Panama's President Varela sits down for a FP interview

Panamanian President Juan Carlos Varela sits down for an interview with Foreign Policy. In it, he answers questions on global (airstrikes against ISIS), regional (immigration, drug trafficking) and national (corruption, organized crime, goals) politics.

FP: How are you going to change Panama?

JCV: My main challenge is to change politics from a business to a service. I want to make sure politics and public life is all about serving the people.

FP: How do you expect to do that?

JCV: By appointing cabinet members and a government that is committed to transparency and honesty. [I want] a government that focuses all of its effort on not worrying about elections but worrying about the problems that affect people every day.

Today we have 65 percent of Panamanian kids graduating from high school. I want to make that 100 percent. So you need to build more schools and to give scholarships to kids that are living in poverty to achieve that goal. 30 to 40 percent of Panamanian homes don't have basic sanitation.

FP: You spoke about that during your campaign.

JCV: Drinking water and sewage -- basic sanitation. I want to accomplish the goal of getting that to 100 percent. We need to impact 300,000 homes. I hope I can get it to 85 or 90 percent in my five-year term.

I wouldn't read too much into a single interview but I did come away impressed. 

New volume on the Salvadoran civil war and its aftermath

I have a new chapter on "Los partidos políticos en El Salvador: Una vision desde el extranjero" that was just published in Historia y debates sobre el conflicto armado salvadoreño y sus secuelas. 

The book is based on a February 2012 seminar on "History, Society and Memories: the armed conflict on the 20th anniversary of the Peace Accords" organized by Unit of Investigations about the Salvadoran Civil War (UIGCS) of the Universidad de El Salvador. 

Jorge Juarez coordinated the volume and it was published by the Instituto de Estudios Históricos, Antropológicos y Arqueológicos Universidad de El Salvador and the Fundación Friedrich Ebert in El Salvador. 

If you are interested in a PDF of the book, shoot me an email.

Primera parte

1. Actores armados: génesis, evolución y reconfiguraciones

Presentación by Alberto Martín Álvarez

Las relaciones urbano-rurales en la insurgencia salvadoreña by Ralph Sprenkels

Radicalismo político en los estudiantes de la Universidad de El Salvador durante el siglo xx. La Federación de Estudiantes Universitarios Social Cristianos (frusc) by Jorge Cáceres Prendes

Del partido a la guerrilla: los orígenes de las Fuerzas Populares de Liberación Farabundo Martí (fpl) by Alberto Martín Álvarez

Transición a la democracia electoral y neoliberalismo en El Salvador by Carmen Elena Villacorta Zuluaga

Los partidos políticos en El Salvador: una visión desde el extranjero by Michael E. Allison

Los procesos de aprendizaje de Arena y del fmln durante la guerra civil by Heidrun Zinecker

Mujeres, lucha armada y crisis estructural del capital: de los Acuerdos de Paz al neoliberalismo by María Gabriela Guillén Carías

2. Memorias e historia reciente

Presentación by Eduardo Rey Tristán

La Comisión de la Verdad y la gestión de la memoria en la posguerra salvadoreña by Ralph Sprenkels

El despliegue de las memorias: el peso del pasado reciente en El Salvador by Jorge Juárez Ávila

«Memorias de la revolución»: resituando el pasado en el presente (reflexiones para su estudio) by Miguel Ayerdis

El Salvador 1972-1992: conflicto social y memoria de un pensamiento político by Francisco Eliseo Ortiz Ruiz

El historiador y la creación de un documental by Jeffrey Gould

3. El conflicto armado y las relaciones internacionales

Presentación by María Julia Flores

México ante el conflicto centroamericano, 1976-1996. Una perspectiva histórica by Mario Vázquez Olivera

La diplomacia paralela en el conflicto armado salvadoreño by Oscar Martínez Peñate

Los Estados Unidos y el golpe de Estado de 1979 by Gilles Bataillon

Segunda parte

1. Estado de la cuestión sobre el conflicto armado.

Sus principales tendencias

Presentación by José Alfredo Ramírez Fuentes

Mesa de debate (Alberto Martín Álvarez, Jorge Cáceres Prendes, Rafael Guidos Véjar)

2. Fuentes y pistas para la investigación del conflicto armado

Presentación by Eduardo Rey Tristán y Ralph Sprenkels

Mesa de debate (Claudia Ponce, Óscar Campos Lara, Carlos Henríquez Consalvi, Jaqueline Morales de Colocho, Alexis Hurtado, Coronel Adalberto García, Eudald Cortina Orero)

3. Principales enfoques teóricos y metodológicos para la investigación del conflicto

Presentación by Pablo Morales

Mesa de debate (Heidrun Zinecker, Rafael Guidos Véjar, Gilles Bataillon, Carlos Lara-Martínez)

I'd love to give Central America $1 billion

Central American leaders: investment will curb migration north

Northern Triangle Countries Present Their ‘Plan Central America’

Big Central America Aid Request Coming

I'd love to give Central America $1 billion for "Plan Central America." One of the major problems, however, is that the US uses the Millennium Challenge Corporation to identify countries and programs in which to invest hundreds of millions of dollars. Infrastructure projects like those identified by the leaders of El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras would be perfect matches.

While El Salvador will have received over $700 million dollars after the completion of a second compact, Honduras and Guatemala do not qualify for compacts. Threshold programs, yes, but not the big money compact investments.

MCC forms partnerships with some of the world’s poorest countries, but only those committed to:

• good governance,

• economic freedom,

• and investments in their citizens.

While the US could come up with another program, one of the difficulties that the US has giving large sums of money to Guatemala and Honduras is that they do not qualify.

