1 El Salvador in the Age of Financial Capitalism
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El Salvador in the Age of Financial Capitalism: Democracy, Biocapitalism and the Reduction to Bare Life DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Stephanie Aubry Graduate Program in Spanish and Portuguese The Ohio State University 2016 Dissertation Committee: Ana Del Sarto, Advisor Katherine Borland Maurice Stevens Abril Trigo Fernando Unzueta 1 Copyrighted by Stephanie Aubry 2016 2 Abstract The purpose of this dissertation is to examine the interrelated dynamics that have developed since the end of the civil war, and which are linked to the crisis of insecurity in El Salvador. This investigation examines discourses, and written and visual representations related to the processes of financial capitalism as they are manifest in contemporary El Salvador (including the expansion of free trade and economic scarcity), and related to current insecurity and the expansion of zero tolerance policing. In addition, it provides statistical data to contextualize these analyses. Further, it documents several rumors related to insecurity that have circulated in El Salvador in recent years. From there, this dissertation discusses the loss of basic constitutional and human rights post- democratization. This loss of rights is the result of a state of exception, in that it simultaneously violates the law, and is ordered and authorized by the state. In tracing the interconnected dimensions between financial capitalism, economic scarcity and violence, this research contributes to ongoing conversations among journalists and academics regarding the epidemic of insecurity, and the agents that benefit. This dissertation does not point to a singular origin or point of unity that has produced the epidemic. Rather, the discourses and representations documented seek to contribute to a mapping of the political, economic and social transformations that have developed since 1992. ii For Lisa Dupin and Scott Aubry iii Acknowledgments I am grateful to the many people and institutions that have helped me complete this project, and have given me the opportunity to study the conditions in El Salvador following the civil war. This project would not have been possible without the support of my family, my parents, and Scott, Paden and Zoelie, who have shared the work of graduate studies with me. I am grateful to my grandparents, Maria Teresa and Santos Julián, who were my reason for traveling to El Salvador as a child and adult. Along with my family, I am also endebted to my dissertation committee, without whom this dissertation would not have been possible. I am grateful to the members of my committee for my foundations in colonial and contemporary Latin American studies, critical trauma and performance theories, folklore, and studies on solidarity activism and international volunteer tourism. Above all, my committee has trained me to be critical and self-reflexive in my analyses, and to articulate my arguments responsibly and ethically. I am grateful to my advisor, Ana Del Sarto, who is the guiding compass of this dissertation. Thank you for teaching me how to write a dissertation, and for sharing some of the most important milestones of my life with me. Thank you for many years of advice, support, encouragement and patience. I am grateful to my committee members, Katherine Borland, Maurice Stevens, Abril Trigo, and Fernando Unzueta, who have iv inspired me and have been fundamental in my academic and professional development. I am thankful to the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at the Ohio State University, particularly to our former chair, Fernando Unzueta, for creating an environment in which students, employees and parents could thrive. I am thankful to Katherine Borland, Dorothy Noyes, Cassie Patterson and the Center for Folklore Studies at the Ohio State University, for welcoming me, introducing me to Folklore, and giving me a second home on campus. I am also thankful to Katherine Borland for introducing me to a new area of Salvadoran studies, and for providing me with transformative research and travel opportunities. Both the Department of Spanish and Portuguese and the Center for Folklore Studies have provided generous financial support that has made this project a reality. I would also like to thank Flor de María J.A., Doug Bush, Mirela Butnaru and Laura Navarro Morón for your trust, friendship and support. I am thankful to Salvadoranist scholars Hector Lindo Fuentes, Erik Ching, Ellen Moodie and Molly Todd for your inspiration, and for the opportunity to be part of important work in El Salvador. I am also thankful to Raúl Moreno, Carl Lindahl, and Rose J. Spalding, who have had a great influence on this research. Many thanks to the Center for Latin American Studies, the Mershon Center for International Security Studies, and the College of Arts and Sciences at the Ohio State University, and to the Latin American Studies Association for providing generous research and travel funding. v Vita December 1998…………………………B.A. Anthropology University of Central Florida December 2000…………………....