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2nd Roundtable with Salvadorians in Canada
Should Fool Nobody
Only two days from the start in Toronto of the 2nd Roundtable with
Salvadorians in Canada, organized by the Salvadorian Ministry of External
Relations, I received a disturbing email. It was an urgent action appeal
regarding the violent police repression of peaceful protesters in Cutumay
Camones, a rural community in western El Salvador. Apparently on October 12
and 20, Salvadorian police accompanied by Armed Forces personnel attacked
residents of the community who were protesting the illegal construction of a
garbage dump they fear will contaminate their only potable water source.
Police indiscriminately used rubber bullets and tear gas on the peaceful
protesters, wounding many. This latest example of violent state repression
of peaceful protest in El Salvador is part of a growing and troubling trend
in the country, harkening back to the state terror of the 1970s and 1980s.
Unfortunately, but not surprisingly, the frequent violation of basic human
rights in El Salvador will not be an agenda item for discussion at the
Roundtable in Toronto. Instead, but not surprisingly, trade, investment,
and business opportunities will take center stage. That the venue for the
Roundtable is the Toronto Board of Trade is no coincidence.
The Salvadorian Ministry of External Relations would like Salvadorians in
Canada to take for granted the rosy picture of El Salvador it wants to
paint. “El Salvador is open for business!” they would like to proclaim.
But it is difficult to hide several troubling facts:
» 500 Salvadorians are forced to leave the country daily
in search of work to help them and the family members they must leave behind
make ends meet
» The largest contributor to El Salvador’s GDP (about
17%) is remittances from often undocumented Salvadorians working abroad
» The domestic productive sector has collapsed, unable to
compete against cheap imports facilitated by the CAFTA and other neoliberal
free trade agreements
» Violence and crime are at all time highs, despite (or
perhaps because of) the right-wing ARENA government’s highly touted but
entirely ineffective “Iron Fist” crime-fighting policies, which include
converting some schools into jails
» As shown by the police repression described above,
there is growing disregard by the right-wing ARENA government for the
democratic freedoms guaranteed by the 1992 Peace Accords, paid in blood by
thousands of Salvadorians during the 12-year civil war.
Should the Salvadorian government want to “reach out” to those of us living
abroad, it must not brush aside the human rights violations in which it is
directly and indirectly complicit. And those looking for business
opportunities in El Salvador might want to look into tear gas and rubber
bullet production. Next to exported undocumented labor ripe for exploit,
they are the hot commodities in El Salvador.
Publicado 22 de noviembre 2007
Por: René M. Guerra Salazar,
Salvadorian-Canadian
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