Diálogo

Volume 8 Number 1 Article 31

2004

Decisión 2004: 's Need for and Fear of Change

Graciela González

Victoria Stob

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Recommended Citation González, Graciela and Stob, Victoria (2004) "Decisión 2004: El Salvador's Need for and Fear of Change," Diálogo: Vol. 8 : No. 1 , Article 31. Available at: https://via.library.depaul.edu/dialogo/vol8/iss1/31

This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Center for Latino Research at Via Sapientiae. It has been accepted for inclusion in Diálogo by an authorized editor of Via Sapientiae. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Decisión 2004: El Salvador's Need for and Fear of Change

Cover Page Footnote This article is from an earlier iteration of Diálogo which had the subtitle "A Bilingual Journal." The publication is now titled "Diálogo: An Interdisciplinary Studies Journal."

This article is available in Diálogo: https://via.library.depaul.edu/dialogo/vol8/iss1/31 El Pais, El salvador. March 20, 2004. Newspaper advertisement Qirs so aa u hijos? tus para esto ¿Quieres what many claimed could be one of the most important important most the of one be could claimed many what These are some of the many issues that face the country today, issuesmany Thesecountry facearethe the some of that throughout lurk still it to led that conditions same of the many although war, civil in longer is ElToday, no Salvador United conflict 12-year the Throughout since. party that to office ARENA took of Cristiani Alfredo conception, party's the term study abroad program that went to El Salvador. During El During Salvador. to went that program abroad study term ways identical; land and wealth distribution is still largely largely still is distribution wealth and land identical; ways Peace Accords. Nations fighting United the the of 1992 signing the In with war prevalent. was government, wing Farabundo insurgent the against government right-wing far so Antonio "Tony" Saca of ARENA, and Shafik Handal of the the of Handal Shafik SacaARENA, and of "Tony" so Antonio claim the lives of nearly 75, 000 civilians. The war pitted the the pitted war The civilians. 000 75, nearly lives of inequities, the claim social discontent, civil 1970s the as early As our time there we saw the beginnings of each party's party's each of beginnings the saw we there time our asymmetrical, people do not have access to basic life life basichas acquired. president new sameissues the to the and access that have not do people asymmetrical, many in but issues different, Today's society. are Salvadoran civil the ended" "officially forces guerrilla and government right- the of support strong the through involvement, States belonged have presidents El Salvador's subsequent of all and rsdnileetosi E Slao' pltcl history. El in Salvador's political elections presidential M N bcm rglr o tlvso ad n newspapers. in and television on regulars become FMLN, more eachcandidate, faces of the and campaigns presidential necessities like clean water, healthcare, education, and work. work. and education, healthcare, water, necessities clean like would that war civil a for stage repressive a the set and leadership distribution, land military of area the in particularly Upon returning, we began plans to return in March to witness witness to March in return plans to began we returning, Upon short­ the in participated both 2003we of December early In Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN). In 1989, shortly after after 1989,(FMLN). shortly In Front Liberation National Marti E l comunismo le robo su niñez, sus juegos, sus niñez, su robo le comunismo El u lgí, u ncni, u futuro. su inocencia, su alegría, su UEE POR MUJERES LA LIBERTAD

ond h Ciao eiiu Laesi Ntok n Latin on Network Leadership Religious Chicago the joined oe' ad edr tde, nvriy iso ad Values and Mission University Studies, Gender and Women's This past March, the Center for Latino Research joined the the Research joined Latino for Center the March, past This the elections and possibly develop a project that would would that project a develop possibly and during return elections to the opportunity the have would mission we this eeiin hnes n nwppr. RN i prun an pursuing is ARENA newspapers. and channels television He private headslargest ARENA candidate. the the presidential America, who had received the invitation to observe from the the observefrom to invitation receivedthe had who America, continue our learning about the country's social and political political and social country's the about learning our continue cec, tas etr o CmuiyBsd Research, Community-Based for Center Steans Science, rd gemnswt Mxc, hl, h Dmncn Republic Dominican , the , of with points agreements trade important most the of One investment. foreign n priual ya eooi n pltcl lbl power. global political and economic anby particularly and communication medias in the country, including radio stations, radio including country, mediasinthe communication Centro de Intercambio y Solidaridad in El Salvador. Through ElSalvador. Through in Solidaridad y Intercambio de Centro n te ogeain fte iso, n pnoig s n an us on sponsoring in Mission, the of Congregation the and and Panama. U.S. support for El Salvador's privatization of the the of El U.S.Salvador'sprivatization for Panama. and support free signed already has Salvador El barriers. investment and reduces is attract trade policy that agreement trade the to within dispute order in exports increase to strategy aggressive aiuae b wa sad otie f t ntoa borders, national its of outside stands what by manipulated an waysthat many the on light shed learned we What reality. We Salvador. El to mission observer election international ai Aeia/aio tde, nentoa Suis Political Studies, International Studies, American/Latino Latin xadd potnte fr .. netet n h country. the markedly in has investment U.S. markets for opportunities telecommunications expanded and electrical needn cutys eiin a b esl ifune and influenced easily be can decision country's independent businesslaladeAsociaciónNacionalcountry, association inthe Saca was "Tony" Elias Antonio announcer sports radio Former Empresa Privada and owns many of the popular popular the of many owns and Privada Empresa Change 2004 n Fearof and DECISIÓN hcg, Illinois Chicago, Stob Victoria and González Graciela El Salvador’s ed for Need

: American Free Trade Agreement. He only met with candidate Tony Saca and made public statements that urged citizens to encourage democracy by supporting capitalism.

