Hoping for a good bean harvest

On August 15, El Mundo reported that El Salvador's ministry of agriculture is forecasting a record red bean harvest.  A record harvest would allow the price of beans to drop from their high of this year between $1.20 to $1.30 per pound, back to 50 cents per pound.     The minister of Agriculture even suggests that the harvest might exceed El Salvador's domestic consumption, so that no beans would need to be imported during 2012.

As a result of poor harvests in 2011 and earlier years, El Salvador has been a net importer of beans and corn.   This situation of recent decades contrasts with the 1980's and earlier when El Salvador was self-sufficient with respect to its production and consumption of these basic foodstuffs of the Salvadoran diet.   Currently El Salvador has to go out onto world markets to buy beans and corn.   Most beans are purchased from Nicaragua, but earlier this year El Salvador looked around the world to China for a source of beans.

Commenting on the China bean imports, Colleen at the Locavore del Mundo blog, found little to praise about "short-term imported cheap food":

Personally, I would like to see the Ministry of Agriculture (MAg) invest in long-term solutions such as providing education and resources to implement sustainable farming practices and seed saving techniques. Methods to reduce erosion, to capture rainwater for irrigation, to restore soil health, to fight insects or plant diseases without chemicals, to bring the product from harvest to market with minimal loss...these are topics that would truly benefit the citizens. But instead, what is the biggest complaint? That the cheap Chinese beans are only being sold in 5-pound bags, which is difficult for many people to afford (yes, the $3.75 is a stretch for many campesinos). Which is why it's obvious that only solutions that are rooted in longevity will have any lasting impact.

Improved agricultural techniques, making crops less susceptible to the vagaries of weather, would be a start on the path of El Salvador regaining some security over its domestic food needs. The El Mundo article mentioned above does state that the agriculture ministry intends to spend some $30 million on irrigation and drainage in order to increase the number of acres of agricultural land dedicated to basic staples like corn and beans.

Court frees military officers accused in Jesuit murders

The Supreme Court of El Salvador, in a 10-2 vote, has decided to order 9 former military officers freed who were in detention following an order for their arrest from a Spanish court. An AP report describes today's ruling:

El Salvador's Supreme Court refused to order the detention of nine former military officers indicted in Spain for the 1989 slayings of six Jesuit priests during the Central American country's 1980-1992 civil war. 

The court ruled that no formal extradition request has been received from Spain. The ex-officers turned themselves in voluntarily in early August at a military base, but are not under detention.  The court has said it would consider an extradition request if one were received. But at present, all that is pending against the men in El Salvador is an Interpol request that they be located, something that has already been accomplished.

Although this decision does not preclude the possibility of a future extradition, the decision was greeted bitterly by Benjamin Cuellar, head of the Human Rights Institute at the University of Central America, who described the decision as "one more chapter in the farce" and that the justice system in El Salvador had not changed despite the passage of 20 years since the end of the civil war.

The 9 officers in El Salvador were a subset of the 20 officers indicted in Spain. In the US, one of the other indicted military officers was arrested this week for immigration fraud. Inocente Orlando Montano was colonel in the Salvadoran military and had been living in Massachusetts.

Former US cop on policing in El Salvador

Blogger Nanelle is a former police officer from the US. Now she lives in El Salvador as a US expat. She recently wrote on her observations of Salvadoran police in a post titled Whats Up With The Salvadoran Cops?. Among her thoughts:

These men and women, who are given the awesome task of protecting public safety, are paid less than some restaurant employees.  Restaurant employees are expected to make up for their low wages in tips. Where does that put cops?

Oh .... But we don’t like that do we?

Read the rest of her post here.

El Salvador sending troops to Afghanistan

El Faro reported yesterday that president Mauricio Funes is planning to send a contingent of 22 Salvadoran troops to Afghanistan. The troops will support the international troops in that country in a non-combat role according to the report. Between 2003 and 2009, El Salvador had troops in Iraq, and for most of that time was the only country in Latin America to do so. Funes had campaigned against having troops in Iraq when he ran for president.

Interview of Mauricio Funes on Al Jazeera

The English language channel of Al Jazeera, which has a long history of good quality reporting from El Salvador, posted on its website a twenty minute interview with president Mauricio Funes. The interview begins with a discussion of the crime problem in El Salvador and continues with a wide-ranging discussion of the challenges Funes has faced in his first two years in office. Well worth watching.

