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From CISPES, "El Salvador Watch" No.
91, January-February 2001
http://www.cispes.org/html/eswatch.html
Massive Earthquake Hits El Salvador: A Natural and Social Disaster
On Saturday, January 13, an earthquake of magnitude 7.6 rocked El Salvador. The official
death toll is over 700 people, with thousands possibly missing. The actual number of
people killed may never be known, as many unidentified bodies have been buried in common
graves. 1.1 million people (1/6 of the population) are homeless. Though the earthquake is
classified as the worst natural disaster in El Salvador's history, neoliberal social and
economic policies exacerbated much of the massive destruction.
THE NATURAL DISASTER
Over 2,000 aftershocks and 500 landslides were reported in the week following the initial
quake, causing additional damage and death. The biggest landslide was in Las Colinas, a
neighborhood in Santa Tecla, in the department of La Libertad, where at least 300 homes
were buried. The majority of deaths were reported here, but the greatest infrastructural
damage occurred in the department of Usulután.
Towns wiped off the map
The earthquake destroyed or left uninhabitable over 192,000 homes, displacing over one
million people, including 340,000 people in the department of Usulutan. CISPES El Salvador
representatives report that San Agustín and Berlín in the department of Usulutan, as
well as Armenia in Sonsonate were leveled, or "wiped off the map." Makeshift
refugee camps and tent cities are set up around the country, but government relief aid is
very slow in arriving.
Serious health problems emerging
The public hospitals in Santa Tecla and Zacatecoluca are uninhabitable and the main
hospital in the eastern city of San Miguel is condemned. Most people have no access to
drinking water because of contamination of the water distribution system. Children are
fainting from lack of food and water, and at least 8,000 cases of infectious diarrhea have
been reported. There are numerous reports that the government is not providing clean
water, which could lead to epidemics of cholera, dengue fever, and typhoid. Cold and rainy
weather is now sweeping into El Salvador, causing additional health problems - over 15,000
respiratory infections are already reported.
THE SOCIAL DISASTER
Government ineffective and irresponsible in their response Even though El Salvador is on a
major fault line and has a history of earthquakes (a 7.5 quake in 1986 left 1,000 dead),
the country has no national emergency plan. There are no search-and-rescue teams, recovery
dogs, or special equipment. In this quake, the official rescue operation began only when
international teams arrived from Mexico, Colombia, Venezuela, and Spain. One report
indicates that the Salvadoran coordination is so bad that when a Mexican rescue squad
arrived at the airport Saturday night, no one was there to pick them up.
ARENA privatizes and politicizes aid
In response to this disaster, President Flores established the "National Solidarity
Committee" (CNS) to coordinate relief and reconstruction efforts (and funds) and put
Roberto Murray Meza in charge. Meza, a prominent businessman, is ARENA's 2004 presidential
frontrunner. The CNS is composed almost entirely of ARENA members and private business
people who are members of the National Association of Private Enterprise (ANEP). President
Flores has stated that he will not allow any NGO or community to have a voice in the
relief and reconstruction plan. There are already allegations that international aid is
unaccounted for.
Many of the hardest hit areas are municipalities governed by the FMLN and have received
little aid because of their political affiliation. According to one report, municipalities
governed by ARENA started receiving government aid immediately. Meanwhile, Santa Tecla
municipal spokesperson, David Hernández said, "We don't know what [the central
government] is doing, whether it's out of negligence or incapacity, but the need here is
immense and they have sent neither food nor medicines." The only aid reaching the
12,000 people in El Cafetalón refugee camp comes from direct donations from
non-governmental organizations (NGO's). The first official aid shipment to Santiago
Nonualco was comprised of two mattresses, one pound of spaghetti, three pounds of salt,
and one high-heeled, silver shoe. The FMLN mayor hung up the shoe with a sign:
"Relief aid from our Minister of Interior."
History of corruption
After Hurricane Mitch struck El Salvador in November 1998, ANEP was put in charge of
relief and reconstruction efforts. During this time, international aid was mishandled and
politicized. ARENA gave people milk and bottles of oil that had been donated by the
international community in exchange for their votes in the 1999 election. Also, ARENA
allegedly paid former paramilitary civil patrols over $1 million (of relief and
reconstruction funds) in exchange for their votes to support then presidential candidate
Francisco Flores in the 1999 elections.
Economic policies cause more damage
El Salvador is an environmental disaster. 97% of the country is de-forested, 77% is
severely eroded, and 40% of the land has been deemed unsuited for development, but has
been developed nonetheless. According to Ricardo Navaro of El Salvador's Center for
Appropriate Technology, "Economic policies that promote environmental destruction,
poverty, and economic inequality exacerbate any natural disaster," referring to
development models promoted by international financial institutions, such as the World
Bank, International Monetary Fund (IMF) and Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).
