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US POLICY MUST ADDRESS THE POLITICS OF DISASTER
IN EL SALVADOR
By Daniel R. Faber
 |
| (Andrew Winning/Reuters) - Jan 16 1:37 PM ET |
http://www.cispes.org/html/update.html
President Bush has barely had time to learn his way
around the White House since Inauguration Day and already his administration is being
called upon to address a number of domestic and international emergencies, ranging from
the energy crisis in California to the catastrophic earthquakes in El Salvador and now
India. At least 25,000 people are dead and tens of thousands injured as a result of a
7.9-magnitude earthquake that hit western India last Friday. India’s Defense Minister
George Fernandes stated earlier this week that he fears the death toll could be as high as
100,000 people.
In El Salvador, searches continue for the more than
2,000 people reported missing and feared buried under collapsed buildings and landslides
triggered by a 7.6-magnitude quake which hit 13 days prior to the India quake. More than
200,000 homes have been destroyed or severely damaged, resulting in the displacement of
over one million Salvadorans. More than 725 people are reported dead and 4400 injured,
with more than a $1 billion in estimated property damage. Adding to the misery, eleven
hospitals, 28 health clinics and 137 churches are severely damaged.
The Salvadoran earthquake is just one in a long-line
of natural disasters to have impacted Central America in recent years. It was just 26
months ago when Hurricane Mitch barreled into the region, killing more than 11,000 people,
destroyed the homes of three million more, and inflicting over $8.5 billion in damage. The
economies of Nicaragua and Honduras were left in ruins. A previous earthquake in October
of 1986 killed 1,110 Salvadorans, injured another 8,000, and displaced tens of thousands.
Although these tragedies are commonly referred to as
"natural disasters," a more careful examination of the political ecology of
developing countries reveals that government policy often plays a central role in
magnifying the deadly and destructive impacts of these natural phenomena. Earthquakes,
hurricanes, flash floods, landslides, and forest-fires are becoming more deadly not
because they are more intense, but because government policy has made people increasingly
vulnerable to their fury. This is particularly true in El Salvador, where the government
has pursued a model of unsustainable economic development since the 1960s which favors
export production for U.S. and international markets over production for local needs.
Given the profound economic inequality, ecological degradation, and improper land uses
which have emerged from this approach, there were warning signs that a landscape ripe for
disaster had been created. These warnings were largely ignored.
In the middle-class community of Las Colinas in Santa
Tecla, for instance, a landslide set off by the earthquake buried 500 houses and killed
315 people, with hundreds more currently missing and feared dead beneath the rubble. For
years, residents of Santa Tecla, environmentalists, and the municipal government had tried
to stop a luxury housing development on the steep slopes above the community, as well as
further development at the base of the hill. Their concerns were that the roads and
deforestation would destabilize the hillside and create a slide in heavy rains or an
earthquake. Appeals to the Salvadoran Congress and Supreme Court to stop the development
were denied. Luxury homes were built, and it was precisely in this area that the landslide
occurred. In essence, this was a manmade disaster that could very well have been
prevented, and in fact, was predicted.
In recent years, the United States government has
worked in concert with the World Bank and International Monetary Fund to promote a
"structural adjustment" and liberalization of the Salvadoran economy. In
addition to cutbacks in social services in favor of servicing the external debt, the
impact of these policies has been to reduce wages and increase natural resource extraction
in order to boost export earnings. As a result, poverty and ecological degradation have
intensified. Today, El Salvador is perhaps the most environmentally degraded country in
the hemisphere. More than 95 percent of the country has been deforested. More than 40
percent of the land designated as ecologically fragile has been developed. Because of such
improper land uses, more than 77 percent of the country suffers serious soil erosion, and
is prone to landslides and flash flooding. This deforestation, in many cases promoted by
collaboration between the Salvadoran government and business elites, has contributed to
the landslides that have destroyed many communities and paralyzed transportation
throughout the country.
