Seeking asylum from gangs

On a fairly regular basis I receive e-mails from lawyers who are representing Salvadorans facing deportation from the US. The lawyers are often looking for information to support an asylum claim for person who fear gang-related persecution if they return to El Salvador. US law grants asylum to persons in the US who establish they have been persecuted or fear they will be persecuted on account of their race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion.

A resource to which I will now direct those lawyers is the Gang Asylum Guide put out by the Washington Office on Latin America. The Guide presents an overview of the gang problem in El Salvador and other Central American countries and provides resources for making the argument that a former gang-member, or a person who fled gang recruitment, or other persons should be entitled to asylum in the US.

I've written previously about the Medrano family who fled El Salvador after gangs threatened their lives for not paying extortion demands. Crossing into the US without documentation, they were detained by US immigration authorities and the father of the family was deported immediately. Shortly after his forced return to El Salvador, the gangs killed him. Now his family seeks asylum in the US.

As the Dallas Morning News explains, making such an asylum claim does not fit neatly into the categories of US asylum law. Yet the family has had some success in court, and so far is being allowed to remain in the US, at least temporarily.

It is a tragic paradox. The gang problems in Central America are rooted in US immigration policy as gang members were deported from the Los Angeles area during crackdowns in the mid-1990s. Yet US immigration authorities also deport the gang's victims to face persecution and retribution from the gangs which infect certain neighborhoods of El Salvador and its neighboring countries.

Investing in El Salvador

Last year I wrote about the announcement of Cutuco Energy's plans to build a large natural gas electric power plant in El Salvador and the jobs that plant would bring to El Salvador. Those plans are still moving forward. A recent article describes the man behind the project and his thoughts about making such a major investment in El Salvador:

When Bill Perkins, 39, took his first trip to El Salvador, he was not expecting much. "This is a country that, not long ago, was being ravaged by civil war," he says. "I was bracing for a lot of rubble and bullet holes."

What he found, however, were well-paved roads, hotels packed with foreign investors and a populace with "a lot of fancy degrees".

That reconnaissance mission three years ago has led to one of the biggest private investments in dollar terms in Central America since the Panama Canal: an $800m, 525-megawatt, gas-fired power plant that aims to bring El Salvador and its near neighbours cheaper, cleaner-burning electricity at a time when the region's dependence on more expensive oil-based fuels is inciting strikes and wreaking financial havoc....(more)

San Salvador's earthquake vulnerability

In the wake of the devastating earthquake in China this week, Forbes reported on a study of earthquake vulnerability by GeoHazards International, an NGO working towards earthquake safety around the globe. Of the 20 cities worldwide ranked as most vulnerable to earthquakes, San Salvador was ranked number 7:

The country's 220-square-mile capital city, home to 2.2 million people, has been the site of numerous earthquakes throughout its history, most recently in 2001. A 6.0 quake would kill an estimated 11,500.

GeoHazards also released a study in 2001 after the earthquakes which hit El Salvador pointing out that many measures to reduce the damage and fatalities those quakes caused are both feasible and relatively low cost. This week US military personnel participated in disaster preparedness exercises in El Salvador simulating response to a devastating earthquake.

Upside Down World interview with Funes

Upside Down World, an online magazine "covering activism and politics in Latin America" from a progressive point of view, has published a lengthy interview with Mauricio Funes, the FMLN's candidate for president of El Salvador. The interview is well-worth reading. The first question asks Funes to place his campaign within the leftward shift of politics seen in Latin America in recent years. Funes answer:

We are often asked, ‘Well, what type of left do you represent?’, and I have said: “We represent the left of hope. We are a sensible left, a reasonable left, a left that is betting on change, a stable change.

We are looking for a type of society that builds functioning institutions in El Salvador, a democracy that functions, a viable nation.

Given the current international context, we do not aspire to build socialism in El Salvador. What we hope to build is a more dynamic and competitive economy, placing ourselves in the international playing field in a highly globalized and competitive world. We hope to have a stronger and more dynamic economy than what has been built up until now.

To do this we need the institutions that work, and for democracy to become a symbol that also exists in our country. We do not need to be close to Chavez, close to Lula…or close to Bush in order for our institutions and democracy to work. What we need is to build a model of public management that responds to the needs of Salvadorans and that will resolve Salvadoran problems.

The remainder of the interview addresses many issues of US-El Salvador relations, as well as questions about water policy, mining and bio-fuels. Since the article is titled Part I of the interview, hopefully more will soon be available.

Uncovering the "disappeared"

Yesterday's post described the work of COMADRES, the organization of mothers of civilian victims of the civil war, dedicated to finding what happened to the "desaparecidos", those were were abducted by death squads or the armed forces and never heard from again. That work continues, as an article yesterday on the IPS news service describes:

The local residents and forensic experts are digging in the spot where the remains of five men and one woman are thought to be buried in La Angostura, a rural village in the mountains near the town of Ciudad Barrios, 136 km east of San Salvador. The exhumation work takes place Apr. 24-28.

The Madeleine Lagadec Human Rights Centre’s efforts to uncover the truth have led to around 600 exhumations of common graves since El Salvador began the transition to democracy in the wake of the 1980-1992 armed conflict, which left more than 75,000 civilian victims dead, as well as some 7,000 people "disappeared", according to official estimates.

Nearly two decades later, the remains of thousands of "desaparecidos", as the victims of forced disappearance are known in Spanish, are still buried in common graves without ever having been identified. (more)

Does anyone disagree that family members should have the right to assistance in learning what happened to their loved ones? Yet organizations which work on this task regularly report receiving a cold shoulder from the current government in El Salvador.

