Media Captured: Elites’ Cohesion and Media Networks in Costa Rica and El Salvador A Dissertation submitted Submitted in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doktor der Philosophie (Dr. phil.) to the Department of Political and Social Sciences of Freie Universität Berlin By Francisco Robles-Rivera Berlin 2018 Supervisor: Univ.-Prof. Dr. Marianne Braig Examiner: Prof. Dr. Benedicte Bull Second examiner: Prof. Dr. Julián Cárdenas Date of Defense: January 7th, 2019 Para mis abuelos Irma y Orlando. 1 Table of Contents LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES ................................................................................................................ I ABSTRACT ............................................................................................................................................ II ZUSAMMENFASSUNG .............................................................................................................................III ACRONYMS .......................................................................................................................................... IV AGRADECIMIENTOS ............................................................................................................................... V INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................................................................... 1 1.1 OBJECTIVES AND PROPOSITIONS ............................................................................................... 4 1.2 THE CASES: WHY COSTA RICA AND EL SALVADOR .................................................................... 5 1.3 METHODS AND DATA .............................................................................................................. 10 1.4 DATA SOURCES ...................................................................................................................... 11 1.5 OVERVIEW ............................................................................................................................. 14 2 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK ................................................................................................... 17 2.1 INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................................................... 17 2.2 MEDIA CAPTURE .................................................................................................................... 18 2.3 UNCOVERING THE STRATEGIES OF ELITES TO CAPTURE THE MEDIA ......................................... 22 2.3.1 Economic Strategies ....................................................................................................... 22 2.3.2 Political Strategies ........................................................................................................... 23 2.3.3 Ownership Strategies ...................................................................................................... 23 2.3.4 Violent Strategies. ........................................................................................................... 24 2.4 ELITES ................................................................................................................................... 25 2.5 COUNTER-ELITES................................................................................................................... 27 2.6 THE COHESION OF ELITES ...................................................................................................... 28 3 COHESIVE COSTA RICAN ELITES ........................................................................................... 31 3.1 INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................................................... 31 3.2 COSTA RICAN ELITES: COMMON BACKGROUND COFFEE BOOM AND CIVIL WAR ........................ 32 3.2.1 The Cafetaleros’ Fraction ................................................................................................ 33 3.2.2 The Industrialist’s Fraction .............................................................................................. 37 3.3 SHARED IDEOLOGY: THE ARTICULATION OF PRIVATE SECTOR .................................................. 39 3.4 HOMOGENEITY OF INTEREST: ACTIVE POLITICAL PARTICIPATION TO PROMOTE A BUSINESS FRIENDLY-AGENDA ............................................................................................................................. 45 3.5 CONCLUSIONS ....................................................................................................................... 52 4 DIVIDED ELITES: TRADITIONAL AND COUNTER SALVADORIAN ELITES .......................... 55 4.1 INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................................................... 55 4.2 TRADITIONAL ELITES IN EL SALVADOR..................................................................................... 56 4.2.1 Common Background: Coffee and Family Lineage ........................................................ 57 4.2.2 Share Ideology: Civil War, Right Wing Politics and Anticommunist Ideas ...................... 61 4.2.3 Homogeneity of Interest: Peace and the Neoliberal Victories ......................................... 64 4.3 COUNTER-ELITES: DISPUTING ELITES’ RULE ............................................................................ 68 4.3.1 Common Background: Ethnic Origins ............................................................................. 68 4.3.2 Share Ideology: Modifying the Structures of Power ........................................................ 71 4.3.3 Homogeneity of Interest: Promoting New Economic Actors ........................................... 74 4.4 CONCLUSIONS ....................................................................................................................... 78 5 THE NETWORKS OF MEDIA OWNERS .................................................................................... 81 5.1 INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................................................... 81 5.2 CONNECTING INTERESTS: ANALYSIS OF MEDIA OWNERS’ NETWORKS ....................................... 82 5.3 METHODS AND DATA .............................................................................................................. 83 5.4 THE NETWORKS OF MEDIA OWNERS IN COSTA RICA AND EL SALVADOR ................................... 84 5.5 MEDIA OWNERS AND ELITE COMPANIES .................................................................................. 89 5.6 CONCLUSIONS ....................................................................................................................... 94 6 COORDINATING THE CAPTURE: THE STRATEGIES OF ELITES TO CAPTURE MEDIA IN COSTA RICA ........................................................................................................................................ 97 6.1 INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................................................... 97 6.2 ELITES: ALIANZA COSTA RICA ................................................................................................. 99 6.3 ELITES STRATEGIES TO CAPTURE THE MEDIA ........................................................................ 105 6.4 POLITICAL STRATEGIES ........................................................................................................ 105 6.4.1 Lobbying ........................................................................................................................ 105 6.4.2 Public relations .............................................................................................................. 108 6.5 OWNERSHIP STRATEGIES ..................................................................................................... 111 6.5.1 Censoring ...................................................................................................................... 111 6.6 ECONOMIC STRATEGIES ....................................................................................................... 113 6.6.1 Campaign Finance ........................................................................................................ 113 6.6.2 Advertisers Influence ..................................................................................................... 116 6.7 CONCLUSIONS ..................................................................................................................... 117 7 DISPUTING THE CAPTURE: THE STRATEGIES OF ELITES AND COUNTER-ELITES TO CAPTURE THE MEDIA IN EL SALVADOR ...................................................................................... 119 7.1 INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................................................... 119 7.2 ELITES AND COUNTER-ELITES IN EL SALVADOR ..................................................................... 121 7.2.1 Elites: G20 ..................................................................................................................... 121 7.2.2 Counter-Elites: Funes and Strategic Partners ............................................................... 125 7.3 THE STRATEGIES OF ELITES TO CAPTURE THE MEDIA ............................................................ 126 7.4 POLITICAL STRATEGIES .......................................................................................................