The Guatemalan and Honduran governments need to take measures to reduce corruption, support the rule of law, promote and protect and free and transparent media, stop killing their own citizens, etc. The US isn't looking at perfection. They are looking to invest in countries that need the investment and where we have some confidence that hundreds of millions of dollars will do some good. Hence the debate over whether El Salvador has done enough to justify a second $300 million compact.

While there are good reasons to provide these countries with multi-million dollar investments, does anyone sincerely believe that the governments and private sectors in Guatemala and Honduras have earned such an investment?

More "good" reads on El Salvador

Seth Robbins looks at Padre Toño in How one Spanish priest went gangster in Central America. I'm still left wondering what Padre Toño got out of the deal. Was he seduced by access to El Viejo Lin? Did he get anything in return for helping with regards to facilitating prisoner transfers and access to cell phones? It sure doesn't look like the Padre was forced into cooperating with the gangs. Then why did he? The "how" question is somewhat answered but I want a little more information on the "why."

Hector Silva has the first in a two-part series for Insight Crime on Murder of Colonel's Son Raises Questions Over Role of El Salvador's Military. It's disappointing but not surprising that the Salvadoran military might still be involved in extrajudicial executions. The motive for the murder of Colonel Rivas' son does not appear to have been the work of a disgruntled employee but was he really killed because of his low-key support for finding the 1993 Amnesty Law unconstitutional and for pursuing the IACHR's sentence on Mozote? Given the constitutional conflict of a few years ago, it's not surprising that some military will kill to prevent prosecutions for civil war era crimes. However, I'm not sure how killing Rivas' son and trying to blame it on a disgruntled employee (as originally planned it would appear) would help deter the Constitutional Court from finding the law unconstitutional or convince Rivas against speaking out against the military. Maybe part II will answer that questions.

I did note the importance of the military allegedly hiring out a contract killing to a gang member. While it does appear that most of the killings in El Salvador have been done by gang members, there's a strong belief that many of the murders that they were executing were done at the behest of organized crime.

Tim linked to an Important new study on public security in El Salvador from the UCA. While I have not yet read it, you can find the English-language executive summary here.

Central American Countries Offer Plan to Curb Migration to U.S. The details have not been made public.

Finally, Preston with the MCC wants to clarify that the passage of FOMILENIO II was not held up because of Monsanto.

Just to clarify, there was never any condition related to Monsanto or genetically modified seeds. This was false information used by environmental groups to make it into a more polarizing issue: Some facts are here.

Unaccompanied Minors at the University of Scranton

In case you are in the area, Alejandra Marroquin, Latino Outreach Coordinator at Catholic Social Services in Scranton, and I will be discussing Unaccompanied Minors from Central America Thursday morning at 11:30 AM at the University of Scranton. The event is sponsored by the Office of Multicultural Affairs and Education for Justice (which is the office I oversee).

You can read some of what I've written on the topic in Despite U.S. Efforts, Root Causes of Migration Crisis Prevail in Central America and Should the US deport unaccompanied minors?

Some links around Central America

Several interesting and/or recommended stories.

Community violence / state repression in Guatemala

Guatemala Emergency Measures After Deadly Clash

Guatemala imposes state of emergency in town rocked by disturbances

Another Suspension of Civil Liberties in Guatemala

Guatemala: nuevamente su población enfrenta violencia

Child sex abuse ‘a grave problem’ in Guatemala

Well, the country's not doing so well but how's CARSI doing in Honduras?

Central America’s kingpins of graft

In El Salvador, former President Francisco Flores strolled into a courthouse in early September after nearly four months in hiding. He is accused of stealing $5.3 million donated by Taiwan after two earthquakes killed some 1,500 Salvadorans in 2001. About $15 million in donations from Taiwan are still missing.

But Flores’ alleged crimes pale in comparison to the more than $300 million a medical professional bilked from Honduras’ Institute of Social Security (IHSS), which provides healthcare and workers’ compensation to 1.6 million Hondurans.

Authorities say Mario Zelaya, a 46-year-old surgeon and head of the IHSS for four years, along with two high-level associates and hundreds of lesser accomplices, created dozens of shell companies that overcharged the IHSS for essential hospital equipment and supplies, some of which never materialized at all.

Finally, Why Homies Unidos Won’t Create a Civil Society in El Salvador.

Renewing the Nicaragua Tariff Preference Level (TPL)

As I mentioned the other day, you generally don't tend to hear praise of CAFTA-DR unless is you are speaking about Nicaragua. Praise might be too strong of a work but you do read more positives about the effects of CAFTA-DR there than in the Northern Triangle or the other member states of CAFTA-DR.

One of the reasons is that Nicaragua qualifies for some additional support because of its impoverishment. One of the extra bonuses that the country receives is the Nicaragua Tariff Preference Level (TPL) which "allows a limited number of Nicaraguan-made garments to enter the United States duty free without regard to the source of the fabrics." The US and Nicaragua also have a fabric matching program that benefits workers, businesses and consumers (presumably) in both countries.

As a result, trade in apparel between the US and Nicaragua has increased since CAFTA-DR went into effect while it has decreased between the US and every other member of CAFTA-DR. The program is set to expire at the end of this year which would be a shame if the benefits that the op-ed cites are true. It seems like a program that the US and Nicaraguan governments should consider extending and that the US should consider expanding to other countries in the region. Obviously, doing so would probably disadvantage Nicaragua and might even water down the benefits to everybody to such an extent that perhaps the current single-country model is the best..

