Ongoing criticism of P3 law

A new article written by Lily Moodey at the Council of Hemispheric Affairs, looks at the continuing opposition to the Public Private Partnership Law (3P) by labor, environmental and civil society groups.   The law was passed in May with strong support of the US, and is intended to allow El Salvador to contract with private corporations to perform various governmental functions.

The article, titled P3 Legislation in El Salvador: An Aggressive Reassertion of Neoliberal Economics? begins:

Over the past several weeks, El Salvador has begun to restructure its port and electricity services as the first consequence of the newly enacted Ley de Asocio Público-Privados (Public-Private Partnership Law; P3), which took effect in El Salvador on June 16 after legislative approval on May 23. A history of unsuccessful privatization measures in El Salvador indicates that this economic policy will threaten many Salvadorans while doing little to promote genuinely productive economic activity in the region. In fact, the law is evidently aimed more at opening new markets and increasing profits for large foreign corporations than improving the lives of average Salvadoran citizens. However, P3 not only achieved unanimous approval in the Salvadoran legislature after merely two days of discussion, but did so with the support of President Mauricio Funes of the Farabundo Marti Liberation Front (FMLN). The implementation of this anachronistic neoliberal policy by a president whose party, the FMLN, had previously opposed privatization not only underlines a consistently unproductive relationship between the United States and El Salvador, but also reveals much about the internal tensions of the FMLN party that may have significant implications for the upcoming 2014 Salvadoran presidential elections.

Read the entire article here.