Need to address root causes of Salvadoran emigration
Tanya Snyder, executive director of Voices on The Border, recently wrote the following which appeared in an op/ed column in the Baltimore Sun:
Until the Salvadoran government takes seriously the commitments it made 15 years ago to foster democracy and human rights, El Salvador will continue to send hundreds of its sons and daughters to us every day. It must also address the economic issues that were swept under the rug with the peace accords and are now being swept under the rug as the government struggles to control gang violence.
Most people leave home because they have to. El Salvador must rededicate itself to making sure that its people can be safe and prosperous at home. This should include nonrepressive crimefighting strategies, a criminal justice system with real investigating capabilities, a stronger separation between the police and the military, and a new dedication to finding economic solutions to aid the country's poor. The United States should support these efforts if we really want to slow the tide of immigration.
Comments
Latin American Conservativism 101:
Or how to retain the status quo of poachers, land robbers, cattle herders, genocidal maniacs, narcolords, narcogovernments, monopolists, nepotists, death squad makers, corrupt officials in power:
Always ask for USA help to help mantain the "status quo".
USA did it with Nicaragua, place where Anastasio Somoza turned Nicaragua into "Somoza CO." (his own personal huge hacienda and compnay), and with Guatemala (United Fruit Co. vs. Arbaenz). The Contras in Nicaragua...
For example. If USA was serious against the war on drugs, they'd stop supporting the colombian government which has the backing of cartels and about 90% of the cocaine/marijuana trafficking, money laundery, shell company operations, and consider backing up the FARCs. In El Salvador, if they really want to stop migration, USA could stop supporting ARENA, leak to the international community all the "covered up" wrong doings of ARENA leaders, have Interpol freeze their bank accounts and make sure a progressive non-feudal leader comes to power in El Salvador to address the poverty issues that drive the 12 murders a day, 100s of migrating salvadorans a day, remittance dependency economy. But I guess one can only dream. ;)
So this drives me to the conclusion... Capitalism makes a whore out of everyhting. So either the Cuban Mafia in Miami-Lousiana-Vegas became to $$$ to make sure US Latin American policy remains unchanged for the following century, or transnationals just want cheap labor back home and easily exploitable markets abroad...
Here is what I read about Colombia, btw:
http://www.afn.org/~iguana/archives/2001_01/20010113.html
It seems like the cycle is: mafia-privatize,privatize... instability, migrate, migrate...
after MY 30+ years in Latinolandia, you are correcto mundo
Viva El Frente
seems people overall are better off now in places like Venezuala,Cuba,Chile,Brazil and soon Ecuador,Nicaragua, etc.
shame El Salvador lags
but Bush will go down soon, as will ARENAZI
I believe folks maybe waking up
socialism is really the only FAIR TRADE for peoples everywhere, with a mix of capitalism for hope
greed kills,
the heart should rule