Finding our own way: Guatemala's Policy on Drugs

The Guatemalan National Commission for Policy Reform on Drugs delivered its preliminary Analytic Report on the Problem of Drugs in Guatemala a few days ago. Take a look at the report to see what Carlos Mendoza and his colleagues have to say.

Here's the brief English version:

After eight months of deliberation and gathering of information with different national and international governmental policy implementers, including the U.S. Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL), the Commissioners have concluded the following:

Guatemalan authorities do not have enough data to properly define the drug problem in the country. We do not know the actual extent of land where illicit drugs (poppy and marijuana) are cultivated in Guatemala. We are uncertain about the target population for synthetic drugs produced in laboratories recently dismantled by the National Police. We do not know basic facts such as the price of cocaine and its purity on the streets of Guatemala. These facts are needed to prove or disprove important hypotheses, like the one concerning drug traffickers paying in kind for local services (transportation or security, for instance). We have no idea about the current levels of consumption among the Guatemalan population.

The drug problem has been historically defined and framed by the U.S. Government, given the lack of interest shown by Guatemalan authorities in the past, as evidenced by restricted annual national budgets and the lack of information needed to understand the size of the problem. In this sense, the Commission has stated that the drug policy has been an orphan with a foster parent, and has recommended to the Guatemalan Government to regain custody of its own child.

The first step is to generate enough data about local production, trafficking and consumption of illicit drugs to properly define the problem and, after a rigorous evidence-based analysis, select solutions. Drug policies have to be defined in Guatemala, by and for Guatemalans. As has happened in the states of Colorado and Washington in its territory, the U.S. Government needs to respect our own space for innovation and experimentation. We are, indeed, finding our own way.

The Pan-American Post offers some thoughts.

Unlike other regional leaders like Juan Manuel Santos and Jose Mujica, Guatemalan President Otto Perez Molina has cultivated a reputation as a crusader for widening the drug policy debate in the hemisphere, but has so far made no major push to enact reforms in his own country. However, last week saw some important progress on drug policy reform at a national level, when a civil society commission appointed by Perez Molina released a preliminary report on drug laws (.PDF file here) in the country on Thursday, as La Prensa Libre reports.

Like the OAS resolution, the report does not call for any radical changes. However, it raises some important points about drug policy in Guatemala, and its conclusion makes some sensible, albeit cautious, recommendations. For example, the report notes that Guatemala’s approach to drugs runs “counter to the legislative developments” elsewhere in the region, and that its failure to specify which amounts of drugs can be classified as destined for personal consumption rather than sale leaves considerable room for judges to impose their own standards. Among other recommendations, the commission calls for closer monitoring of black market pricing and purity data, for a deeper study of the “cost of the current drug policies” in Guatemala, and for a rigorous analysis of the size of the country’s illicit poppy crop.

According to the report, a final version will be presented to the president in December, and the commission’s mandate was recently extended to the end of this year. After that, it remains to be seen what will come of Perez Molina’s claims that the report “might lead to” a bill legalizing marijuana and poppy cultivation.

US and El Salvador to move forward with second Millennium Challenge Corporation Compact

Earlier this week, it was announced that the second Millennium Challenge Corporation compact between El Salvador and the US (FOMILENIO II) would go forward as planned. The agreement had been held up as a result of concerns on the part of various US government institutions concerning access to Salvadoran agricultural markets, perceived weak money laundering laws and presidential elections.

The US seems to have relented on forcing El Salvador to also consider purchasing seeds from US corporations rather than solely national small- and medium-sized farmers. The reforms to the Public-Private Partnership (P3) and money laundering laws moved the legislation towards where the US wanted them to go but maybe not as much as it wanted. Hence, negotiations.

Republicans also wanted the US to hold the compact hostage in return for lifting the ban on gold mining in El Salvador. It's not clear, however, that any of those directly involved in the negotiations were pushing this condition.

In a telephone interview Saturday, Mari Carmen Aponte, the U.S. ambassador to El Salvador, said her embassy must be “vigilant” to make sure El Salvador follows through on promised reforms. But looking back at the past year of negotiations, she said it has been a learning experience for both sides.

“The new government in El Salvador has learned a lot. We also have learned a lot,” Aponte said. “We have to keep our eyes open” going forward, she added. But given the migrant crisis, she was excited that $101 million of the aid is for improved training and education that could help young men and women find jobs in El Salvador

The two countries will now move forward with the $277 million compact for coastal and maritime development, including $101 million for improved training and education. The FMLN, however, will have to continue to work with those communities in the affected areas, many of whom are against the proposed development projects. They fear that the proposed projects will destroy already fragile ecosystems and their livelihoods as well as turn the region into another Cancun. 

Citizens are always sensitive when it appears that foreign governments and corporations and international tribunals are intervening ...

Citizens are always sensitive when it appears that foreign governments and corporations and international tribunals are intervening in their sovereign affairs. During the last few weeks, we've seen the people of Guatemala and El Salvador push back against efforts by the United States, Monsanto, and Australian-Canadian gold mining companies to require national governments to abide by national and international agreements over the objections of domestic constituents.

In Guatemala,

On September 4th, after ten days of widespread street protests against the biotech giant Monsanto’s expansion into Guatemalan territory, groups of indigenous people joined by social movements, trade unions and farmer and women’s organizations won a victory when congress finally repealed the legislation that had been approved in June.

...

The Monsanto Law would have given exclusivity on patented seeds to a handful of transnational companies. Mayan people and social organizations claimed that the new law violated the Constitution and the Mayan people’s right to traditional cultivation of their land in their ancestral territories.

The Guatemalan people's success followed similar efforts in El Salvador to defeat Monsanto. There, it took place within the context of the government's negotiations with the United States over a $277 million second Millennium Challenge Compact.