A Mother's Day tribute to COMADRES

For Mother's Day (a day late), I want to highlight the work of the organization COMADRES, the Committee of Mothers Mons. Romero. COMADRES grew up as an organization of the mothers of victims of political violence and disappearances in the turbulent 70s and 80s. The organization demanded justice for their family members throughout the civil war and beyond:

Comadres was set up in 1977, when 'disappearances' were the order of the day in El Salvador. The group came into existence because relatives of 'disappeared' persons felt the need to share their grief with partners in misfortune and to unite forces with them. At the moment Comadres is working on 4,000 cases of 'disappearances', an emotionally arduous job for the relatives. On the one hand the women know that their 'disappeared' husbands and children probably have been killed, on the other hand, as long as the body hasn't been found there is always a spark of hope that makes them believe that one day the missing person may return home. This glimmer of hope gives strength to the organization: the fight goes on.

Meanwhile the women of Comadres have extended their activities. They are involved in human rights education. On the social and economic level they undertake joint activities too. Because of the 'disappearance' of their husbands or sons, the economic situation of the women, already belonging to the economic lower class, has become worse. Most of them demand financial compensation from the government. But financial compensation isn't the most important issue; much more important is the social, mental and political support. Finally, the women of Comadres are trying to get psychological help for children who have been traumatized by the events that took place during the civil war in El Salvador.

Learn much more at the COMADRES website. In a 1996 decision, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights detailed a series of attacks against COMADRES and its members during the civil war which had been left uninvestigated and unpunished by El Salvador's government.

Impacts on remittances from US to Latin America

A recent report released by the Inter-American Development Bank studies  the patterns of remittances sent back by Latin American immigrants in the US to families in their home countries:

The current survey goes beyond simply tallying remittance totals and starts to probe the reasons behind the shift in remittance flows. The results suggest that two principal forces are affecting the lives of Latin American immigrants and the flow of money they send home.

The first is the effect of the U.S. economic downturn on the sectors employing large numbers of Latin American immigrants. Impacting the incomes of workers directly, the downturn is clearly reducing the capacity of immigrants to support their families back home.

The second, and perhaps more significant force, is the effect of the immigration climate which has been emerging over the past two years and is changing the dynamics of remittances to Latin America.

In short, the report finds that the economic downturn in the US is impacting remittances, but so is the increasing hostility towards immigrants seen in communities across the US.  The total level of remittances may not decrease this year, but the number of immigrants sending money back is declining.  As a consequence, the number of families in Latin America facing hardship from a lack of remittance money is increasing at the same time that basic food and fuel costs are rising.  (The IADB report is also discussed in this Wall Street Journal article). 

In the most recent information from El Salvador, according to El Salvador's Central Reserve Bank, remittances in the first 3 months of 2008 totaled $912.2 million, a growth of 6.1% compared to the same period a year ago.  So El Salvador may not yet be seeing the impact of these larger forces.

Immigration stories

A Washington, D.C. area television station, WJLA - ABC 7, has recently aired stories about Salvadoran families split between two countries by immigration. You can read those stories and watch the video reports here and here.

Also worth reading is reporter Andrea McCarren's blog of their reporting trip to El Salvador which has short essays and photos on a number of aspects of life in El Salvador.

Political(?) Murders

There are recent updates in two murders and a new murder, which continue to raise the question: how do you know when a murder is politically motivated? It is a question I've asked before in this blog, especially when people are quick to assert a political motivation when few facts are known about a murder.

The case of Salvador Sanchez -- Sanchez was the radio journalist who worked for progressive radio stations and was murdered near his home in September 2007, and some suggested a political motivation for the murder. This week police reported capturing a member of Mara Salvatrucha as the second suspect in the murder of the radio journalist, after arresting another gang member last October.

The case of Wilber Funes -- Funes was the FMLN mayor in the town of Alegria. He was killed along the road in January of this year. At the time, some in the FMLN blamed the former ARENA mayor of Alegria. Authorities have now charged two current municipal officials from Alegria as the intellectual authors of the murder of Funes. Allegedly these town officials had bad blood with the mayor and hired a gang member to commit the murder.

The new murder of Hector Ventura -- Hector Ventura, was one of the Suchitoto 13 originally arrested for acts of terrorism and finally released after a long legal battle. The 19 year-old Ventura was stabbed to death last Saturday. Activists are demanding that authorities investigate the possibility that this murder was politically motivated by Ventura's activism.

There are too many killings with all sorts of causes in El Salvador. There are too few credible police investigations performed of those killings. Because of those two factors, we may never know which murders are politically motivated and which are not. But every murder, regardless of its cause, calls out for justice for its victims.

Shopping and salvation

One feature in San Salvador are several very large shopping malls. They are popular gathering places, and also are a place for spiritual nourishment reports the Chicago Tribune:

At the food court in the Galerias Escalon shopping mall, a young restaurant employee is getting out the word. She passes out fliers advertising the lunch specials at Los Cebollines, including the $4.50 Super Ranchero combo.

A few feet away, others are getting out The Word.

Each day, the San Jose Chapel offers a Catholic mass and even the sacrament of reconciliation. For a few moments, dozens of shoppers and mall employees exchange Armani and Adidas for Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.

The unlikely pairing between faith and commerce makes perfect sense in El Salvador where they love their malls. Although poverty persists, the high-rise malls draw well-to-do residents who seek air conditioning and a taste of the U.S. in a secure environment....

The website for the Galerias shopping center includes a
web page for the chapel. Somehow I doubt they are preaching liberation theology with its preferential option for the poor at the chapel's services.