Congress members ask for neutrality and one idiot does the opposite
Thirty-three members of Congress signed a letter last week asking the Obama administration to make it clear that the US will be neutral and respect the outcome of the presidential election. In part, the letter states:
You can read the full text of the letter here and you can also watch a video interview of Congressman Paul Grijalva of Arizona who was one of the prime backers of the letter.
I completely agree with the sentiments in this letter. And so it was with complete disgust that I read remarks submitted today to the House Foreign Affairs Committee by Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, a Republican representing Orange County, California, which calls on the US to end Temporary Protected Status for Salvadorans and to control the flow of remittances back to El Salvador if Mauricio Funes wins this Sunday's election. These remarks, submitted to the public record, can be seen as nothing but a cynical ploy to influence the election and to help ARENA campaign on the basis of fear, just as it did in 2004.
To those readers of this blog who are Salvadoran, please realize that Rohrabacher's letter does not reflect in any way the policy of the US government. A Congress member can say anything he wants in any forum -- but it doesn't make it true or right. The real question I have -- who is the source who wrote these remarks and gave them to Congressman Rohrabacher to put in the record, three days before the election?
As Members of Congress, we reject the threats of 2004 and any effort to instigate another US intervention in Salvadoran politics. We feel that U.S. immigration policy should not be made into a political instrument used to influence foreign elections. Similarly, we reject the suggestion that the US government would seek to financially punish Salvadorans, in this country or in El Salvador, for exercising their right to elect a government of their choosing. As members of Congress, we will not support any such measure.
We believe that the proper position of the U.S. Congress and government is one of neutrality and respect for El Salvador’s independent democratic process, thus allowing the Salvadoran people to make a free choice of personal conscience, a choice which can only be done in the absence of coercion and threats.
You can read the full text of the letter here and you can also watch a video interview of Congressman Paul Grijalva of Arizona who was one of the prime backers of the letter.
I completely agree with the sentiments in this letter. And so it was with complete disgust that I read remarks submitted today to the House Foreign Affairs Committee by Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, a Republican representing Orange County, California, which calls on the US to end Temporary Protected Status for Salvadorans and to control the flow of remittances back to El Salvador if Mauricio Funes wins this Sunday's election. These remarks, submitted to the public record, can be seen as nothing but a cynical ploy to influence the election and to help ARENA campaign on the basis of fear, just as it did in 2004.
To those readers of this blog who are Salvadoran, please realize that Rohrabacher's letter does not reflect in any way the policy of the US government. A Congress member can say anything he wants in any forum -- but it doesn't make it true or right. The real question I have -- who is the source who wrote these remarks and gave them to Congressman Rohrabacher to put in the record, three days before the election?
Comments
FEAR is what ARENA does...they keep the people of El Salvador in FEAR. Their campaigning has been so similar to the REPUBLICANS in the US. That it might look like McCain's campaigning in El Salvador.
They had associeted Hugo Chavez with Funes, or like I associate Roberto D'Abuisson with the Antichrist....
I too disapprove of Congressman Rohrabacher's silly attempt to meddle, but let's be clear: the heavy handed letter made public last week was the same thing on the other side. Your characterization of that letter as an effort to be "neutral" is naive. The letter was signed by all Democrats, and read like a who's who of the far left wing of that party, including Charlie Rangel, Jesse Jackson, Jr., Linda and Loretta Sanchez, Maxine Waters, and Dennis Kucinich. Most of the letter (which you thankfully posted) was designed to bash the ARENA party. When it declared that, "This is an invaluable, historic opportunity to make a clean break with the past," it was easy to forget that they meant an opportunity to change U.S. foreign policy, and not what one suspects is the true aim of the letter -- to help change the Salvadoran government. This, they sought to bolster by taking away the stigma of voting for the FMLN party. Now, Rohrabacher sought to put it back. A pox on both their houses!
Its almost like a certain segment of the US Govt is terrified that Latin America may become something better than 3rd World.
Dude must own or be heavily invested in one of those sweat shops down there.
Ay!
Talk about terrorism. Go figure.
A peace agreement was signed back in the 1990s ... its over foreigners.
Thanks!!
Yesterday, two Republicans gave speeches on the floor of the House of Representatives threatening that Salvadorans living in the U.S. will lose their immigration status and be outlawed from sending money home to their families if voters in El Salvador exercise their right to elect the opposition FMLN party's candidate.
Rep. Trent Franks (R-AZ) said, “Should the pro-terrorist FMLN party replace the current government in El Salvador, the United States, in the interests of national security, would be required to reevaluate our policy toward El Salvador, including cash remittance and immigration policies to compensate for the fact there will no longer be a reliable counterpart in the Salvadoran government.”
