EL
SALVADOR:
President’s ‘Path to
Peace’ Award Draws
Outcry
By Raúl Gutiérrez
SAN SALVADOR (IPS)
- The decision by a
Catholic foundation with
links to the Vatican to
award its highest
distinction to
Salvadoran President
Antonio Saca drew a wave
of protests from local
analysts and
representatives of civil
society in this Central
American country.
The Path to Peace
Foundation, which
describes its mission as
"spreading the Catholic
Church’s message of
peace," is bestowing its
annual Path to Peace
Award in recognition of
Saca’s work towards
consolidating peace and
strengthening democracy
in El Salvador,
government sources said.
The president of the
Foundation, which was
created in 1991, is
Archbishop Celestino
Migliore, the Apostolic
Nuncio and Permanent
Observer of the Holy See
to the United Nations.
The award was presented
to President Saca at a
gala dinner in New York
Tuesday.
Saca "introduced reforms
aimed at reducing
delinquency, and has
traced out ‘the map of
poverty’ that identities
the areas of extreme
poverty in order to work
towards eradicating it,"
the Path to Peace
Foundation says in its
citation.
Several Salvadoran
Catholic organisations
said they "regretted"
the foundation’s
decision, in a letter to
the Apostolic Nunciature
in El Salvador.
Saca, of the rightwing
Nationalist Republican
Alliance (ARENA), became
president in 2004. Since
then, "inequalities,
exclusion and poverty"
have worsened among
Salvadorans, while
"insecurity and impunity
have become widespread,"
the letter says.
The Christian Base
Communities of El
Salvador (CEBES) stated
that the president "has
not shown any openness
to the poorest sectors,"
and therefore awarding
him a decoration "is not
in keeping with the
vision of the Gospel."
"It is in recognition of
his collaboration on the
Peace Agreement Process
that the Path to Peace
Foundation honours
President Saca," says
the Foundation’s
statement.
Miguel Ángel Guzmán, a
leading member of CEBES,
told IPS he was
"outraged, because
rather than working for
peace, Saca has focused
on building a positive
image of himself and the
party he represents."
Under the Saca
administration, crimes
against humanity like
the 1980 assassination
of Archbishop Oscar
Romero have gone
unpunished, in spite of
a directive from the
Inter-American
Commission on Human
Rights that the
Salvadoran state carry
out "a thorough
investigation of the
crime, make reparations
to the victims and
adjust local legislation
to the American
Convention on Human
Rights" by annulling the
1993 general amnesty
law, Guzmán said.
Romero was murdered at
the start of the 12-year
civil war which left
75,000 people dead and
8,000 forcibly
disappeared.
Then-President Alfredo
Cristiani and the
leftwing guerrillas of
the Farabundo Martí
National Liberation
Front (FMLN), now the
main opposition party,
signed a peace agreement
in January 1992.
In 1993, Cristiani
decreed a general
amnesty, blocking trials
of those responsible for
killings of civilians,
the great majority of
which were committed by
military and
paramilitary forces,
according to the report
handed down by the Truth
Commission created as a
result of the peace
talks.
The report also found
that Major Roberto
D’Aubuisson, the late
far-right founder of
ARENA, which has
governed the country
since 1989, ordered the
assassination of Romero,
who was nominated for
sainthood by the
Salvadoran Catholic
Church in 1994, a
process that has
apparently been stalled
in the Vatican.
María Silvia Guillén,
head of the Foundation
for the Study of Applied
Law (FESPAD), said that
awarding Saca this
distinction "shows a
lack of respect for the
Salvadoran people," and
indicates that "either
the Foundation is
misinformed, or they are
going to decorate the
president for
non-existent
achievements."
Guillén also said that
during the Saca
administration "social
protest has been
criminalised, and crime
rates have shot up, with
murder rates at
unprecedented levels."
According to official
figures, between 2003
and 2007 the murder rate
rose from 36 to 52 per
100,000 population.
"One of his first
actions as president was
to appoint a
commissioner for
democratic governing,
who, in turn, created a
group that includes
representatives of all
the political parties to
discuss and find
solutions to issues of
national interest," says
the Path to Peace
Foundation statement.
"I can find no
explanation for this
award, especially coming
from the Vatican,
because Saca has been a
factor of national
division rather than
unity," political
scientist Héctor Dada
Hirezi told IPS.
Although at the start of
his term of office "Saca
appointed Gloria
Salguero (the rightwing
president of parliament)
as his commissioner for
governance, that didn’t
mean that there was a
genuine intention to
enter into dialogue," he
added.
Dada Hirezi, who is the
leader of the
centre-left Cambio
Democrático (Democratic
Change) party, said "we
participated in the
inter-party discussions
and ended up frustrated
at the government’s
total lack of political
will. The clearest proof
is that the dialogue
process is dead."
The inter-party talks
were an initiative of
Salguero’s which brought
together all the parties
represented in
parliament. But after
meeting for a few
months, the FMLN
withdrew, arguing that
the government was
blocking possibilities
for reaching an
agreement. Months later,
the initiative fell
apart. |
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