A Salvadoran Message for The Bahamas

by Larry Smith

Francisco Flores, the former president of El Salvador, spoke at a conference here last week organised by the Nassau Institute, a public policy group that promotes capitalism and free markets.

The conference at the Atlantis Resort was co-sponsored by the Atlas Economic Research Foundation, which supports a network of market-oriented think tanks around the globe. Atlas gets a lot of its money from the John Templeton Foundation.

Flores was the guest of honour. At only 45, he is the poster boy of free marketeers everywhere. One of the most successful post-Cold War leaders, he helped reconstruct a notoriously failed state. And his message is one that should be heeded by Bahamian politicos - who were, of course, conspicuously
absent at last Friday's event.

El Salvador is a relatively insignificant Central American country of about seven million people. But during the 1980s it was one of the major flash points of the Cold War. And today, it is a metaphor of the changed relationship between the political left and right since the fall of the Berlin Wall.

To fully appreciate what Flores had to say at the conference, a little historical background is necessary. The story roughly begins in the 1960s, when reform-minded groups like the Christian Democratic Party emerged to challenge the rigid status quo in El Salvador.

But the landowning elite and right-wing military continually blocked the electoral option by fraud and repression, so leftist groups resorted to militant action to promote change. And a pattern of mounting violence and polarization led to a 13-year civil war.

A middle-of-the-road Christian Democrat named Jose Napoleon Duarte was the leading figure in Salvadoran politics for more than 30 years. After being tortured and exiled, he ended up as a tragic president torn between the extremes of right-wing juntas and left-wing rebels.

Despite sporadic attempts at reform, the country slid into chaos; and in 1979 the success of the communist Sandinista rebels in neighbouring Nicaragua gave the El Salvador insurrection renewed impetus.

The Sandinistas formed an alliance with the Soviet Union and Cuba to promote revolution throughout Central America, Flores told scores of businessmen, educators and students at the conference last Friday. El Salvador, he said, was the final armed conflict of the 50-year Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union.

Perhaps the defining event of the Salvadoran civil war was the 1980 murder of Archbishop Oscar Romero as he was saying mass in the national cathedral. Romero had criticised the military's brutality and often urged soldiers not to carry out immoral orders. For good measure, police gunned down unarmed demonstrators at his funeral.

A Salvadoran army intelligence officer named Roberto D'Aubuisson was a central figure behind the right-wing death squads which were implicated in many killings, including that of Archbishop Romero. And it was D'Aubuisson who founded the conservative Nationalist Republican Alliance (known as ARENA).

The Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (or FMLN) was formed as an umbrella group of five revolutionary organizations in 1980. Named after a 1930s Salvadoran communist leader, the FMLN was set up by Cuban President Fidel Castro with support from the Soviet Union. Its goal was to recreate El Salvador as a communist state.

ARENA lost the 1984 presidential election to Duarte, who became the first freely elected president of El Salvador in more than 50 years. He began talks with the FMLN and other Central American leaders to lay the groundwork for peace in the region.

The following year D'Aubuisson resigned from ARENA and was replaced by Alfredo Cristiani, who was elected president in 1989, defeating Duarte, who handed over power peacefully. Both Duarte and D'Aubuisson died of cancer a few years later.

ARENA began reaching out to more moderate individuals and groups, particularly in the private sector. And Cristiani, a graduate of Georgetown University in Washington DC, continued the peace talks that Duarte had started.

It took more than 70,000 deaths and massive human rights violations on both sides before ARENA and the FMLN were able to sign a UN-brokered peace accord. A ceremony in December 1992, marked the official end of the conflict, and the FMLN, following the path of ARENA, transformed itself into a legitimate political party.

In 1994, Cristiani was succeeded by another ARENA president. But the big test of the peace process was the 1999 election when Francisco Flores, then only 38, ran on the ARENA ticket against a former guerrilla leader. He won with 52 per cent of the vote, although turnout was only 39 per cent. The FMLN went on to win a legislative majority in 2000.

"During the civil war", Flores told conference participants on Friday, "one third of the population fled; our streets were filled with beggars; bridges, highways, energy plants, and transmission lines were destroyed; and martial law meant that citizens could be shot on sight after dark. There is not one
family in El Salvador that has not suffered either the loss of one of its members or the separation of the family due to a forced migration...And on top of the war we suffered devastating earthquakes."

It all seemed terribly hopeless, yet 14 years later El Salvador is a different country. During his term in office, Flores said: "the poverty level was slashed by half - the highest rate of reduction on the continent. Illiteracy was reduced from 25 per cent to 13 per cent. Infant mortality declined by 40 per cent. Interest rates went from 30 per cent to 6.8 per cent. We have a free press and true separation of powers."

Under Flores, the ARENA government promoted liberal free market policies including privatization, dollarization, structural adjustment as required by the International Monetary Fund, and a Central American free trade agreement.