These open, blatant threats have been plastered across the front pages of newspapers across El Salvador today. These threats endanger the sovereign right of the Salvadoran people to elect their own government, free from outside manipulation.
1. PLEASE CONTACT THE US EMBASSY IN EL SALVADOR to demand a public declaration of U.S. neutrality toward the Salvadoran election immediately!
Call: Public Relations office of the U.S. Embassy
011 (503) 2501-2483
011 (503) 2501-2470
Talking Points:
“I am calling to urge the embassy to immediately make a public statement of neutrality and respect for the results of Sunday's presidential election in El Salvador.”
“On Wednesday, Members of Congress publicly threatened to revoke the immigration status of Salvadorans living here in the U.S., and outlaw the remittances they send back to their families. These threats have been extensively covered by the media in El Salvador. Without a statement from the State Department refuting these threats, the integrity and fairness of the Salvadoran election will be severely endangered.”
2. PLEASE EMAIL EMBASSY AND STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIALS:
Copy this email and send it to:
laidlawpg@state.gov, thompsonjj2@state.gov, wolfedc@state.gov, Steinbergjb@state.gov, acssansal@state.gov, congensansal@state.gov, propstse@state.gov, Noonanhm@state.gov, Cockburncs@state.gov, ShannonTa@state.gov, webstercw@state.gov, joseph_4567@hotmail.com,
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I am a U.S. Citizen concerned with democracy and free and fair elections in El Salvador. I am writing to urge the U.S. Embassy to immediately make a public statement of neutrality and respect for the results of Sunday's presidential election in El Salvador.”
On Wednesday, Members of Congress publicly threatened to revoke the immigration status of Salvadorans living here in the U.S., and outlaw the remittances they send back to their families. These threats have been extensively covered by the media in El Salvador. Without a statement from the U.S. Embassy refuting these threats, the integrity and fairness of the Salvadoran election will be severely endangered.”
Sincerely,
Your name
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3. IF YOU CAN DO THREE THINGS, ALSO PLEASE CALL YOUR LOCAL CONGRESSPERSON:
Call the congressional switchboard and ask to be connected to your representative:
(202) 224-3121
Talking points:
- “On Wednesday, Members of Congress publicly threatened to revoke the immigration status of Salvadorans living here in the U.S., and outlaw the remittances they send back to their families. These threats have been extensively covered by the media in El Salvador.
- ¨Please respond immediately, formally, and publicly to the statements of Representatives Frank (R-AZ) and Burton (R-IN) that were made on the floor of the House of Representatives. ¨
- The U.S. government is, as it should be, according to statements from the U.S. Embassy, committed to working collaboratively with whichever candidate is elected to the presidency in El Salvador.
- Both presidential candidates in El Salvador plan to maintain relations with the United States, considering how closely the two economies are tied and how many Salvadorans live in the U.S.
THANK YOU FOR TAKING ACTION.
PLEASE KEEP CHECKING ELSALVADORSOLIDARITY.ORG FOR MORE INFORMATION
This article by Robert Canas puts the events of Sept 15th into perspective.
For you to say the FMLN as an organization officially celebrated the attacks of 9-11 is not true and would give me pause to wonder why you would say that.
http://www.envio.org.ni/articulo/1538
September 26, 2001
http://www.uca.edu.sv/publica/proceso/proci969.html#edi
THE IRRESPONSIBLE ONES FROM THE LEFT AND THE RIGHT-WING
Irresponsibility is not the exclusive property of anyone in particular. Anybody can commit a serious mistake in front of everyone's eyes, and still seem as fresh as if nothing is actually happening. Certainly, much of this has occurred in El Salvador during the last days, after the terrorist attacks against the United States. Because of the dimensions of the events, the FMLN's left-wing had to say and do something about the drama that the United States was living. On the other hand, the right- wing, specially the one closer to El Diario de Hoy, was going to pay close attention to what the left-wing party would do (or not do).
Four days after the attack to the United States, the FMLN served a "scrumptious" dish to the right-wing on a silver platter. During a demonstration convoked by different social organizations because of the independence day celebrations, some of the participants not only burned flags from El Salvador and the United States —something that is already traditional in this type of protests—, but they also celebrated with screams and graffiti the destruction caused by the terrorist attacks against the United States. Several personalities of the FMLN accompanied the demonstration that, obviously, was not intended to support the terrorist who perpetrated this tragedy, but that was the chance for ignorant individuals —their social and politic roots are unknown— to display their most primitive instincts.
