Civil Society, Development & Aid, Headlines, Human Rights, Latin America & the Caribbean, Population

EL SALVADOR: Two Cheers for Democracy (None for Politicians)

Raúl Gutiérrez

SAN SALVADOR, Sep 5 2007 (IPS) - Rafael Nieto, a barman in the Salvadoran capital, says that the institutions in his country do not work, lawyer Nelson Recinos maintains that “the normal thing here is to break the law,” and shopkeeper Ana Menjívar says the political parties “don’t represent the wishes of the people.”

These are just three ordinary citizens who, while they prefer an elected government and democratic rule, are discontented with the day-to-day working of the system in El Salvador.

This feeling, expressed in many surveys carried out in recent years, was confirmed by a study released in August, “The Political Culture of Democracy in El Salvador 2006”, by the Latin American Public Opinion Project at Vanderbilt University in the United States.

The study indicates that although an ample majority of Salvadorans interviewed prefer a government arising from “electoral democracy”, 53.4 percent are unhappy with their country’s political system.

The survey was based on interviews of 1,729 adults and was carried out by the Manuel Ungo Foundation and the University Institute of Public Opinion (IUDOP).

El Salvador’s present experience of democracy began after the civil war (1980-1992), in which 75,000 people were killed and 8,000 were disappeared. During the administration of Alfredo Cristiani (1989-1994) a peace accord was signed with the insurgent Farabundi Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN).


Miguel Cruz, a researcher at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee and one of the study’s authors, said that in general terms people support a democratic system, but have serious reservations.

The level of dissatisfaction has increased by eight percentage points compared to the previous study in 2004, because of mistrust in state institutions and the political parties, which are not fulfilling their role in the democratic machinery, the study says.

“They only pursue their own interests,” Menjívar complained. Nieto, for his part, told IPS that his hopes that the institutions would work properly after the peace accord “gradually faded.” He does not believe in any political party, he said, because “they’re all the same.”

Six out of 10 Salvadorans interviewed expressed the opinion that political parties are “not at all” or “only slightly” democratic.

This shows “the need to build a political culture that includes new methods of exercising power, with transparency, accountability, public access to information, public consultation as part of the discussion of problems, and monitoring by civil society,” Ramón Villalta, the head of the Social Initiative for Democracy (ISD), told IPS.

The dissatisfaction with democracy, experts say, is because the system has not overcome economic and social polarisation, corruption and insecurity.

The country has also gone backwards with respect to human rights and civil liberties, a trend illustrated by the 2006 anti-terrorism law, which according to critics criminalises social protest.

The head of the non-governmental penal affairs section of the Study Foundation for the Application of the Law, Nelson Flores, told IPS that “El Salvador is a failed state in which authoritarianism predominates. Laws are being passed that instead of democratising the country, are causing greater repression and criminalising social protests.”

Two weeks ago the governing right-wing Nationalist Republican Alliance (ARENA) and its ally in congress, the Party of National Conciliation, approved reforms to the criminal code which punish persons convicted of creating public disorder with up to 10 years in prison.

“This does not favour the consolidation of democracy,” Flores said.

People in El Salvador also regard the crime wave that is sweeping this country as a “threat” for the nation’s future, the study adds.

El Salvador is one of the most violent countries in the world, with a homicide rate of 56 per 100,000 population, according to statistics for 2006 from the Institute of Forensic Medicine. This is ten times higher than the official murder rate in the United States for 2004.

The study warns that crime and corruption contribute to “eroding confidence in the institutions and the legitimacy of the political system.”

The survey found that 65.8 percent of respondents had “little or no confidence” that the justice system would punish those guilty of a crime, while 41.1 percent believe that “corruption is widespread among public officials.”

A majority of 69.1 percent said they do not report violent crimes because “it’s no use,” or “for fear of reprisals,” and 93.2 percent of interviewees said that crime is a “serious or considerable threat to the national future.”

Rosa Guerra, the proprietor of a beauty salon, told IPS that impunity is a daily reality for Salvadorans. “In this country, everything can be bought for money. If you have money you can have anything you want.”

She said she is in favour of imposing the death penalty to bring violent crime under control, but added that she does not trust the authorities entrusted with the fight against crime, like the National Civil Police (PNC) and the public prosecutor’s office.

“You don’t know who to trust,” Guerra said, referring to the case of two police officers and a civilian who are being prosecuted for belonging to a death squad within the PNC.

Violence, crime and insecurity are the main concerns for 44.5 percent of interviewees, while 45.2 percent say they are worried most about poverty, unemployment and inflation.

The Vanderbilt University study points out that for 43.1 percent of the Salvadorans interviewed, “democracy is a hollow, meaningless term.”

Such a high level of scepticism, despite the expressed preference for elected governments, is in line with opinions collected in El Salvador by the polling firm Latinobarómetro for a survey it carried out in 2006 for the British weekly The Economist.

Last year, 51 percent of Salvadoran interviewees said that democracy was better than any other system of government – eight percent down from 2005.

At the same time, the Latinobarómetro study last year found that 15 percent of interviewees said that an authoritarian system was preferable in certain circumstances. Only four percent had chosen that response in 2005.

The Vanderbilt University study is the fourth of its kind since 1995. It was carried out simultaneously in Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama and Peru.

In terms of support for the democratic system, El Salvador appears in fifth place, with backing from 55.4 percent of the survey sample. In first place is Costa Rica with 64 percent, and Ecuador is in last place with 37.4 percent.

“The survey results show that people are dissatisfied with their governments when the institutions do not guarantee that their needs are served,” Villalta said.

 
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