ARENA also exploited a small demonstration by several FMLN supporters cheering the attacks of September 11th on the . Following the lead of President Bush and his administration, ARENA employed strategic rhetoric, accusing the FMLN of supporting "terrorism". Shafik Handal, the FMLN candidate had expressed no intent to harm relations with the United States, but rather to continue friendly relations. Most effective however, was ARENA'S claim that if Shafik Handal were to win the presidency there would no longer be remittances sent into El Salvador from their families in the United States. This claim was grounded in public statements made by Republican members of Congress including: Tom Tancredo, Dana Rohrabacher and White House special assistant Otto J. Reich, stressed that a FMLN president would result in the roll back of free trade, negatively affect immigration and cause friction between Washington and . Reich, in fact, implied that Salvadoran immigrants under temporary status would be deported if the FMLN won. The elimination of remittances is a legitimate concern considering that more than $2 billion a year from the exportation of labor contributes to the country's national economy.

Several other private organizations funded media campaigns against the FMLN as well. Most visible were a series of newspaper ads by a group called Mujeres por la Libertad. These ads, which ran almost daily in El Salvador's most popular newspaper, La Prensa Grafica, implied that an FMLN victory would lead the country into Communism, which, also according to these organizations, would lead to drastic More than 300 U.S. companies have established either a increase in poverty, unemployment and repression. permanent commercial presence in El Salvador or work through representative offices in the country. One full-page ad displays a picture of a guerrilla and two young boys holding full-size rifles and machine guns and the caption The FMLN presidential candidate was the former guerilla reads "Un tipico dia de clases en la escuela del comunismo (A leader, Shafik Handal and the candidate for the vice typical day in the school of communism) ... Con el Comunismo, presidency was Guillermo Mata Bennett. Until recently la ensenanza es gratis (In communism, education is free). Es esto Guillermo headed the country's Union of Medics (Colegio lo que quieres para tus hijos? (Is this what you want for your Medico) and was one of the leaders of the hospital strike children?)". Also in the picture are two "official texts" on being against privatization. Together, they planned to establish the an urban guerrilla with the FMLN logo. FMLN's "project for a Peoples' Government": a plan to stop privatization and market liberalization and start processes of ARENA, in collaboration with the United States, was able to change which, according to the FMLN, would give efficiently take advantage of the climate of fear generated by better living conditions, social justice and democracy. an illegal and misleading presidential campaign. U.S. interference while unsurprising in terms of its historic meddling As Election Day came to a close, no evidence of significant in Latin American affairs, is yet another sign of the ramifications fraud was reported, signifying that the voting process itself of "democracy," as conceived and mandated by the dominant was reasonably transparent. It seemed, in fact, that ARENA'S global actor. El Salvador's 2004 elections showed that direct victory had been ensured since campaigning began. The military intervention has been replaced by intimidation and outcome on Election Day reflected the nature of the ARENA threats, however, economic agendas have remained the ends in presidential campaign, what many Salvadorans referred to as accessing what is and is not acceptable governance. "propaganda negra", black propaganda. When interviewed and asked why ARENA had won the elections by such a large The election this year was a reflection of the many ways margin, Salvadorans responded that citizens had voted out of foreign relations, particularly the United States, can affect the fear. ARENA'S rigorous media campaign used divisive slander outcome of the nation's choice for president. Interviews prior that claimed supporting the former guerrilla party would to Election Day led us to believe that the FMLN had a chance ensure bad relations with the United States. True enough, at winning the presidency. Also, many polls taken a few days several United States officials had made statements prior to before indicated the same, but ARENA won with a huge Election Day that discouraged voting for the FMLN as a result margin, why? It seems that the decision was more about what of the party's communist affiliation and intent to reject the Salvadoran's feared most, poverty, and the right-wing party Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA). exploited that fear to its advantage.

In early February Assistant Secretary of State for Latin Victoria Stob is a current student at Depaul University, with a American Affairs, Roger Noriega, visited El Salvador. major in Political Science and minor in Women's and Gender Following his visit he made statements warning the Studies. Graciela Gonzalez has a major in International Salvadoran people against voting for a candidate who does Studies with a minor in Latin American/Latino Studies. Both not support U.S. interests. Following that visit, Florida graduating in November 2004. Contact Graciela at Governor, Jeb Bush, visited the country endorsing the Central [email protected]