A terrible mistake of the ones who do not seem to realize the human, economic and political consequences that would follow after a war declared by the United States against one or several Arabian nations. The only aspect that can be on their side is that their ignorance is of such proportions that things like that do not even cross their minds, just as they cannot even think about the consequences that can affect Latin America if a green light was given —in the context of an offensive from United States and its alliance against the world's terrorism— to the reinforcement of both the defense and the security apparatus. The FMLN leaders deserve to be judged even more severely, because although they were present at the demonstration, they were not even capable to separate themselves immediately from it nor to condemn the actions perpetrated by ignorant ones, fanatics or the people with negative intentions who joined them.
For ethical reasons it was necessary to take distance and to protest against those who think that the suffering and the death of the innocent are a mechanism for the redemption of humanity. The leaders of the FMLN gave signs of a lack of human sensibility, without which their moral authority to judge others and to judge itself breaks in pieces. Political reasons oblige to an unrestricted rejection to the attack, specially because of the importance that the cooperation relations with the United States government might have in order to complete a political, economic and social reform project as an alternative to the already established one. Giving signs of an unforgivable lack of political sense, the FMLN leaders -the ones who stood by the demonstration, the ones who did not, and the ones who did not even realize what was happening- have been just one step away from becoming enemies of the United States government, and not precisely for defending a fair cause.
These political and ethic mistakes of the FMLN have become the main course of the right-wing press, who has not only exposed the FMLN's errors —or by emphasizing on the disagreements between orthodox, renovators or institutional ones—, but has also, with immoral journalistic actions, distorted some of the declarations officially made by the left-wing party. The guinea pig was the press release "The world peace is in danger", delivered by the legislative sector of the FMLN (dated September 11th), in which first section the following is mentioned: the legislative sector of the FMLN "condemns and is awfully sorry for the terrorist acts the city of New York suffered this morning, these acts prove the grotesque use of violence of the states and the anarchy groups. It also condemns any kind of terrorism, the one that attacks the civilians and promotes economic policies that affect humanity and subject people to hunger".
Making a display of the lowest kind of journalism, in El Diario de Hoy (September 18th, page 12) a part of the text formerly described is quoted a couple of times in the following way: "the authorities of the FMLN connected the attack 'with the grotesque use of violence of the United States and that one of the anarchy groups'". One thing is to condemn the grotesque use of violence of the states —as it is written in the FMLN's document, displayed for more information in the El Diario de Hoy— and another thing is to say that the violence is exerted by the United Sates, which is not said in the FMLN's press release. The reporter who wrote the story -or the person who edited it- added the word "United" to the word "States", clumsily distorting the original text. It can be read again in the same page that "in the first part of the press release, the FMLN expresses that the terrorist attacks against New York and Washington prove 'the grotesque use of violence of the United States and the one of the anarchy groups'".
The first time it could have been considered a mistake, but not for a second time, no matter if on September 21st (page 24) the mistake is accepted. This is one of the traditional practices of a manipulative and irresponsible journalism, that invents accusations against those who do not share their same ideas and options. In El Diario de Hoy, therefore they do not go around the bushes to distort reality. In this particular case, the irresponsibility of this newspaper is not something to joke about, since it is accusing the FMLN of calling terrorist a State that besides suffering a terrorist attack, is preparing itself militarily to fight a war against terrorism in a world level. It seems that there are people in the right-wing who, just like in the left-wing, do not realize what is at risk in he present context. Their selfish rivalry and their personal interests do not allow them to see beyond the tip of their noses.
This does not sound like the FMLN celebrating the 9-11 attacks. It does sound like them reflecting on why the attacks occurred and what might have motivated those who carried out the attacks, i.e. U.S. military intervention in the Middle East.
http://www.changeforchildren.org/pdfs/bridges_01_dec.pdf.
In El Salvador, the Right has
acted quickly to initiate the roll back of the democratic gains established in the Peace Accords. On September 18,a newspaper article was published
based on a speech given by President Flores in which he claims that the OIE, Salvadoran intelligence, is not
enough to fight “terrorism”. Many
government officials believe Flores
wants to return to the old OIE structure in which the military operated the organism.
Since September 11th there has
also been an incessant attack on the opposition FMLN. At a meeting of Central American presidents, Flores alleged that the FMLN had terrorist links. Another member of the governing ARENA party stated “It is necessary to legislate to punish political terrorism.”
The U.S. embassy has joined in
as well. In response to the press statement given by the FMLN after the September 11th attacks, U.S.
Ambassador Likins wrote a letter of
protest stating that the press release was “offensive in content and tone”. The ambassador wrote that the offensive letter could only “satisfy the enemies of the United States and El
Salvador.”
