Extensions of Remarks

February 25, 1992 EXTENSIONS OF REMARKS 3397 EXTENSIONS OF REMARKS THE PEACE PROCESS IN EL Jesuit University of Central America and losing the crop and thus El Salvador's sec SALVADOR brutally killed six priests, a housekeeper and ond-largest source of foreign capital after her daughter. · the United States' contribution to the war Salvadorans long for assurances that these effort. If the majority of people were gain HON. MICHAEL R. McNULlY massacres will end. They know it is not fully employed in a stable economy, there OF NEW YORK enough to sign a document saying "the would be no workers for the harvest. The IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES Armed Forces and the F.M.L.N. will respect Salvadoran export economy, therefore, de human rights." Such assurances have been pends as much on seasonal unemployment Tuesday, February 25, 1992 offered in the past. Called, variously, "mes and underemployment (from February until Mr. McNULTY. Mr. Speaker, one of my con sages," " symbols, " "indications" and "signs October) as on available labor from Novem stituents, Sister Jane Brooks, CSJ, was kind of peace," they have been ineffectual. Mas ber until January. The wages from the harvest are low and enough to send me a very important article sacres are not the cause of El Salvador's problems, they are a consequence of larger are used to purchase clothing or shoes for entitled, "The Peace Process in El Salvador injustices. The dialogue for peace must ad the children and possibly a few Christmas (A Hermeneutic of Suspicion)," by the Rev dress the underlying causes of the conflict as presents. The peasants are paid piecemeal erend Daniel Santiago, which appeared in the well as their consequences. and by the end of the harvest many workers publication America on January 11, 1992. I Some claim that the Armed Forces of El spend more on the costs incurred to pick cof would like to insert this article in the CONGRES Salvador kill only for the pleasure of killing, fee than they earn. Why would they continue SIONAL RECORD. because they are evil. This is an expression to work? For the coffee pickers, gleaning of the "Black Legend," the most ubiquitous rights belong to those who stay for the whole THE PEACE PROCESS IN EL SALVADOR (A interpretation for Latin American history harvest. Also, some plantations refuse to re HERMENEUTIC OF SUSPICION) heard in the United States. It goes like this: hire peasants who work only during the (By Rev. Daniel Santiago, a Catholic priest Killing is a Salvadoran cultural trait. Salva more profitable early part of the season. working in El Salvador) dorans are a naturally violent people. They The export economy of El Salvador is On Feb. 11, 1990, the Salvadoran Air Force are hot-headed, hot-blooded and lacking any weakened by competition from crops cul bombed Corral de Piedra, a small community appreciation for democracy, human rights tivated for local consumption. The staples of of returned refugees in the Province of and peaceful mediation of differences. the Salvadoran diet are corn and beans. Corn Chalatenago. The attack proceeded thus: At On the contrary, military actions in El is planted, usually on leased land, in early about 8:30 in the morning three Huey heli Salvador, like that at Corral de Piedra, are May. The corn ripens in August and some is copters commenced strafing Corral de Piedra acts of terrorism. They are planned and exe harvested. The majority of the corn cobs, with machine-gun fire. They then let loose a cuted in order to maintain the Salvadoran however, are snapped while on the stalk, al barrage of rockets against the village and its system of agricultural production by terror lowed to dry in the field and picked through environs. Later two A-37 Dragonfly airplanes izing the population and guaranteeing a out October, November and December. Thus dropped eight bombs on Corral de Piedra. ready and cheap supply of labor. The proof of El Salvador's three main export crops-its The attack lasted one hour. this contention is, quite literally, evident source of foreign capital-and its two, impor Three houses received direct hits. The cor across the Salvadoran landscape. tant domestic crops-the dietary staple of rugated metal roofs and adobe walls offered From early November until late January, the poor-are all harvested in the same sea minimal protection against flying shrapnel. in early mornings and late afternoons, Sal son. The corn and bean harvests are more Four children and one adult died imme vadoran highways are choked with lines of important to the peasant than the coffee, diately. Seventeen others required hos peasants-men, women and children- trek cotton and sugar harvests. The motivation pitalization for wounds sustained in the at king to the plantations to pick