El Salvador is a recent example of corporate domination in U.S. foreign aid. The United States will withhold the Millennium Challenge Compact aid deal, approximately $277 million in aid, unless El Salvador purchases genetically-modified seeds from biotech giant, Monsanto.[1] The Millennium Challenge Corporation is “a U.S. foreign aid agency that was created by the U.S. Congress in January 2004,”[2] according to Sustainable Pulse, and serves as a conduit for foreign aid funds.

MCC’s unethical aid conditions would force El Salvador to purchase controversial seeds from the American biotech corporation instead of purchasing non-GMO seeds from the country’s local farmers[3] – an action that would have negative effects on El Salvador’s agricultural industry in addition to presenting serious health and environmental risks.

Sure the laws were meant to give Monsanto a foot in the door, but they were also simply designed to have foreign companies treated in the same manner as domestic companies (give or take) as everybody agreed to in CAFTA-DR (that free trade agreement pursued by the Central American governments with the US). The US eventually relented on Monsanto and it was recently agreed that the two parties would go forward with the second compact.

Unlike agricultural reform, the evil CAFTA-DR is also being used to reforms that the left is cheering.

The United States accused Guatemala this week of failing to live up to the labor standards spelled out in the countries' trade agreement, pursuing a case that could lead to fines if Guatemala doesn't move to better protect its workers.

U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman said he was moving ahead with the case in hopes that Guatemala, a partner of the U.S. in the Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA), would make "concrete improvements" in enforcing labor laws already on its books.

"Our goal is to raise standards," Froman said at a press conference Thursday.

The case is being filed at a time when the U.S.-Mexican border is being overwhelmed by young immigrants, many of them Guatemalan children and teens fleeing violence in their home country. Froman said the complaint was aimed at helping to make Guatemala a safer place to live and work, so that its citizens don't feel compelled to "embark on a dangerous journey of migration."

...

The Guatemalan government agreed last year to follow a plan to address the country's labor law violations. Froman, who traveled to Guatemala this summer, said the country had taken "significant steps" since then.

But Guatemalan union leaders insist the government hasn't made sufficient progress in addressing the violence. Those unions first raised their concerns back in 2008, when they filed a joint petition with the AFL-CIO calling on Guatemala to make good on its commitments.

The case announced by the trade representative's office Thursday will create an arbitration panel to determine whether or not Guatemala is failing on its obligations.

See also here and here. It's nice to see the US using its free trade agreements to enforce worker protection rights but where's the outrage with against the US for using its free trade agreement with Guatemala to interfere with the country's internal affairs? Is the process with regard to labor versus Monsanto so different or is it simply the presumed outcome of that pressure?

Finally, there's gold mining in El Salvador.

A multilateral arbitration panel here began final hearings Monday in a contentious and long-running dispute between an international mining company and the government of El Salvador.

An Australian mining company, OceanaGold, is suing the Salvadoran government for refusing to grant it a gold-mining permit that has been pending for much of the past decade. El Salvador, meanwhile, cites national laws and policies aimed at safeguarding human and environmental health, and says the project would threaten the country’s water supply.

“This mining process would use some really poisonous substances – cyanide, arsenic – that would destroy the environment. Ultimately, the people suffer the consequences." -- Father Eric Lopez

The country also claims that OceanaGold has failed to comply with basic requirements for any gold-mining permitting. Further, in 2012, El Salvador announced that it would continue a moratorium on all mining projects in the country.

Yet using a controversial provision in a free trade agreement, OceanaGold has been able to sue El Salvador for profits – more than 300 million dollars – that the company says it would have made at the goldmine. The case is being heard before the International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID), an obscure tribunal housed in the Washington offices of the World Bank Group.

“The case threatens the sovereignty and self-determination” of El Salvador’s people, Hector Berrios, coordinator of MUFRAS-32, a member of the Salvadoran National Roundtable against Metallic Mining, said Monday in a statement. “The majority of the population has spoken out against this project and [has given its] priority to water.”

Pacific Rim, Oceana Gold's predecessor, tried to pursue its claims through CAFTA-DR but its claim was rejected when it was determined to be a Canadian company and therefore not eligible to sue under this free trade agreement. Oceana Gold is now using the ICSID because the Salvadoran government became a party to that trade agreement in 1999.

Obviously many people would have preferred that the US and the countries of Central America had not signed a free trade agreement, but we have. After a decade of requests from Central American leaders, the US agreed and the agreement was signed in 2004, becoming effective a few years later. I'm just not comfortable blaming CAFTA-DR for all of the region's recent economic problems as was frequently heard during this summer's unaccompanied minors crisis.

The free trade agreement can be used to enforce laws to benefit more positive outcomes enjoyed by large (workers' rights) or small (mining corporations) groups. The Central American country that tends to get some of the highest marks from CAFTA-DR and for addressing workers' rights is Nicaragua. While not perfect, Nicaragua seems to be benefiting from CAFTA-DR to a greater extent than its neighbors (at least in the media). Part of that is due to its poverty (they received special benefits) but there are other factors as well.

While, for now, I am happy that the Monsanto laws were repealed or not passed and that the US is using CAFTA-DR to help promote workers' rights in Guatemala, it's not based on any principled reasoning. If anything, it's based upon what I see are outcomes that serve the needs of some of the region's most vulnerable. Now, I'm just waiting for a vote in favor of the environment in El Salvador.