The FMLN statement actually
condemned the attacks and all types
of terrorism, and expressed solidarity with the pain of the families. The “offensive” statement: “The FMLN,
once again, exhorts to the states, principally the government of the United States of America, to resolve conflict through dialogue and negotiation, respecting the sovereignty and independence of other nations as a sign of
political willingness which will
assure peace and the social, political,and economic stability of all people.
If he doesn't do this, then his talks of renewing diplomacy around the world will be hollow.
Clearly, the photo-op that you mention is nothing more than a montage made to be the perfect complement to the infamous "letter" Rohrabacher wrote, with the only purpose to cash in on it and amplify its terror inducing effects.
While it is understandable that as humans we all have our times of bad judgement, I urge you to please be more careful on such matters, and as a tip to keep in mind, I remind you that El Diario de Hoy (www.elsalvador.com) is owned by Enrique Altamirano, a death squad apologist, prime supporter of ARENA, and one of the most poison ridden editor to have ever graced a newspaper-- to verify this, all you have to do is pick up EDH on any given day and read the editorials, and you'll see pages of commentary instaging violence, hatred, reminisce of past glories (when the oligarchy and army's authority was unquestioned).
So, please, keep in mind that as you become intimate with the nature of EDH, it shouldn't surprise you that they would go to great lengths of making short-work of FMLN's name, and anyone related to them, while protecting zealously the reputation of ARENA, even if it takes distorting history and withholding information. The bias of thew newspaper is in now way attempting to be a secret to anyone. It is right in plain view.
If you wish a news source that provides you with the most neutral, and thorough news of El Salvador, please visit www.elfaro.net. I would also recommend www.diariocolatino.com, which even though has a leftist bias, due to not being from the mass-media that have greatly cashed from the culture of impunity that the ARENA government has fostered (nor receive the millions in gov. propaganda that the other media outlets receive) dares to say things that the others would rather keep quiet.
Thank you for reading, and for the otherwise great-job you do covering El Salvador and giving it international exposure.
go to the Tribunal Supremo Electoral website here:
http://www.tse.gob.sv/
and check for yourself this two DUIs or IDs with different names and places to vote
04025081-5
and
04166651-4
Are you saying the people pictured for those 2 DUIs are the same person? Even if it is the same person, when you vote the first time your finger is dipped in indelible ink and then your finger is checked if you try to vote again.
If that is true than why are some of the richest people from El Salvador still investing in Nicaragua and plan to invest millions more? Most of the Super markets,malls and Dealerships belong to wealthy Salvadorans like the Poma family and he plans to acquire the rights to Volkswagen IN Nicaragua...also the TACA group has for the last 14 years invested in Cuba and has done business with both Castro brothers...You are the idiot for not realizing you have been duped
This makes one wonder: what were the causes that lead to the vast majority of Salvadorans to so desperately flee the country? Why do they persist on leaving the country?
Certainly, if El Salvador cannot be nominated as a paradise, nor separated by a large margin from Nicaragua (your alleged shit-hole), because as we stand, the living conditions of El Salvador, including the incredibly high murder rate (one of the highest murder rates in the world) are the ones responsible for maintaining the population in a perpetual state of fuge.
Not only this, but a large percentage of the population are not employed by Triple A technology firms, investment banks, or anything that requires a high-quality working force, but rather venture into the "unskilled" labor department, with specialization in "ventas callejeras". As of right now, El Salvador is the country with the least foreign private investment because of our poor working force, social instability, and unclear (corrupt) rules of the game. This even though we have been under the wing of ARENA.
Even the sweat-shops which ARENA promised to make El Salvador's forte, have hemorrhaged away from the country and switching to places LIKE NICARAGUA and China, where they can obtain an even lower cheaper workforce.
It is because this reality, the unjust accumulation of wealth by a very, very small percentage of the population, and exclusive policies fostered by ARENA to sustain this inequality, that El Salvador stands at the brink.
Whoever wins in this elections, I guarantee you that they will have a terrible task at hand. And we do not count with the resources that USA does to face them. With the simple fact that remittances (by-product of our MAIN EXPORT: PEOPLE) are poised to diminish, less people are eager to emigrate due to stricter immigration laws and fewer opportunities of finding a job, the country will eliminate the simple elements that prevented great manifestations of social unrest from materializing.
Lucky us that we've been under ARENA's good grace that has served us so well, huh?
Please do keep your ages old McCarthyism to yourself. We do not need that, because if we as human beings can't call wrong what is wrong, and understand that the success of a society is through the respect and upholding of its laws then we have no right to call ourselves civil.