Residents of Santa Tecla and environmental groups have been demanding for years that the
hill (part of the Balsam Corridor) above Las Colinas not be developed because the land was
unstable due to de-forestation. Their protest made its way to the Supreme Court, which
sided with the development corporation. Luxury homes were built on the hillside. Now
hundreds of homes at the bottom are buried and hundreds of people are dead.
On the evening of the quake, President Flores visited the Las Colinas landslide site, and
was confronted by an angry mob denouncing his publicity show. Recognizing the government's
partial responsibility in the disaster, and the lack of appropriate emergency response,
family members of those killed surrounded Flores and screamed at him - they demanded heavy
machinery to remove rubble in order to save their loved ones; they demanded food, water,
and shelter. Flores's security detail had to remove him from the site when people tried to
attack him.
Dollarization - another social earthquake
In the midst of the worst natural disaster ever to hit their country, Salvadorans must
also cope with the social earthquake caused by dollarization. Dollarization means U.S.
currency is now legally accepted for all business and governmental transactions in the
country. It will also greatly impede the government's ability to determine its own
monetary policy. Since its implementation on January 1, 2001, dollarization has caused
massive confusion and anger. Some places now only accept dollars while some only accept
colones; some people have access to dollars while others do not. There are numerous
reports of price gouging in the exchange rate; the high level of illiteracy makes this
much easier. [See future issues of El Salvador Watch for in-depth analysis of
dollarization.]
The process of dollarization in El Salvador is heavily criticized and contested by the
FMLN and social movement. A simple majority in the Legislative Assembly (47 out of 84)
passed the law to implement the currency change, even though a constitutional change such
as this requires a two-thirds vote in the currently seated and subsequently seated (May
2003) Assemblies. ARENA forced the legislation through and began dollarization in less
than two months. FESPAD, a legal NGO, the FMLN, and the United Democratic Center (CDU)
have all filed court challenges to dollarization.
FMLN calls for suspension of dollarization
The Salvadoran government is planning to use $435 million of El Salvador's foreign
currency reserve to implement dollarization. On January 14th the FMLN officially called
upon President Flores to suspend the dollarization process and use the $435 million for
national reconstruction. The FMLN also called for the forgiveness of its external debt,
which will sky rocket after the earthquake. There are already indications that El Salvador
and the InterAmerican Development will try and negotiate a $500 million dollar
reconstruction loan.
Official relief effort declared illegitimate
On January 16, a broad-based coalition of Salvadoran social movement organizations formed
the "Civil Society Forum for the Reconstruction and Development." They issued a
public statement declaring that the National Commission of Solidarity (CNS) is
illegitimate, and that the Civil Society Forum is establishing alternative methods to deal
with the relief effort, including supporting the organizing the civilian population. The
coalition includes over 20 groups, including the Association of Rural Communities for the
Development of El Salvador (CRIPDES) and the Melída Anaya Montes Women's Movement (MAM).
They blame much of the intense effects of the earthquake on the past ten years of Arena's
ruthless implementation of neoliberal policies.
Groups: Deforestation Worsened Quake
By MARCOS ALEMAN
Associated Press Writer
SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (AP) Environmental activists and local authorities in a town
where a mountainside buried an entire neighborhood say deforestation and greed contributed
to the disaster.
Long before the hill came crashing down on top of the Las Colinas neighborhood outside San
Salvador, environmentalists had asked Congress and municipal officials had asked the
Supreme Court to block the construction of mansions on the hillside, saying the trees
there helped prevent landslides.
Congress didn't respond, the Supreme Court last year denied the petition, and construction
continued. Business boomed and several estates, complete with swimming pools
andgatehouses, were built above the middle-class neighborhood.
Santa Tecla Mayor Oscar Ortiz said Monday that construction contributed to the landslide,
and accused the constructors of putting the bottom line above human life.
"It was a simplistic vision with strictly monetary interests," he said.
"What good does money do us if we're going to submit our children to something like
this?"
Several businessmen believed to be involved in the companies denied any links to them
Monday.
Hundreds of people were buried when the mountain gave way in Saturday's magnitude-7.6
earthquake, turning the neighborhood into a lake of dirt. "This mountain range showed
us just how sensitive it is," Ortiz said.
Most of the mansions were buried as well, and their inhabitants killed. Only one remained,
just to one side of the landslide: A columned white house owned by an elderly American
woman.
Ecologist Ricardo Navarro accused members of Congress and government officials of
negligence for failing to stop the deforestation. "Several urbanization projects were
born ... and there you have the results, hundreds of deaths," he said. He added
disparagingly: "And now they want to say those people died because of an
earthquake."
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