……B.A. Foreign Languages and Literatures, Southern Illinois University December 2002……………………...….M.A. Spanish, Southern Illinois University August 2003 to Present…………………Graduate Student, Department of Spanish and Portuguese, Ohio State University Fields of Study Major Field: Spanish and Portuguese Folklore Studies vi Table of Contents Abstract …………………………………………………………………………………. ii Dedication ………………………………………………………………………………. iii Acknowledgments ……………………………………………………………………… iv Vita ……………………………………………………………………………………... vi Table of Contents ………………………………………………………………………. vii List of Tables ……………………………..……………………………………………... x List of Images ………………………………….………………………………………...xi Chapter 1: Introduction ………………………………………………………………...1 Chapter 2: The Socialization of Risk and the Privatization of Profit: Biocapitalism and Transformations in Valorization Processes in contemporary El Salvador ……………………………………………………………………………..42 Biocapitalism and Bare Life …………………………………………………………….44 The Partnership for Growth – Continuing the Network of Free Trade ………………….51 Deep Integration …………………………………………………………………………62 Free Trade, Insecurity and Bare Life ……………………………………………………82 Chapter 3: Zones of Indistinction after Democratization: Financial Capitalism, the Criminalization of the Poor, and the Reduction to Bare Life …………………..89 Roberto Espósito’s (Auto)immunity Paradigm …………………………………………93 Adjusting to Neoliberal Restructuring ………………………………………..................97 Criminalizing Poverty in Democratic El Salvador …………………………………….105 vii Adaptive Strategies …………………………………………………………………….112 Offender Management …………………………………………………………………115 ‘The Living and Threatening Incarnation of Generalized Insecurity’ …………………123 ‘Actually Existing Neoliberalism:’ The Case of El Salvador ………………………….128 ‘Yo Cambio’ and the Philosophy of Moral Behaviorism ……………………………...131 The GSS Recommendations …………………………………………………………...133 Desegregating Prisons ………………………………………………………………….139 Constructing and Containing the Dependent Poor ……………………………………..142 Chapter 4: Acentered Multiplicity: Mapping Discourses and Representations of Economic Scarcity in Democratic El Salvador …………………………………..148 Rhizome ………………………………………………………………………………..151 “Actually Existing Neoliberalism:” Alisa Garni and L. Frank Weyher on Crime and Estrangement in Masahuat and Yucuaiquín ………………………….…….159 Representations of Free Trade and Economic Scarcity ………………………………..166 “We Quintuplicate El Salvador’s Benefits!” CAMTEX on the Benefits of the Apparel and Free Trade Zone Industries ………………………………………..166 Mapping the Costs and Benefits of the Maquiladora Industry ………………………...172 Hoons Apparel International …………………………………………………………..178 “Uno para todos” ……………………………………………………………………...188 Imbalances in Funding for Citizens’ Most Basic Needs ……………………………….193 Chapter 5: Mapping Discourses and Representations of Insecurity Post-Democratization ………………………………………………………………...195 Precarity among the PNC ………………………………………………………………198 The Expansion of Private Security in the Post-War Era ……………………………….202 viii Imbalances in Security …………………………………………………………………212 Challenging Linear Logics ……………………………………………………………..219 Chapter 6: Rumors of Insecurity Post-Democratization …………………………..222 Rumors as a Collective Search for Meaning …………………………………………...224 Foundational Rumors …………………………………………………………………..227 “The Right to be Wrong” ………………………………………………………………229 Rumors of a Curfew in San Salvador – October 19, 2009 ……………………………..231 Rumors of Social Cleansing ……………………………………………………………238 A Curfew in Chalchuapa, Santa Ana – August 19, 2007 ………………………………238 Will Salgado, Mayor of San Miguel (2000 – 2015)…………………………………….240 Massacres in Suchitoto and Tonacatepeque, 2010 …………………………………….243 Rearranging Reality? Official Discourses on Insecurity ………………………………245 Government Involvement in the Gang Truce (2012 – 2014) …………………………..245 Official Discourses on Social Cleansing ………………………………………………248 Official Discourses and Rumor ………………………………………………………...250 Chapter 7: Conclusion ………………………………………………………………..252 References ……………………………………………………………………………..280 ix List of Tables Table 1: Foreign Currency Inflow to El Salvador in % …………….………………….101 Table 2: Prison Population Rate in El Salvador ………………………………………..122 Table 3: The Data Included in a Table on PROSEA’s Website ……………………….173 Table 4: Number of Private Security Firms in El Salvador ……………………………196 Table 5: Annual State Expenditures for Private Security since 2012 ………………….202