Because the state of this nation is so very much plagued by acts of corruption, with the perpetrators escaping persecution shielding themselves with the vestments of law-making that the people of El Salvador can no longer have the privilege of thinking between left-right, red-blue, up-down, if we ever want to bring forth the changes necessary that will ensure that the gears of democracy will turn anew. And voting against ARENA, and not necessary in-favor of FMLN, is precisely the greasing that we need to rescue our fledgling and imperfect democracy. How else can we make right by the law which has thus far and for long escaped us?
With the uncertainty, and climate of terror, multitude of Salvadorans are forced to live each day, I would say we are a step closer to the latter than the former.
Let us not forget that we did not need foreign interventions to escalate the tensions that we live here, we could do that perfectly well, with "businesses" (that haven't been rightfully audited since ARENA-PCN took control of supervision entities) instilling fear on employees, not only with propaganda, but with threats of cessation of employment if they don't follow through the party-lines they have adopted.
Look at the statistics, people from Venezuela, Cuba, and Nicaragua are not fleeing to the states for the American dream, they are leaving cuz their freedoms have been taken away from them!
In a place where maintaining a blog where you get a chance to express yourself, the way you do, would be immediately shut down and your head found in some gutter. How can you praise a political view that does not grant you freedom? I would love to see how an "idealist" like yourself would find yourself living under those circumstances.
Arena is full of corruption but I insist you tell me which government isn't. Yeah, Arena has made its mistakes but right now it is the best choice El Salvador has. FMLN would destroy the country and its freedom.
We now know Rorbacher wants ARENA to win. If we're honest, we know that Hugo Chávez wants the FMLN to win. My guess is that Charlie Rangel, Jesse Jackson, Jr., Linda and Loretta Sanchez, Maxine Waters, and Dennis Kucinich weren't just trying to be "neutral" with their letter paving the way for "an invaluable, historic opportunity to make a clean break with the past." Let's just get over it. We'll all know who won sometime next week, and we'll all (the Chavezes and the Rorbachers of the world) still have to share the planet. Tranquilisense hombre.
I REFUSE THE IDEA AND/OR THE EXCUSE THAT ONLY BECAUSE THERE ARE NO OPTIONS BUT ARENA; ALL SALVADOREAN SHOULD VOTE FOR THEM, AND ONE MORE HUGE THING, RESPECT THE SALVADOREAN'S WILL, SOONER OR LATER ARENA HAS TO HAND OVER THE POWER
What Rep. Rowhorebacher is doing it's influencing the outcome of the elections in El Salvador through FEAR, and it's an intervention in the political freedom of El Salvador.
That's when you know that ARENA is full of shit...when they cry out that Hugo Chevez is trying to influence El Salvador through the left and they put their propaganda in El Miedo (Diario) De Hoy that if the people freely elect Fuenes as their President, their families in the US will be sent home...FEAR MONGERS as EDDY, that claims that businessman and millionairs will leave El Salvador, and that El Salvador will be another Nicaragua...
Eddy, monopolies in El Salvador are the problems, not free market economies like you claim you had...I am pro business,a free market economy guy, but in El Salvador you have Capitalism going bad, more like Feudalism...not free market economy.Just remember how corrupted the system is, that the cousin of the Salvadorean Attorney General was let go when he stold millions of US bank money, something that now we as Americans have to pay...Thank you!!!
Now, back to the Nicaragua questions? How violent is Nicaragua? Do people live in the slumms like El Salvador?? Soyapango? Cuscatancingo? Ilopango?
Do they have somthing to eat???
Eddy you and Rep. Rowhorebacher are just full of FEAR!!!
Eddy you probably don't
ARENA+PCN+PDC= CORRUPTION!!!
but you know what, that wont happened, because that is not the FMLN plan, but i am not here to persuade you, inform more yourself, hopefully you will open not only your eyes but your mind
Before answer your FMLN question, ask yourself how within 20 years SALVADOREAN STILL WANTS TO LEAVE THE COUNTRY, WHY THE POVERTY IS GROWING, WHY THERE AREN'T ENOUGH JOBS, AND THE ONES THAT ALREADY EXIST ARE PAYING A MISSERABLE WAGES! 150$ LESS THAN MONTH, AND ON TOP OF THAT, THE HIGHEST RATES OF WORLD VIOLENCE EVER!
APPARENTLY YOU KNOW HOW TO READ BUT INTERPRETED MY GODNESS!!!
IN REGARD TO "will take your food, home, rights, and freedom away"
MY KUDOS to the smear ARENA propaganda, cause there is one idiot that actually beleive on that.
D'Aubuisson no doubt is the most well-known thug in modern Salvadoran history, having organized the killing of Archbishop Oscar Romero, among the many others he had a hand in murdering. Chele Medrano regarded D'Aubuisson as his "murderer." Chele met his end in an FMLN ambush, and D'Aubuisson was lucky he didn't go the same way.