Las relaciones entre Estados Unidos y Centroamérica en el siglo XXI

During my 2013 Fulbright to Guatemala, I gave a series of lectures at the Rafael Landivar University on United States - Central American relations in the post Cold War period. While not perfect, the first talk covered eight years of Bill Clinton and the second eight years of George Bush. The third talk covered the first Obama term with an eye towards his second term.

“Barack Obama, América Central y el future de las relaciones EE.UU. – América Central.” June 2013.

“El Impacto de los atentados del 11-S en las relaciones EE.UU. – América Central.” May 2013.

“Las Relaciones EE.UU. – América Central después de la Guerra Fría.” April 2013.

Alberto Martin and I more fully developed the presentations and they were just published by the Landivar as "Las relaciones entre Estados Unidos y Centroamérica en el siglo XXI" in La Politica Exterior de Estados Unidos, (Colección Cátedra de Coyuntura Internacional n.º 4, Guatemala, 2014: 103-176).

In addition to our entry, the university included contributions from Beatríz Zepeda on "Los desafíos de las relaciones internacionales en el siglo XXI", Josefina del Prado on "Obama y el cambio: política exterior de EEUU," Carlota García Encina on "¿Pragmatismo o debilidad? La política internacional del presidente Obama," Ana Esther Ceceña on "La dominación de espectro completo sobre América," and Claudio Katz on "Bloques y problemas de América Latina."

Click here if you'd like to take a read.

Guatemala's poor getting poorer

According to a recent report, Guatemala is the only country in the region where the poor have been getting poorer. In 2012, the poorest 40 percent of the country's people lived on $1.50 per day. That is worse than 2003 when the bottom 40 percent lived on $1.60 per day.

Last I read poverty had improved to where only 51 percent of the population had lived in poverty but then increased again following the global economic and food crises as well as insecurity, natural disasters, and other issues more specific to Guatemala. (Poverty in Guatemala, Poverty decreased by twenty percentage points - that's good, right?)

Go take a look at the brief article. No need for me to summarize it all here. However, what was really disappointing was the concluding paragraph.

According to World Bank simulations, if Guatemala's rate of growth were to rise to 5 percent over the next three years, by 2016 the poverty rate could fall by an additional 1 percentage point, thereby allowing 160,000 more Guatemalans to escape poverty.

I haven't read anything that indicates 5 percent over the next three years is possible. The Perez Molina government has been all about encouraging foreign investment and promoting economic growth but the results have been mixed.

Really makes me wonder how neighboring El Salvador has been able to decrease poverty by 10 percentage points over the last several years with horrible growth rates. Social programs help, of course, as due remittances (which Guatemala also enjoys) but there's something fishy going on.

Latin America's Dirty Wars - a false equivalency?

The Economist had a not so great piece arguing that the Latin American “Dirty war” memorials should not be used to rewrite the past. Otto, Lillie, Steven and Colin all have good responses to the misinformed Economist article. I sympathize with The Economist's article but it's a mistake to look for balance where there is none.

The authoritarian right in Latin America (Chile, Argentina, El Salvador, Guatemala, etc.) carried out brutality on a scale that was disproportionate to anything that the authoritarian left has executed (Nicaragua, Cuba). I think that there has been a tendency to romanticize the revolutionary left, failure to investigate their human rights violations, and excuse/justify their crimes when uncovered. However, one needs to be careful with any false equivalency.

A friend and I were discussing some of the crimes of the FMLN last week in Berlin. We discussed Mayo Sibrian. He seems to have been responsible for hundreds of deaths of civilians and FMLN in the mid-1980s. However, when speaking with FMLN sympathizers, I was also told that the deaths were more in the dozens and was the work of a drunk commander one weekend. I don't know. The terror carried out by Sibrian seems to have been carried out over a much longer time period and to have involved many more than dozens.

The killings were also known at the time. According to some documentation and interviews, internacionalistas and other guerrillas knew about the massacres. They even spoke to the FPL about the allegations. The FPL, including its commander Salvador Sanchez Ceren, didn't seem to care and didn't bother to investigate.

The FMLN also engaged in forced recruitment, including youth, and the killings of mayors. The recruits and the mayors were both civilians. However, when I wrote that in my 2010 article on violence during the Salvadoran civil war, a reviewer kept trying to downplay the events. It was only the ERP that was engaged in forced recruitment, not the entire organization and it was only for a little while before they realized their mistake. It was again, an attempt to downplay the violence committed by the FMLN. The ERP, on the other hand, complained that they were the political-military organization that was most truthful about the crimes that they committed during the war. The other organizations were not as upfront and therefore did not look as bad in the country's truth commission.

Finally, the truth commission covers 1980-1991 which is convenient to the insurgents. The war started with the failure of the October 15, 1979 coup and the March 24, 1980 murder of Oscar Romero. It started after the fraudulent 1972 and 1977 elections. However, the guerrillas had already formed in the early 1970s. Some even traveled to Guatemala in the 1960s to engage in guerrillas warfare training (two even died fighting in Guatemala). They then carried out kidnappings, assassinations, and bank robberies during the 1970s. However, by marking the beginning of the war in 1979 and 1980, it does overlook a lot of what happened during the years before the outbreak of large-scale violence. It also explains why the Salvadoran right gets upset when the latter dates are used to explain the outbreak of the war. Many of them had been targeted prior to the official start of the war.    

In Guatemala, there have been documented massacres by the guerrillas, including one where a local commander was recently found guilty in a Guatemalan court. In interviews I've carried out with former guerrillas, two mentioned that their biggest regret was the way that they and their comrades treated people within their ranks. Revolutionary justice was carried out against guerrillas who gave away the group's position or somehow else endangered the political-military organization. There was little tolerance.