More than 50 percent of the Salvadoran population now
lives in poverty, unable to meet basic needs of food, housing, and health care. Lacking
access to good agricultural lands, many are forced to live in sub-standard housing located
in ecologically precarious or dangerous areas. Such homes located atop the
"soft" soil structures of steep hillsides and flood plains are particularly
vulnerable to the disintegrative effects of earthquakes and heavy rains. Yet, because a
mere 2 percent of the population owns 60 percent of the land, these "disaster
prone" areas are often the only lands available to the poor. As a result, the poorest
segments of society are most severely impacted. In 1982, the deforestation of Monte Bello
by poor family farmers outside San Salvador resulted in a massive landslide which killed
more than 1,000 their fellow villagers residing at the bottom of the mountain.
The Bush administration can play a pivotal role in
assisting El Salvador during this crisis by working with Congress and the U.S. Agency for
International Development to secure substantial emergency and long-term funds for the
relief effort. More immediately, the administration should leverage its influence to
inhibit the abuse of such assistance by corrupt government officials–a long-standing
practice by U.S.-backed Central American politicians–which could have a destabilizing
effect on the fragile peace in the country. When the Nicaraguan dictator Anastasia Somoza
Debayle diverted international relief aid into his own bank accounts following the 1972
earthquake–which killed up to 20,000 people and caused $772 million in property
damage–a popular opposition developed which eventually toppled the government. In El
Salvador, the Christian Democratic government in power during the 1986 earthquake
corruptly mismanaged large sums of international relief aid, with much of the money going
into the pockets of key government officials and supporters. Furthermore, after tropical
storm Mitch devastated El Salvador in November of 1998, many of the communities most
affected by the disaster did not receive aid from the ruling National Republican Alliance
(ARENA) government, which instead utilized funds for party-building purposes. . Today,
there is fear in El Salvador that relief money will be once again be used to reward ARENA
supporters and punish opponents, particularly since the National Association of Private
Enterprise (ANEP) is coordinating current relief efforts. Robert Murray Meza, a possible
ARENA presidential candidate in 2004, is in charge of the ANEP program. If there is a
widespread impression of government misconduct, then a return to the violence of the 1980s
might erupt.
The Bush administration can help insure that all
relief aid is properly utilized by urging the Salvadoran government to create a specific
Relief Fund, which would be administered by a commission that represents all sectors of
Salvadoran civil society: labor unions, churches, non-governmental organizations,
women’s associations, community and business groups. The commission would work in
open and transparent fashion to avoid corruption and insure that relief assistance reaches
those communities truly in need. The Bush administration not owes it to the Salvadoran
people, but also to American citizens to insure that our donations and tax dollars are
being properly utilized. Conversion of the Salvadoran economy to the U.S. dollar should
also be suspended, as the $435 million in foreign currency reserves allotted for the
purchase of dollars could better be redirected to reconstruction efforts.
In the meantime, U.S. citizens can support the relief
effort by donating resources to reputable non-governmental organizations operating in El
Salvador. Oxfam International is working with the Red Cross and also supporting the work
of 13 other major partners in the distribution of food and other basic needs. El Salvador
Sister Cities, in partnership with CRIPDES (Communities for the Rural Development of El
Salvador), has yearsof experience working with the Salvadoran people in times of crisis
and knows the landscape. El Salvador Sister Cities and ten other non-governmental
organizations have teamed up again this year to coordinate relief efforts in the wake of
this national disaster. People wanted to contribute can contact U.S.-El Salvador Sister
Cities Emergency Fund, 11 Cambridge Rd., Kendall Park, NJ 08824,732-398-9600 or the
Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador (CISPES) at www.cispes.org.,
212-229-1290
El Salvador urgently needs our help. But in addition
to the immediate requirements for humanitarian assistance, the Bush administration cannot
ignore the larger structural crisis in El Salvador. What is required to comprehensively
address problems of poverty, social injustice, and environmental destruction in El
Salvador is a new development path oriented to raising the living standards for all
citizens. In this respect, President Bush has an opportunity to establish a new model of
disaster relief which can make a lasting difference.
Daniel R. Faber is an Associate Professor of Sociology
at Northeastern University, and the author of an award-winning book on Central
America’s ecological crisis entitled, Environment Under Fire.
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