Go on singing... that is the best here you can do and least you are busy doing something else than arguing a lost cause... how was it?
NACIO LA ESPERANZA ..VIENE EL CAMBIO...LOL
I am glad that you guys are pretty articulated in your arguments as pro ARENA, even when they are totally full of it...the truth is that El Salvador as much as you want to say it, it's not 20 years behind the world, but probably 75 years...we can see that through your inadaptability to change...and your God given right to govern El Salvador.
First of all, Democracy hasn't reach El Salvador and you still hold unto the power like a kid holding his most precious toy, through corruption, FEAR, chicanery or manipulation. You don't give the people of El Salvador a true freedom...freedom to choose your own destiny.
Secondly, you wanted an argument about the FMLN and I know that I am not speaking for them, but I am speaking as objective observer and I am speaking for myself...middle ground of the political spectrum.I know that El Salvador wouldn't have changed, if it wasn't force to...
Have you consider that maybe is not Nicaragua, Cuba or Venezuela's destiny that the FMLN wants for El Salvador? Maybe Brazil's democracy or Chile? Maybe Argentina? but a Republic that you can advance with free enterprise and still help people get on thei own their feet???
ARENA is blindsided with power, that has forgatten the people...I know that you are eating from the better tortilla dear Eddy and cousin Vinny.
But, do you not know that in EL Salvador most of the people are really poor??...they don't have food to eat?? they make less than 150 dollars a month?? 80-90 % not like Eddy that comes to shop in Miami for new jeans.
But, do you not know that in El Salvador, in the classifies of El Diario de Hoy openly discriminate against your age...that if you are 18-30 years old you can get a job, otherwise Eddy will look the other way??? And his palestinian brother in law will get top mananger post making 1000 dollars a week.
so, tell me Eddy how will you help the people???
In fact, even chief officials in the USA --the same country that espoused tactics akin to besieging a city for days (in Cuba's case: decades) waiting for it to deplete all its resources, and either expect patiently for the denizens to deliver the head of the king in a silver platter as an act of surrender, or invade on the time where the greatest you have to worry about is the foul stench of rotting corpses and the swarms of flees that cavort around them-- have openly admitted that the "embargo/blockade" has failed miserable to fulfill its purpose. Not only that, but they argue that failing to normalize relationships with Cuba, removes the opportunity to "bring democracy" to the island, as well prevents American businesses to take advantage of what the island has to offer.
Even today, millions do go to Cuba to undergo different medical procedures. Even Salvadoran companies like "Laboratorios Lopez" happily operate in that God-forsaken, commie-haven (some McCarthyism for you, bucko), with foreign invest from places from the likes of China and Britain lining-up to have diverse dealing with Cuba.
Sure, I won't deny that Cuba did not escape the burnt of being treated like an international pariah for decades. The ease of procuring daily-living stuff (like shampoo) has affected their livelihood greatly), but the times have changed. The USSR is no more, the island adapted as much as it could considering the circumstances (as in acts of sabotage), and has had a greater degree of aperture over the years, and Cuba's gamble on education (people DO travel to Cuba for an education, even people from USA) and health care will prove to be a winning bet.
Can we say the same about El Salvador? Again, as you so kindly conceded, El Salvador's bulk "industry" comes from the unskilled sector, to be more precise the so-dubbed "informal sector", meaning: self-employed street vendors, small business owners, etc.
Many of which don't even have a high-school diploma. So very far from being a country with its own developed industries, not even agriculture was sustained under ARENA (such judgment-slip paving the way for the migration boon to urban areas, saturating them, eliminating the livelihoods of multitudes of farmers, increasing crime, etc.). So to say that a small cabal of "empresarios" is the hand that feeds the multitudes underscores the situations on the ground: that the multitudes don't have the "empresarios" for making their living.
On the contrary, the unsavory "empresarios" adopt labor practices that sometimes border into the inhumane, giving a pittance of the employee's just rewards for hours of arduous toil, with wages beginning as small as $150 dollars a month or less--which thanks to El Salvador having, if not the, one of the most expensive costs for medicine and "canasta basica" simply makes living increasingly difficult. Such is the treatment that thousands of employees are submitted to by employers that fail to see the mutual need of each other (business are definitely not a charity-- workers do EARN the wages, the employee simply chooses to omit this fact) and simply devise ways to not fulfill their obligations to their workers (like withholding wage money for ISSS quotas without ever pulling through, or the many sweat-shops that over-night close down leaving without paying wages owned to employees).