A good law unfunded

El Salvador adopted child protection legislation last year, designed to help lower incidence of abuse, poverty and neglect.   Last week IPS reported, however, that the law is languishing for lack of funding by the cash-strapped Salvadoran government:

The law is an improvement on previous child protection legislation, as it commits the state to ensuring comprehensive child protection and full enjoyment by children of universal human rights, such as health and education. It also includes safeguards against all forms of slavery, trafficking in children, forced and bonded labour, and the use of children in drug trafficking. An effort has been made to integrate child protection measures provided in other legislation, like the Family Code, and to construct a coherent legal system. 

The slow rate of progress is attributed by children's rights organisations to a real lapse of interest on the part of President Funes and Finance Minister Carlos Cáceres, whose responsibility it is to promote the necessary budget appropriations. "We observe a lack of political will, a failure to establish priorities and to commit national budget resources so that the law can be enforced," Georgina Villalta, special counsel for children at the Office of the Human Rights Ombudsman (PDDH), told IPS. 

The budget allocation must be approved by the executive branch, but the country's acute fiscal problems mean that this law, along with other bills, is languishing in limbo.

Read more about the law and its slow implementation here.

Emerging artists in El Salvador

El Salvador has a new group of emerging artists.   Working in a variety of media, forms and spaces, they are struggling to get increased visibility.   My friend Danielle Mackey has profiled some of them in a series of articles for FNewsMagazine for the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.  Check it out.

What's Up El Salvador?

An interesting and fun read is the relatively new blog What's Up El Salvador?. It's written by Nanelle, who along with her husband Andy have relocated from the US to El Salvador. From the blog's description:

Join a 43 year old former Ballet Dancer and Police Officer, her Coffee Roasting, beer brewing, husband and their 5 year-old daughter on their move to El Salvador, as they head through customs, find a home, enjoy daily living and explore the country; advising you all the way. Living life in El Salvador as American expats and loving it.

The blog is full of wide-ranging posts about life in El Salvador, as seen from the eyes of a family of newcomers. Nanelle updates the site very regularly and her writing style is breezy and fun. It's now one of my regular stops. Check it out.

Officers indicted for Jesuit murders surrender

The prosecution in Spanish courts for the murder of six Jesuit priests, their housekeeper and her daughter took another step forward today. In May of this year, the Spanish court indicted 20 former Salvadoran military officers for participation in the planning, execution and coverup of the murders. That indictment resulted in an arrest warrant going out through Interpol. Today, nine high-ranking retired military officers, surrendered themselves at a military barracks. The BBC describes:

Nine former Salvadoran soldiers have turned themselves in to face charges that they shot dead six Jesuit priests, their housekeeper and her daughter during El Salvador's civil war.

They had been indicted in Spain under its universal jurisdiction law, which holds that some crimes are so grave that they can be tried anywhere.

The killing became one of the most infamous of El Salvador's civil war.

El Salvador will have to decide whether to extradite the nine to Spain.

The men handed themselves in at a military base after reportedly hearing that Salvadoran police were going to detain them under an international arrest order issued by Interpol.

A total of 20 former soldiers, including two former defence ministers, were indicted by the Spanish court.

Among those in custody is Gen Rafael Humberto Larios, the minister of defense at the time of the massacre. Somehow, however, I have my doubts that these retired officers would voluntarily turn themselves in without some prior assurance that the Salvadoran justice system will not extradite them to Spain. Of the remaining 11 defendants, General Emilio Ponce has died, and the other ten are not yet in custody.

Felicidades Bishop Medardo Gomez!

 

August 6 is celebrated in El Salvador as the feast day of the Divine Savior of the World, the patron saint of El Salvador. But for the Lutheran Church in El Salvador, it is also the anniversary of the date on which Medardo Gomez was installed as the only bishop this church has ever had. Today, August 6, 2011 marks the 25th anniversary of Bishop Gomez' installation, and the church will be celebrating with its own march through the streets of San Salvador.

I have had the privilege to know Bishop Gomez for almost 10 years.   He is a steadfast voice for social justice in El Salvador.   His church serves the poorest communities in the country, and his work is rooted in Latin American liberation theology which he has expanded and adapted as a "theology of life."   During the civil war, he was abducted and tortured by death squads, and on the same day the Jesuits were massacred in 1989, Bishop Gomez narrowly escaped when troops arrived at his church with orders to capture him.  For his work during this time, he was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.