And El Salvador went from being a country renowned for poverty and violence to a model of growth and development. Flores reportedly ended his presidency with a higher approval rating (76 per cent) than when he was elected (52 per cent).

So what was the magic formula? Flores cited four main reasons for his success.

1. Responsibility: "Poverty in El Salvador had always been blamed on external factors. It was not until we faced the fact that it was we, and only we Salvadorians, who were to blame for the condition of our country, that we started constructing our solutions."

2. Vision: "We developed a strategy for the future with enough depth to resolve the country's severe problems - a long-term vision that had both practical and emotional appeal."

3. Innovation: "We adopted a model based on real democracy and a strategy to fight poverty by creating new opportunities. It was the antithesis of populism and demanded courage and a willingness to accept political costs."

4. Patriotism: "We made a concerted effort to defend and build a new nation. Don't take your country for granted or you will lose your roots and memories. You have to fight for the future of your country."

According to Flores, Salvadoran politicians had to develop a new ethic: "Previously, parties had selected the worst members of society, valuing party loyalty most. It was the same faces all the time. But we created broader alliances and achieved four consecutive terms in office. Permanent renewal is the strategy for success - you need new young leaders who are creative and energetic."

For example, he said, an unexplained rise in crime can be attributed to growing corruption within the police force, which had to be addressed: "So we fired one fifth of the force and within months crime was at an all time low. There were political costs, but we survived."

Flores studied philosophy at Amherst University in the US, and in another recent speech he spelled out his prescription for change: "We chose an economic model based on freedom, assigning to government a regulatory role and thereby liberating all economic actors. We have opened our frontiers and fought against monopolies. We know that democracy and economic freedom can only deliver results through real commercial openness; therefore we pursue it aggressively."

It is a message that many Bahamian leaders are seeking to come to grips with as we speak. And it emphasizes the futility of trying to apply traditional left and right labels in today's complex and rapidly changing world.

Comments

[Joan Thompson]

Your article today is great coverage of Mr. Flores' speech.
It contributes to spreading the good news about capitalism and freedom - i.e. libertarian principles.

Mr. Flores identified the crucial principles for free & prosperous countries which he courageously put into practise in El Salvador.

Simultaneously Felix Wilson has launched a media campaign promoting socialist ideology, expounding on the alleged success of the Cuban model. Comparing the two countries makes for an astounding contrast of outcomes. What a lesson!!!

The El Salvador story could not have come at a better time as it refutes the "blame the USA" propaganda of the socialist ideologues.

Bringing this about took The Nassau Institute and the Atlas Foundation - two organizations engaged in the "war of ideas" , to demonstrate the effects of libertarian principles, individualism and freedom.

We are pleased that you and others could speak with Mr. Flores

[that was beautiful! but think its still Amherst College it's a good school, prestigious in fact]

can we say deja vu? we must take a lesson to their experience before its too late! was the program taped? can we see it on ZNS on at the NI website?

[C.Lowe]

Sorry I missed the conference, and that presentation must have been impressive. In reading your summary I had to remind myself more than once that it was El Salvador, not the Bahamas that Mr Flores was referring to.
But Oh my, the socioeconomic similarities!

[Rick Lowe]

We, the Nassau Institute, should have audio CD's available for purchase in a week or so and some of the speeches will be on our web site over the next few weeks.

[Adrian Gibson, Tribune Columnist]

Interesting column Larry. Maybe we here in the Bahamas should consider firing 1/5 of our police force because corruption and incidents of police involved crimes is on the rise.
A question: How do set up a blog such as this? Is a fee involved?

[Tim]

I'm afraid that by just believing Flores' self-serving attempts to make his record look good, you have failed to note some well-documented facts.

First -- it is simply flat wrong to say that crime hit an all time low in El Salvador. The crime rate rose steadily under Flores and his successor Tony Saca until El Salvador now has the highest murder rate in the Western Hemisphere.

Second -- economists agree that poverty reduction in El Salvador has come from only one source -- the remittances sent back to the country by Salvadorans living abroad, primarily in the United States. It has been the failure of the ARENA government economic policies which has led millions of Salvadorans to emigrate, legally and illegally, because of the lack of economic opportunity in the country.

Third -- for the past several years, El Salvador has had one of the lowest economic growth rates in Latin America. Hardly a model of economic success.

Fourth -- I'm not sure where you get Flores' approval rating. He was, in fact, highly unpoppular at the end of his term for his mishandling of a strike of healthcare workers who were protesting Flores' plans to privatize the healthcare delivery system.

Flores has been going around making these speeches to people who do not check his facts. It's a shame when they get republished in a column like this.

[Rick Lowe]

Obviously problems remain in El Salvador, and they will for many years to come. A country does not go from civil war to absolute tranquilty in a few short years.
The lesson I came away with from Flores, was how far the country had come in a short period of time by following the pri nciples he outlined: Responsibility, Vision, a new Political Ethic & Patriotism