In Nicaragua, they Sandinistas led a broad-based coalition against the Somoza regime. However, while not entirely the Sandinistas' fault, they alienated pro-democratic (at least in the formal liberal sense) members of their coalition early on during the revolutionary government. They also alienated one of their key supporters during the downfall of Somoza - Costa Rica. They criticized their democratic ally as being a lackey of the US. I wouldn't say that makes them equally authoritarian to the region's right, not even close, as The Economist article would lead one to conclude.

Of course the guerrillas carried out violence against those within their own ranks, against the civilian population, and against government officials - acts that fall outside the rules of war. We have not paid enough attention to documenting, understanding, or explaining how and/or why the violence occurred. It's not clear that any of the revolutionary coalitions that did not come to power would have ruled in a democratic, human rights friendly fashion. Their behavior during the war leads me to think that they would not have ruled in a very heavy-handed fashion. Well, maybe except for the Shining Path and/or FARC.  

However, that's a far cry from drawing any false equivalency between the left and the right when it comes to their behavior in Latin America during the Cold War.

Border Disputes, Political Tensions Threaten Needed Cooperation in Central America

As Central Americans celebrate their independence today, Christine Wade has analysis on some of the difficulties that impede regional cooperation in the 21st century for the World Politics Review.

Here's the opening of her analysis on Border Disputes, Political Tensions Threaten Needed Cooperation in Central America.

In the first week of September, the Honduran military raised the Honduran flag over the disputed Conejo Island, quickly raising the ire of El Salvador’s government. The incident as well as other recent border disputes highlighted tensions within the region at a time when cooperation and collaboration are more important than ever. 

The timing of the flap was illustrative on a symbolic level as well: On Sept. 15, five Central American states—Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua—will jointly celebrate 193 years of independence. Once united in a short-lived federation, the domestic and international politics of these five countries remain deeply intertwined. Since independence, the region has suffered from its share of domestic turmoil and foreign intervention, at times both uniting and dividing countries in the isthmus. 

Go check it out.

Immigration in NEPA

I am quoted in this Scranton business article on the likely impact of immigration on northeast Pennsylvania. I'm in Germany until tomorrow night. At some point this week, I'll be back to regular blogging.

Mike

CICIG: another game-changing arrest in Guatemala?

Mirte Postema has an article up at Americas Quarterly on CICIG Investigation Could be a Game-Changer for Guatemala. I don't know about a game-changer. Whenever I've thought that Guatemala might have turned the corner, it's all come crashing down in disappointment.

There are many things of interest to the recent Lima arrest however. The clear connections between organized crime and elected officials is all over this scandal, particularly with regards to Otto Perez Molina and the Patriotic Party. But given that Lima built his empire over the Portillo, Berger, Colom, and Perez administrations, the scandal will reach many people across all administrations.

CICIG had announced that they were going to focus on organized crime and the political system, primarily campaign financing, during the last two years of its mandate. The recent arrests clearly fit this focus even though the arrests so far have fallen mostly in the organized crime camp rather than the public officials camp. I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop.

Now back to the conference.

Guatemalan immigrant poised to win seat in US Congress

Norma Torres

Norma Torres sees herself in some of the Central American children who have flooded into the United States in recent months.

More than four decades ago in Guatemala, Torres' parents told her she was going to the United States on a vacation. They declined to tell her she would not be coming back. Now 49, Torres is the favorite in a race between two Democratic candidates to represent a Los Angeles-area district in the House.

"In many ways, I see the decision these children have made ... like the decision my parents made for me," Torres said in a recent telephone interview. "They wanted an opportunity for me to grow up and be a successful person."

Torres' candidacy takes place as Hispanics gain increasing political influence in the United States and as Congress struggles over how to proceed on immigration policy. Hispanics make up nearly 70 percent of the district that she seeks to represent, and nationally, Latinos overwhelmingly support Democrats. But in the House, Democrats are expected to remain in the minority after the November midterm elections.

Go here to read more about Norma Torres, a woman who might become the first person of Guatemalan descent to be elected to the US Congress.

Central American Revolutionary Ties: The Guatemalan National Revolutionary Unit (URNG)

Alberto Martin Alvarez and I are presenting a paper on the relationship among the Central American revolutionary groups between the 1960s and 2000 at next week's XVII Congreso Internacional de AHILA in Berlin Germany. The paper is tentatively titled "Central American Revolutionary Ties: The Guatemalan National Revolutionary Unit (URNG)."

There are a lot of interesting stories involving cooperation between the Guatemalan FAR and the Salvadoran ERP. Joint bank robberies and kidnappings. We still have some more research to conduct as we've mostly interviewed Guatemalans about the topic.

We hope to have it published at some point in English but since the conference is in Spanish, the paper is not as fully developed in either language as we would have hoped. 

Drop me a line if you are heading to AHILA or are in Berlin next week.

In the end, there is still much that we can learn about the relationship among the Central American revolutionary groups. Salvadorans and Nicaraguans traveled to Guatemala to participate in guerrilla training during the 1960s. The Salvadorans and Guatemalans engaged in joint activities in both El Salvador and Guatemala during the 1970s. Like many others from throughout Latin America, Guatemalan and Salvadoran guerrillas traveled to Nicaragua to participate in the downfall of the Somoza regime in 1978 and 1979. In the 1980s, weapons traveled from Cuba and elsewhere through Nicaragua and into the hands of the FMLN and the URNG. It seems that more weapons were smuggled into El Salvador for a variety of reasons, including the belief that the Salvadoran rebels were closer to victory than were the Guatemalans.