The following quotes give a small taste of Bishop Gomez ministry:

Jesus is found wherever there is a believer: in the street, in the home, the factory, workshops, schools, offices, refugee camps, hospitals, jails, garrisons, battle zones, in the mountains, and in the city. God is present with the true disciple, struggling against oppression, misery, captivity and death. 

Medardo Gomez, Fuego contra Fuego (Fire Against Fire), 1990 Augsburg Fortress

Our Salvadoran people are in mourning. The tragedy we are experiencing is of immense pain, which only a people accustomed to so much suffering is capable of bearing. In my soul of a pastor, even I ask myself, saying to God, "Why us, Lord?"


We are already tattooed by so much suffering: social, economic, political, cultural problems; epidemics like dengue fever, diarrhea, viruses, etc.; the scourges of poverty, delinquency, violence, and now we are surprised by the natural phenomenon of an earthquake, yesterday, Saturday, January 13, a phenomenon which repeats itself in a cycle of 10 to 15 years. 

Excerpts from a January 14, 2001 letter from Bishop Medardo Gomez to sister churches in the United States following the first of two earthquakes to hit El Salvador in early 2001.

Here we find a strong call to solidarity and justice for the poor. “That which you have done to the least of my brothers, you have done to me.”


Stewardship should be oriented toward the spirit of solidarity, and climatic justice must respond in this way. In the responsibility of each nation for the protection of the climate system that future generations will inherit, there must be terms of security with a basis in fairness, in accordance with the abilities of each region or country. The rich possess the means and the conditions to protect, adapt, and mitigate the harmful effects of climate change.


The poor confront the damages done by a problem they have not created. This is the ecological injustice. 

Climatic Justice ~ an article, including photos, written by Bishop Medardo Gómez for the 2010 Summary Book for the Salvadoran Lutheran Church. Translation by Rip McManus

By the end of our visit, I had learned why a Lutheran bishop is a threat to the government of El Salvador. The "sins" of Bishop [Medardo] Gomez are the sins of a host of others as well: he believes that the church's mission includes political involvement; that the gospel has a special concern for the poor that must be translated into the actions and policies of a nation; that a negotiated peace is preferable to an ongoing war; and that bishops often have to speak out and act in ways that are critical of the government. Such actions, whether by bishops or not, are actions punishable by death, and there are seventy-five thousand dead Salvadorans to attest to the accuracy of that proposition.


Second, I had learned why Bishop Gomez is so loved. Once he was back with his people, he realized that he could not truly be their bishop from the safety of another country, but must be in their midst, working, suffering, threatened, just like everybody else...


At an ecumenical service on Epiphany, a Baptist pastor said to Bishop Gomez, "We Baptists don't have bishops. But you, Medardo, are our bishop."


Ditto for this Presbyterian...

Robert McAfee Brown, Liberation Theology, 1993, Westminster/John Knox Press, Louisville, Kentucky.

You can read a short biography of Bishop Gomez at this link, and learn more about him and the Salvadoran Lutheran Church here.

Bishop Gomez consoling one of the victims of the
November 2009 landslides in Verapaz, El Salvador.

August festivals and traffic accidents

The first week of August is a week of vacations in El Salvador, leading up to the August 6 celebration in San Salvador of the Divine Savior of the World.  It is a time for parades, religious processions, parties and trips to the beach.

Each year, however, it is also a time when the rate of traffic accidents soars, and this year started with a particular tragedy.   A freight truck carrying 43 people to a Catholic youth gathering had a mechanical failure, rolled over and crashed killing 12 and leaving 30 others wounded.  So far during the vacation week which started last Saturday, another 7 people have died in traffic accidents for a total of 19.

The UN World Health Organization describes traffic accidents as a leading cause of preventable death and injury.  The WHO page on El Salvador is here and shows statistics through 2007 regarding the death toll on El Salvador's roads.  But safety may be improving on El Salvador's roads.  There are current statistics on the El Salvador Vice Ministry of Transport website which shows 525 traffic deaths from January 1 through July 25, 2011.    That's an 8% decrease from the prior year, and represents an annualized rate of 900, well below the 1493 reported in 2007.