coffee and to pick coffee is undermined, not only by low tack. The most horrible sight greeting the cotton and to cut sugar cane. wages, but by. the relative lack of impor . survivors was the lacerated and crushed body Each coffee worker carries a basket and tance of the crop in the life of the poor. of two-year-old Blanca Guardado enveloped tumpline. These are not happy peasants, like Salvadoran peasants have long realized in the arms of her dead father, Jose. the Juan Valdez of commercial fame. The how easy it would be to demand higher The survivors who were ambulatory orga children are malnourished and exhausted. wages if they were organized. If workers had nized an evacuation of the wounded to the The adults appear haggard. Coffee picking is the right to organize and to strike, the agri city of Chalatenango. During this evacuation tiresome work with little economic reward. cultural economy would favor workers over the Air Force returned with two C-47 Dako During these months, bales of cotton line producers. Coffee beans, for example, ripen tas and again strafed the village. the sides of the coastal highways. One can at different times throughout the harvest, Corral de Piedra is not an extraordinary see lean-tos set among the cotton fields, and the export-quality beans must be picked case. The list of massacres and attacks temporary homes for the seasonal workers before they fall to the ground. A two-week against defenseless civilians is a long one. As toiling under the sun. strike would cost the landowners early. If the Government of El Salvador and the Sal Sugar cane is cut by hand. Sugar cane also there are no pickers, there is no harvest. If vadoran resistance, the F.M.L.N. (Farabundo cuts, lacerating the hands and arms of the there is no harvest, there is no foreign ex Marti National Liberation Front), intensify men and women who wield machetes. Chil change for the government and oligarchy. their negotiations for a cease-fire it is im dren haul the cane to waiting trucks. Ex Until El Salvador diversifies its economy portant to recall these victims and the rea hausted after a few hours work, they cannot and restructures the relationship of the son they died: Mogotes, 31 killed; Guazapa, 34 pause to rest except at designated periods. workers to the landowners, allowing greater killed; Armenia, 23 killed; Mozote, 800 killed; The flow of profit cannot be disrupted. participation from all levels of society in de San Antonio Abad, 35 killed; San Jose de Las The coastal highways are very dangerous cision making, it will be torn by civil and Flores, 57 killed; Sumpul River, 600 killed; during harvest time. Trucks brimming with class war. Los Cerros de San Pedro, 300 killed. sugar cane race from field to crusher and THE lllSTORY OF THE SYSTEM The special, U.S.-trained Atlacatl Battal from crusher to refinery. Profit rules in El How did El Salvador's economy develop in ion has its own list of massacres: Tenango Salvador. There is no concern for the safety such a precarious fashion? Soon after the and Guadalupe, 150 killed; Tenancingo, 50 of the workers. These trucks are piled so conquest, the central. region of El Salvador killed; Copapayo, 118 killed; Las Piletas, high they often fall over, killing people on was organized in colonial plantations that Gualsinga River, 34 killed. At times the the road. All spew toxic fumes. This is har grew trade crops of balsam, cacao and indigo. Atlacatl has joined forces with the Belloso vest time in El Salvador. But partly as a consequence of isolation, Battalion-San Carlos Lempa., 25 killed; Los The three main export crops-<:atton, large-scale development was delayed. The Llanitos, 68 killed. The Atlacatl also partici sugar and coffee-must be harvest.ed in No Spanish permitted the Indians to maintain pated in Operation Phoenix on Guazapa. vol vember, December and January. All are much of their traditional system of commer cano where 245 civilians, mostly women and labor intensive and require very little labor cial lands. Nuclear families kept gardens ·children, were killed. On Nov. 16, 1989, sol- during the rest of the year. A lack of avail close to home for fresh fruits and vegetables. diers of the Atlacatl Battalion entered the able labor during these months would mean Large, extended families used fields for com- • This ..bullet" symbol identifies sratemeots or insertions which are not spoken by a Member of the Senate on the floor. Matter set in this typeface i.ndicares words iosened or appended., racher than spoken, by a Member of the House on the floor. 3398 EXTENSIONS OF REMARKS February 25, 1992 mon grazing, cultivation of staples and some its' deaths as an attack on economic and so cease-fire and enter the political struggle is crops for sale.

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