wfn.org | El Salvador: Emerging Challenges Ten Years After Peace Agreement

["Frank Imhoff" <franki@elca.org>]

Lutheran Bishop Underlines Struggle Against Institutional
Corruption

SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador/GENEVA, 26 February 2002 (LWI) - Bishop
Medardo E. Gomez Soto of the Salvadoran Lutheran Synod describes
the peace agreement between the government and the leftist
Farabundo Marti National Liberation (FMLN) group ten years ago as
a "deed well done for peace and blessed by God."

Pointing to the agreement's contribution to national development,
Gomez says it had honored those who charted it, and had not
disappointed the people of El Salvador in their search for peace.

But peace must continue to be strengthened. Ten years since the
pact, external conditions have changed and new challenges have
emerged. The " guidance" provided by the agreement has historic
significance. It "will always be a light in the people's path of
hope," Gomez says.

 From the early 70s, leftist guerrilla groups fought El Salvador's
After the country's opposition groups united to form the FMLN, the
bloody civil war escalated claiming over 75,000 lives.
Archbishop Oscar Arnulfo Romero was murdered while celebrating
military did not spare members of the clergy either. In 1980
mass, and in 1989 six Jesuit priests were victims of an attack.

Negotiations eventually led to the 16 January 1992 peace agreement
between President Alfredo Cristiani's government and the FMLN in
Chapultepec, Mexico, formally ending the war.

Gomez notes that the environment in which the 1992 peace agreement
was signed had been influenced by the break-up of socialism as it
existed in the then Soviet Union and its political sphere of
control. "This opened the door for neo-liberalism, and for a
market economy dominated by the multinationals. It became the
paradigm for the whole world."

This economic model failed for El Salvador, Gomez says, pointing
out that the poor have become poorer. In some of the
industrialized nations the economic situation has deteriorated as
well, he says. Today, Gomez perceives even more poverty,
unemployment and marginalization. Apart from the worsening social
conflicts and industrial action which threaten to "aggravate the
crisis and make the land ungovernable," there are countless
refugees trying to escape poverty. He notes that "paradoxically,
these conflicts originated in the conditions which years ago led
to the civil war that was ended by the peace agreement."

Gomez agrees that the Salvadoran military is the one institution
that must strictly adhere to keeping the peace agreement. This
includes honoring the principles of the rule of law and
establishing a new military policy recognizing that safeguarding
national sovereignty is the military's basic responsibility and
does not include maintaining internal security.

Since 1992 the former guerrilla group FMLN has transformed itself
into a political party and become integrated into the
constitutional system, according to Gomez. In the 1999
presidential elections the FMLN was the second strongest party,
after the conservative, rightist National Republican Alliance
(ARENA). The FMLN won 31 out of 84 seats. At the local level it
now has a majority.

The Lutheran bishop regrets that although judges today are
democratically elected and the judiciary is open for public
scrutiny, many court cases including those dealing with serious
crimes end in acquittals. He sees this as an indication that the
judicial process requires more transparency and that the struggle
against institutional corruption must be redoubled.

The 1992 peace agreement provided for the establishment of a
socio-economic forum comprising workers', employers' and
government representatives with the aim to establishing rules for
relations between the participating partners, and to discuss
economic models and productivity. But so far the government and
private businesses have refused to set up such a body. The
prevailing situation-redundancies, attacks on trade unions,
resistance to raising the minimum wage and other measures taken
against workers-only say that the government is not ready to
fulfil its obligations under the peace agreement in this regard.

Gomez formulates his church's position thus: "As a Christian
church we believe that peace grows out of justice, and that social
peace is possible within an economic system which exists to serve
people."

The 12,000-member Salvadoran Lutheran Synod joined the Lutheran
World Federation (LWF) in 1986. Roman Catholics make up 92 percent
of El Salvador's 6.2 million people, with Protestants representing
eight percent.

(The LWF is a global communion of Christian churches in the
Lutheran tradition. Founded in 1947 in Lund (Sweden), the LWF now
has 133 member churches in 73 countries representing over 60.5
million of the 64.3 million Lutherans worldwide. The LWF acts on
behalf of its member churches in areas of common interest such as
ecumenical relations, theology, humanitarian assistance, human
rights, communication, and the various aspects of mission and
development work. Its secretariat is located in Geneva,
Switzerland.)

[Lutheran World Information (LWI) is the information service of
the Lutheran World Federation (LWF). Unless specifically noted,
material presented does not represent positions or opinions of the
LWF or of its various units. Where the dateline of an article
contains the notation (LWI), the material may be freely reproduced
with acknowledgement.]

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