Along with the Cubans, the Sandinistas were a key factor in the consolidation of the Guatemalan guerrillas into the URNG in 1982. Cooperation between the Guatemalan guerrillas and those from Nicaragua and from El Salvador does not appear to have been as strong as the cooperation that developed between the FSLN and FMLN. While one factor is obviously distance (the URNG used Mexico as its rearguard, while the FMLN used Nicaragua), there were other factors that help explain the weaker ties between the Guatemalan guerrillas and those from neighboring countries.

Finally, in the 1990s, the URNG saw the peace processes and the transitions to political parties of their neighbors as significantly different from their own, so much so that they had nothing to learn from them. In particular, the FMLN’s political settlement was very vague and the organization was quite fractured in the postwar period. Those were mistakes that the URNG wanted to avoid. 

There’s a great deal about the relations among the three groups that we still do not know but we hope that this paper and, hopefully article when we are done, we help uncover some of the story that is not yet widely known. 

Mary Jo McConahay on Sainthood isn't enough for Salvadoran Archbishop Óscar Romero

Mary Jo McConahay has a new op-ed in the Los Angeles Times arguing that Sainthood isn't enough for Salvadoran Archbishop Óscar Romero.

Are the bishops ignoring Romero's prophetic voice, harking back to times when the church and the Salvadoran oligarchy presented a united front, determined not to the rock the boat? There is still time for them to stand up for human rights and justice, lest they look like hypocrites when Pope Francis arrives one day at Monseñor Óscar Arnulfo Romero International Airport (it was renamed this year) to canonize their brother.

For those who already regard the slain archbishop as San Romero de America, legal pursuit of his killers would strengthen faith in the rule of law on Earth, honoring Monseñor as deeply as sainthood.

The Catholic hierarchy in El Salvador wasn't behind Romero during his tenure as Archbishop or in his death. And it is not clear that today they are behind his cause for sainthood.

They are looking for revenge because I did not let them put an inmate in this place...whom they wanted to assassinate

Prensa Libre

Guatemalan authorities, with the help of the International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG) arrested, Byron Lima Oliva, an army captain serving time for the murder of Bishop Juan Gerardi, and Edgar Camargo, director of the Guatemalan Penitentiary System. Camargo was arrested on charges of conspiracy, bribery and conspiracy to launder money. Twelve other individuals were also implicated in the organized crime racket, although it is not clear if they were all arrested.

Lima, on the other hand, is the big catch.

Prosecutors said Wednesday that Byron Lima Oliva took money from other inmates in return for favors such as prohibited cellphones and appliances, as well as special food and conjugal visits.

"Lima represents for many of the inmates the true authority, and so they turn to him to seek transfers, favors and rights. Lima Oliva exerts undoubtable influence in the penitentiary system," Ivan Velasquez, head of the U.N. International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala told reporters.

CICIG's Ivan Velasquez, Attorney General Thelma Aldana and Interior Secretary Mauricio Lopez Bonilla announced that the investigation was launched last year. If you remember, Lima was apprehended last February while going to the dentist. He seemed to have been able to come and go from the prison whenever he desired. Perhaps, he was traveling in his Porsche, Jaguar or armored Land Rover to one of the many properties he acquired while in prison? Maybe even his beach property which Lima says that Lopez Bonilla has visited.

How did Lima respond to the charges?

Reached by phone, Lima denied the allegations and said he is the target of a vendetta by government officials because he prevented extortion and other crimes in the prison.

"They are looking for revenge because I did not let them put an inmate in this place ... whom they wanted to assassinate," Lima told The Associated Press.

The possible fallout?

Lima, 44, has boasted in the past of having a friendship with current President Otto Perez Molina, also a former soldier, and says he had campaign T-shirts printed for the 2011 election. On Wednesday, he said he also provided the campaign with money from businessmen, delivered through Lopez Bonilla.

The president's office declined to comment Wednesday.

When Lima was taken into custody last February, he and his entourage were traveling in vehicles used by the Patriotic Party during their 2011 campaign.

If Byron Lima built this empire over the last fifteen years, as has been alleged, there are hundreds of people, perhaps more, complicit in this single case.

(Yahoo, Fox News Latino, ABC News, The Globe and Mail / AP)

Nearly 40k Guatemalans deported from US so far in 2014

As of the end of August, the United States had deported 39,029 Guatemalans. That is 5,246 more people than were deported during the same period last year.

Of that total, 34,022 were men (87%), 4,858 women (12%), and 149 minors (less than 1%). The US deported 50,221 in 2013

One woman who will avoid deportation is Ms. Aminta Cifuentes who fled from Guatemala in 2005.

The nation’s highest immigration court has found for the first time that women who are victims of severe domestic violence in their home countries can be eligible for asylum in the United States.

The decision on Tuesday by the Board of Immigration Appeals in the case of a battered wife from Guatemala resolved nearly two decades of hard-fought legal battles over whether such women could be considered victims of persecution. The ruling could slow the pace of deportations from the Southwest border, because it creates new legal grounds for women from Central America caught entering the country illegally in the surge this summer in their fight to remain here.

The board reached its decision after the Obama administration changed a longstanding position by the federal government and agreed that the woman, Aminta Cifuentes, could qualify for asylum.

Since 1995, when federal officials first tried to set guidelines for the immigration courts on whether domestic abuse victims could be considered for asylum, the issue has been reviewed by four attorneys general, vigorously debated by advocates and repeatedly examined by the courts. With its published decision, unusual in the immigration courts, the appeals board set a clear precedent for judges.

I can't say that I agree with legal changes to our asylum laws that will allow Ms. Cifuentes to remain in the United States, but I am glad that she will get the protection that she deserves after her horrible ordeal.

