EL
SALVADOR:
Banging Empty Pots to
Protest Food Prices
By Raúl Gutiérrez
SAN SALVADOR, Mar 13 (IPS)
- Some 400 protesters
beat on pots and pans
and blew whistles
outside the Central
Reserve Bank of El
Salvador to protest the
rise in prices of staple
food items.
"I’m desperate, we can't
take any more,"
Guadalupe López, who is
raising four children on
her own, told IPS.
"Besides, we don't have
jobs that pay us enough
to support our children,
to feed them and pay for
their education."
Francisco Marroquín, 26,
said the government
should establish price
controls and raise the
minimum wage, "so that
people can survive."
Participants in
Wednesday’s pots and
pans protest distributed
leaflets demanding
government action to
guarantee "food
sovereignty and
security."
A demonstration of this
kind has not been seen
in the Salvadoran
capital since the 1980s,
when rightwing women’s
groups protested against
the Christian Democratic
government of then
president Napoleón
Duarte (1984-1989).
El Salvador’s Consumer
Defence Centre (CDC)
said that between
January 2007 and January
2008, the retail price
of beans has risen 68
percent, in addition to
price increases for rice
(56.2 percent) and maize
(37.5 percent) -- all
basic staples in the
diets of poor Salvadoran
households.
In the last few years,
international market
prices for commodities
like these have risen
steadily. In December
2007, the food price
index published by the
British magazine The
Economist reached its
highest point since it
was first calculated in
1845.
In nearly every country
in Latin America, prices
of many foodstuffs have
risen by much more than
the average increase in
the consumer price
index.
The rising trend in
prices is not a result
of scarcity. World food
production is rising,
but not fast enough to
cushion the effect of
increased demand, which
has two main causes: the
boom in biofuels, and
increased food purchases
by China and India, as a
result of better living
conditions for the
people in those
countries, according to
experts.
In El Salvador, the CDC
study shows that wage
increases have not kept
up with price hikes.
In May 2004, the cost of
the basic food basket in
urban areas stood at
128.19 dollars a month,
while the minimum wage
was 151.25 dollars a
month. But in January
2008, the food basket
cost 159.90 dollars and
the minimum wage was 162
dollars.
According to Armando
Flores, the head of CDC,
"this is the result of a
market that isn’t
working for the people,
and it’s due to the lack
of political will to
implement public
policies to alleviate
the situation." He
called on the government
to regulate food prices.
"Food prices are
increasing by leaps and
bounds, like a hare, and
wages, like a tortoise,
are being left behind,"
he said.
Economy Minister Yolanda
de Gavidia has
repeatedly declared that
the high food prices are
due to the high price of
oil, and that there is
not much that can be
done to halt the spiral,
since El Salvador is not
an oil producing
country.
The government announced
that inflation stood at
five percent in 2007,
but private analysts and
social activists cast
doubts on this figure.
Carlos Acevedo, an
economist with the
United Nations
Development Programme (UNDP),
said that "the price
increases for items in
the basic basket are
substantially greater"
than the official
statistics indicate.
In his view, the
government should
confront the problem "by
importing products that
have experienced
considerable price
increases," and raising
incomes by means of
policies involving
private enterprise in
the creation of "more
jobs with decent
salaries."
Analysts estimate that
remittances from the 2.9
million Salvadorans who
live abroad, mainly in
the United States, are
the main factor saving
the majority of the
population from
destitution. Last year,
remittances totalled 3.6
billion dollars,
equivalent to 18 percent
of gross domestic
product, according to
the Central Reserve
Bank.
Sandra Guevara, the head
of the Mélida Anaya
Montes Women’s Movement
(MAM), said that price
increases have a
particularly devastating
impact on women. "Wages
are not high enough to
cover the basic needs of
the majority. Many
families have only one
dollar a day to spend on
the food they eat," she
said. |