ARENA is nowhere pro-business. It is, as someone mentioned, pro-monopoly, pro-oligopoly. A feudalism. It is pro-Dueñas, pro-Regalado, pro-Siman, pro-Poma, and whoever desires to enter into the fray and make business, bewarn if either of the "oligarchs" find out that the venture you delve into proves to be profitable, because suddenly you'll find yourself with your permits revoked and rescinded. That is the kind of "warranty" you obtain doing business here, unless of course you give a cut to third parties for your labor.
What ARENA has done well, is perpetuating the sense of entitlement that the ruling elite have about the direction the country has to go (usually one that safe-guards their myopic interests at the expense of real nation-building), and over the control of the resources/population. Something that goes way-back when communal lands/small-owners were abolished, because they were an obstacle to "progress" (and the lands absorbed by large fincas) and anti-vagrancy laws were created to make sure said fincas had an ample array of "colonatos" (peasants) to service them fostering the paternalisitic societies of today: obedience and gratitude for allowing you to service me.
ARENA has been an obstacle to progress, and 20 years of ruler ship prove this, even more if we take into account that the oligarchies that formed ARENA ruled by proxy through the military juntas and pseudo-presidents.
The nincompoops at the helm of ARENA were forewarned of the possibilities of war, unless there was an improvement in the livelihoods of the population, warnings ignored, with those who issued them outcast or dead. Now, after 20 years since the civil war, with the conditions that lead to it remaining, El Salvador has surely accumulated some freedoms (earned through the blood of many, not a bone thrown to placate some mutt), some of which are listed bellow:
*Be afraid of riding a bus, with gangs raiding said buses demanding payment.
*The freedom of going on with your daily lives with the threat of being dead or robbed, with more than 10 deaths a day: considered an epidemic.
*The freedom to continuously flee your country, with entire families fragmenting, with 2 million already gone, and 45% of those remaining wanting to leave. Despite the "entrepreneurship" of the oligarchy (please note a degree of sarcasm in here), the huge millionaire life-line of loans, and international donations.
*The freedom to be demonized, by media loyal to the ruling elites, if you dare protest and manifest your discontent with your present situation.
*The freedom to be coerced and threatened into relinquishing your personal political thought if it is not the same as those of your employee.
Those are many of the freedoms we have. Suffice to say that this kind of climate is the one that fosters the immigration and lack of foreign investment in the country, even potential tourist find themselves repeatedly barraged by warnings of high crime and violence. The only ones that are really afraid of FMLN coming to power are those that have to fear the rule of law, and that thanks to their irresponsibility El Salvador is nearing unviability when it comes to sustaining itself. It is not that only El Salvador has corruption, it is that we are immersed in it, and what is worse, those responsible for it wallow in it shamelessly because right now, thanks to controlling the gov., they are untouchable. It is those same people that threat leaving the country if FMLN wins, and to those, I say "good riddance".
I sincerely hope that if FMLN wins and does the job Corte de Cuentas and Ministerio de Hacienda should be doing, and the Madoffs of El Salvador flee, that they are savvy enough to persecute them through international agencies. We can only hope that by ending 20 years of irresponsible government a society that respect the laws greatly is created and attracts the investments that so far avoid us, and manages to retain its own citizens because they finally consider it a viable option. Of course, this won't be able to be achieved from dusk to dawn, but with only the simple fact that FMLN will cease the cronyism that ARENA has created is enough to give them my vote, and consider it a turn for the best for the future of this country.
*The freedom of having to religiously pay taxes, whilst oligarchy controlled businesses are exempted to pay taxes, or simply evade their obligations to do so (just ask former Ministro de Haciendo Lopez Suarez about it).
*The freedom of having yourself and family be the victims of death threats if you are among those who demand accountability from government institutions and private allies (like the recent case of Dr. Roberto Tobar, one of the main critics demanding to know where a 142 million dollars-loan was invested by the Health Minister).
http://www.elfaro.net/secciones/Noticias/20080714/noticias2_20080714.asp
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For the concrete comment, I've couldn't say it better, I think when it comes to politics some ppl get fanatic, and no matter how bad could be they are still trying to hold on to the old, washed-up ideologies that the history has proved hasnt worked at all.
I HOPE AS WELL FMLN WINS!
And I believe I did cite a business that as we speak is DOING BUSINESS with Cuba and PROFITING from it. Laboratorios Lopez, we also have TACA, and there are a multitude of European and Asian companies willing to make business who may find the government an ally, not an intrusion. Hell, the simple fact that 80% of the work force either has an engineering or medical degree is enough help already-- it opens up the opportunity to receive the kind of investment WE COULD NOT HOPE TO ATTRACT. And must I cite to you references to my claims of Republican and Democratic officials from USA stating that the embargo was a failure and prevents AMERICAN BUSINESSES from taking advantage from Cuba? Not only because of their natural resources, but human resources and the strategic placement within the Caribbean.