''We're not intervening in El Salvador's affairs...'We're just recognizing a liberation movement.''

Aaron Margolis, a PhD candidate in Borderlands History at the University of Texas at El Paso, has a post up at the History News Network entitled Guess What Mexico Did When Tens of Thousands of Guatemalans Overran Its Border in the 1980s?

Though there were some missteps overall the story was a success and a model that should be a point of reference for the United States. Instead of treating the Guatemalan refugees of the 1980’s as some unwanted package to be shipped back, Mexicans in and out of government led a pragmatic effort to enrich their country with those who needed room to breathe and live. Like many today in the United States, vocal elements in Mexico looked on the Guatemalans in Chiapas and saw a threat instead of desperation, thought of burden instead of charity. As a whole, Mexico as a nation did not listen to those protests, instead choosing compassion and humanity for those thousands whose desperation for a better life caused them to ignore borders. In the present situation the U.S. could do no worse.

And it wasn't just the refugees that the Mexican government and people hosted. The Central American revolutionary groups and solidarity committees were very busy in Mexico from the 1960s into the 1990s. They raised money there. They transported guerrillas through Mexico to other countries, often Cuba. Some stayed in Mexico for medical care. Families of combatants fled to the safety of Mexico. Weapons were also smuggled from the US through Mexico to Guatemala (which I am not sure was part of the deal).

The Guatemalan guerrillas were welcomed in Mexico as long as they did not launch attacks from Mexican territory (mostly the 1970s and 1980s) or link up with the Zapatistas (the 1990s). Most of the commanders lived in Mexico for several years of the war as well. While the Salvadoran FMLN used Nicaragua as its rearguard, the Guatemalan URNG used Mexico.

And with regard to El Salvador, the Mexican government, as well as the French, recognized the guerrilla-led opposition as a ''representative political force" on August 28, 1981.

The statement said the guerrillas had a right to take part in negotiations aimed at ending the conflict. It also called for a restructuring of El Salvador's armed forces before ''authentically free'' elections could be held there.

(In Washington, the State Department criticized the statement for suggesting that the leftist parties represented anything more than a small minority of the Salvadoran people. But the department praised the document's expression of concern for El Salvador and its right to self-determination.)

In recent months, Washington has endorsed the Salvadoran junta's rejection of several offers of international mediation in the conflict, including initiatives by Mexico, Venezuela and the Socialist International. But this is the first time that France, under the new Socialist Government of President Francois Mitterrand, has taken such a public stand on El Salvador.

In their statement today, Mexico and France seemingly anticipated charges of interference in El Salvador's internal affairs by pointing out that the conflict was ''a potential threat to the stability and peace of the entire region'' and therefore required international attention.

Mexican officials noted that neither Government had broken diplomatic relations with the junta nor formally recognized a government in exile. ''We're not intervening in El Salvador's affairs,'' a Mexican official said. ''We're just recognizing a liberation movement.''

...

The sources said France and Mexico were prompted to act by evidence that neither the military-civilian junta nor the so-called Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front seemed able to achieve a military victory over the other and by the increasing number of civilian deaths.

The Salvadoran civil war would end in military stalemate over ten years later.

Poverty and homicides decrease in El Salvador - Isn't life great?

Some good economic news out of El Salvador. Poverty decreased from 34.5% in 2012 20 29.6% in 2013. Tim takes a closer look with Economic statistics -- poverty and the middle class both shrinking in El Salvador. Costa Rica has economic growth without poverty reduction while Guatemala has economic growth and impoverishment. El Salvador is trying poverty reduction with no economic growth.

Imagine how bad things would have been had El Salvador not experienced two years of relatively low homicide rates and poverty rate improvements. I'm skeptical like Tim about the causes of the decrease in poverty. However, if the numbers are to be believed, I'd say that it was a combination of many factors - remittances, government spending on health and immigration, perhaps the outward migration towards the US of those at the bottom of the economic pyramid.

El Salvador: ¿Quién paga el precio de la evasión fiscal?

El Salvador gangs announce re-launch of 2012 truce. See more from Tim with Gangs announce a new phase of the truce. At this point, I can't keep up.

Some more security news as the Fiscalía pide captura de jugadores futbolistas; Growing Calls for Reforms of El Salvador’s Privatised Pension System; and El Salvador: Desmantelan red de trata de menores y prostitución.

Finally, there's the The Age of Survival Migration from Diana Cariboni. Children fleeing violence and economic opportunity is a global phenomenon, not just one between the Northern Triangle and the United States.

Corruption in the Northern Triangle: The siren song of crime

Ivan Briscoe has a new report on Corruption in the Northern Triangle: The siren song of crime.

More than ever, it seems clear where Central America’s people and government should direct their efforts: to controlling money laundering, stiffening the autonomy of oversight bodies, bringing development to border regions, and eliminating graft from security forces and judiciaries. But in democracies where money and fear are important sources of mobilization, achieving public backing for these policies requires making lucid, tangible connections between progress in combating civil insecurity and improvements to the integrity of the state. It is this virtuous cycle that is needed to replace the current vicious cycle of emergency, militarization and crime, and the siren song of the ice-cream bell.

It is the third installment on a three part series for The Broker. Pien  Metaal and Liza ten Velde produced Drugs and violence in the Northern Triangle: Two sides of the same coin? while Wim Savenije and Chris van der Borgh wrote Anti-gang policies and gang responses in the Northern Triangle: The evolution of the gang phenomenon in Central America.

You can also check out Bastiaan Engelhard's Preventing crime and violence is better than fighting it.

Happy Labor Day!