparation for insurrection. When the leadership militarized the organization curtailing any possibility of dialogue between the two groups, Armando Arteaga and Dalton were arrested and executed in April 1975.

The Resistance leaders then met on May first at which point they decided to leave the organization. These individuals went on to establish the FARN. The ERP's murder of Dalton and Arteaga left it isolated from the other organizations and from Cuba for the rest of the 1970s. Only when the organizations were able to overcome their differences were they able to move in the direction of greater unity with the establishment of the FMLN in 1980.

There's a lot of interesting detail on the early insurgent movement in the article, particularly as it relates to the ERP. If you are interested in learning about Salvadoran history and one of the individual organisations that comprised the FMLN, I would strongly encourage you to take a look at the The Genesis and Internal Dynamics of El Salvador's People's Revolutionary Army, 1970–1976.

More details in Padre Toño arrest

Authorities are now leveling more severe charges against Padre Toño in El Salvador. 

Prosecutor Elsy Amaya said the new charges are part of a second criminal case against Roman Catholic priest Antonio Rodriguez Tercero, who had been released on bail Monday for the earlier allegation but was re-arrested hours later.

Amaya said she has evidence Rodriguez Tercero negotiated with unidentified officials to lower the intensity of cellular signal-blocking devices in the prisons to allow gang members to use contraband cellphones to extort their victims. She said the priest can be heard making that request in recorded phone conversations.

The priest also negotiated the transfer of several gang members to more lenient prisons and held several conversations with imprisoned gang leaders, she charged.

I'm still not sure what to think of the case. It seems rather far-fetched that Padre Toño (not that I know him) would have done these things unless he was being duped or threatened.

My post on the need for Salvadoran businessmen to invest in their own country was picked up by the Christian Science Monitor.

Update up on Padre Toño's arrest for helping Viejo Lin

Insight Crime has an update on the arrest of Padre Toño in El Salvador.

Spanish priest Father Antonio Rodriguez was detained on July 30 on charges of bringing illegal objects into the country's prisons, illicit association and influence trafficking. The objects in question allegedly included drugs, cash and cell phones brought into the Cojutepeque and Izalco prisons, according to La Pagina. 

According to the Attorney General's Office, the actions of Rodriguez -- who is popularly known as "Padre Toño" -- helped gang members continue committing crimes. Based on recordings of telephone conversations, the body claims he worked with imprisoned Barrio 18 gang leader Carlos Ernesto Mojica Lechuga, alias "El Viejo Lin," performing favors such as prisoner transfers on his behalf and bringing in cell phones used to commit extortion, reported La Prensa Grafica.

Following protests in support of the priest a San Salvador court granted him conditional liberty on August 4 as proceedings continue, reported El Diario de Hoy.

Padre Toño claims that his arrest is political persecution. According to the Insight article, the author believes that his arrest might have been part of an effort to "push certain players out of any future negotiation process."

Padre Toño's arrest suggests the new government of President Salvador Sanchez Ceren is looking to push his team -- and by extension possibly Perdomo -- out of the process. While they have not said they will formally support Mijango and Colindres, Security Minister Benito Lara said in July the government would not block any attempts at gang negotiations. 

Honestly, very little makes sense to me right now. Perhaps the audio recordings between the priest and Viejo Lin will shed some light on the situation. We are also likely to learn more from the legal proceedings against the other 127 people arrested in the recent sweep. Thirty-seven of those arrested, like Padre Toño, are tied to an extortion ring run by Viejo Lin.

I'm also not entirely sure that the arrests are necessarily part of a Sanchez Ceren plan as Insight suggests rather than an operation driven more independently by the Fiscal General Luis Martínez.

Investing in El Salvador

The United States and Salvadoran governments, as well as the Salvadoran private sector, clearly see increased foreign direct investment as necessary to kick-starting the Salvadoran economy. The first Millennium Challenge Corporation compact for the northern region and the second proposed compact for coastal and maritime areas are designed to provide needed investments in infrastructure that will encourage foreign direct investment. The Partnership for Growth is also designed to tackle insecurity and corruption that will then lead to more investment and better returns on investments. Those investments will create jobs and, hopefully, improve conditions so that Salvadorans lead better lives and fewer leave (among other benefits).

However, I was speaking with someone yesterday who reminded me just how difficult this is going to be. Here is Raul Gallegos from February:

The country's business leaders are no visionaries either.

Many local entrepreneurs sold out to foreign companies and invest their money in Nicaragua or Costa Rica rather than at home.

El Salvador's investment levels, at 14 percent of GDP, are low compared with peers.

But no one can blame the business community: As economist Ricardo Hausmann has put it, El Salvador is a "low-return country" with a lack of productive investments or profitable opportunities.

Many Salvadoran businessmen seem to have cashed out their business investments in the 1990s and early 2000s. Since then, they have instead been investing in neighboring countries where their potential returns on investments are perceived to be much greater. I don't know how true this holds up to more systematic analysis but it sure passes the smell test.

Anyway, yesterday, the person was telling me about Salvadoran friends of his whose family is seriously concerned with the new FMLN government headed by Salvador Sanchez Ceren. They remain fearful that he and the FMLN intend to turn the country into another Venezuela. They are worried about increasing corruption, insecurity, and the greater potential for nationalizations of private businesses. As a result, they have been moving assets out of the country.

Now I don't know the details but but when I think of all the resources that the US and international community, including ALBA, are investing in this small Central American country, it is going to be all for nothing if Salvadoran economic actors do not invest themselves. It doesn't help if foreign investments are simply replacing national investment as I fear has been occurring these last few years and the potential for which will only increase under the FMLN's Sanchez Ceren.

Some love for Panama

The BBC's Will Grant has a look at the Crossroads of the Americas with Has Panama weaned itself off drugs and cleaned up?

So has Panama genuinely moved from a "narco-kleptocracy" to a peaceful and orderly democracy in just 25 years?

"It's a difficult question to answer," says Prof Orlando Perez, of Central Michigan University. "Panama's institutional system has certainly improved significantly since 1988. There is no question about that."

The credit-ratings service, Moody's Corporation, agrees. It recently described Panama's institutional strength as 'moderate' - a significant improvement on previous years and on other countries in Central America.

"[Panama] has been a success story," says Panamanian lawyer and political analyst Ebrahim Asvat.

"Since the US invasion, Panama has been able to put all the different pieces in place and try to run a country with democratic institutions and a balance of power between the different branches of government."

That said, democracy and governance in Panama are still far from perfect.

"Where I hesitate is in the question of corruption," says Prof Perez.

"Corruption is still a major problem inside Panama. To some extent it's systemic to the way Panama's economy is structured."

Panama ranks 102 out of 177 countries in the world in terms of corruption. Time to get beyond Noriega.

I just got back from New York so I should return to regular blogging tomorrow. Hope everyone had a good weekend.