Furthermore, your claims of Funes being a puppet of FMLN simply ignores the evident lack of SPINE that ARENA designee Rodrigo Avila suffers of and that Funes does not. You speak of repackaging... Well, it is ARENA that has squandered four times more in propaganda than the FMLN to make us believe that THIS time, after 20 years, they are a DIFFERENT ARENA-- unfortunately, without ever forsaking the terror-mongering tactics of old. In fact, ARENA's zealous embrace of terrorizing the population into VOTING FOR THEM and fearing any other alternative (or suffer the consequences!), in my opinion, could fit the classical definition of what terrorism is. Dare I say that ARENA is nothing more than a terrorist organization playing politics?
Also, I am forced to remind you, that in El Salvador, the armed forces are strictly adherents to their "oligarch" patrons, successfully becoming an obstacle to any drastic and sudden change that you so candidly profess. Unlike Venezuela and Russia, where starving, discontent populations won said sympathy. It is the ignorance of this facts that makes me wonder if your mind is not stuck somewhere in a vacuum between the 70s-80s.
Now, about them jobs and industries. The Regalados, Safies, Siman, Dueñas, Poma, Siman, Wrights, Salume, Garcia Prieto, Hill, Mathis, etc., control the vast majority of those businesses, through ARENA successfully curtailing the entrance to international competitors that could destroy them. You mention maquilas, as an example of investment attracted. Have you ever gone to a maquila? Have you ever been witness to the working conditions that workers are submitted to on maquilas (sweat-shops)? The degradation they suffer, the harassment, the withholding of payment, the failing to reimburse extra working hours? To this day more and more maquilas HAVE ACTUALLY CLOSED TO MOVE ELSEWHERE--just as I had previously mentioned. Must I go and cite examples? And when they close, the workers are left without pay.
The day that DELL chooses to open a chip manufacturing plant in El Salvador, like Intel did in Costa Rica, will be the day that you can argue that the "regime" that ARENA has settled has been successful in attracting and retaining any foreign investment that is truly, truly worth-a-while and a positive force in changing societies for the better.
As we stand, we currently have no capacity to do such thing, because of the societal unrest we live, the corruption-impunity society ARENA built and poor, uneducated working force. Again, you speak nonsense of Cuba, but if 1-5 years from now USA decided to at the very least remove the Helms-Burton Act from obstructing businesses to operate freely in Cuba, you'd see foreign investment in that island multiply rendering your points mute. They have the capacity, we don't. We will never have it with ARENA at the helm. 20 years has proved them to be a FAILURE.
By the way, last I saw, Costa Rica was the oldest country to create and sustain a viable democracy, not the charade we have here. Not only that, but as we are, every single country in Central America adopted something akin to a democracy after shedding the vestiges of years of oligarchy-controlled dictatorships. So, El Salvador has no exclusive rights to call itself a "democracy" in C.A., of course, the way we do politics clearly leaves much to be desired...
I almost forgot, you wanted me to cite an example of an oligopoly in El Salvador? Take the example of MOLSA and HARISA and their dominance of the flour market, and how they can basically fix the price.
DEFINITELY I AGREE
ARENA IS A FAILURE!
EDDIE STOP WATCHING 9210 ON 2.4.6 CHANNELS AND READING EL DIARIO DE HOY COMBINED WITH LA PRENSA GRAFICA "THE CARTOON SECTION"
I don't know what a dogmatic is, but I can smell one when I see him...and you smell like one...joking aside Eddy this is 2009, and I know that you were frozeen through time.
so, let me give you an updated of the years that you have missed...
The is not more USSR, they are gone...the Berlin Wall was taken apart and Germany became unified...yes Eddy unified, the West and the East...the Capitalist and Communist.
Oh Eddy, black is not bad anymore...it has become cool, so cool that the US elected an African American President.
Roberto D'Abuisson die as well as Ray Prendez, Duarte and Shafick. The country is new, but we still have Tios in every part of the government...
I know that you didn't like it when the campesinos wanted to be with their families for the weekend, that you wanted them to work in la finca from dusk to dawn.That has change now, there is new laws against that...I know you hated liberals helping the poor people, people that wanted to be with their families....I always asked why???
Eddy, I know that you are stuck in the past Eddy, but look at the best in life.I got to go Eddy, hopefully you understand.
made me laugh!
lol!
"I know that you didn't like it when the campesinos wanted to be with their families for the weekend, that you wanted them to work in la finca from dusk to dawn"
Boy you are hilarious!!