A better world. Are we there yet?

Again readers question whether bringing out old skeletons is an appropriate subject for a thriller novel. These same readers suggest that El Salvador of today is a different place from that of 20 years ago so how can I expect the subject the novel takes on to appeal to readers.

I already answered the reasons behind writing AGENTS OF CHANGE time and again in this blog.

Do I think that what happened in El Salvador and goes on across the region and indeed across the World makes for a good read?

I do.

Will readers think so?

Judge for yourself:

From America Magazine:

Is the gap between rich and poor in El Salvador still as great as it was in the 1970’s?
Historically, the oligarchy was made up primarily of big landowners, and that is still true, although now its members are also involved in trade and banking. But the gap between rich and poor is the same, perhaps even wider. If I ask people in my parish in El Salvador how they compare the situation now with what it was like during the civil war, they say not only that they see no improvement, but that living conditions are actually worse. One indicator is the violence—an average of almost a dozen people are killed daily. Another indicator is that out of a population of six million, over 400 people daily try to leave the country to go the United States. I have a deep conviction from my experience in El Salvador that salvation must come through the poor. This is also the belief of my friend there, the Jesuit theologian Jon Sobrino. My doctoral dissertation was on the theology of Sobrino and one of the slain Jesuits, Ignacio Ellacuría (Sobrino was out of the country at the time of the murders). The title of the dissertation is “A Theology of the Crucified People.”

Qatorce Grande then and today, from the Jesuit magazine:
“[...] 14 families of El Salvador owned most of the country’s wealth. Today just eight families dominate the privatization of the country’s resources and broker trade agreements [...]”

From CISPES – Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador:

Salvadoran Government using anti-terrorism law to target social movement organizing: The Salvadoran right wing passed an “anti-terrorism” law in September 2006, followed by an “anti-organized crime” law later that year. The language in these new laws is very vague, leaving them open to interpretation and a wide variety of applications. The anti-terrorism law is similar to the Patriot Act in that it threatens civil liberties supposedly protected by the constitution of El Salvador. The laws criminalize and labels terrorist – with long jail sentences – protest tactics commonly used by Salvadorans, such as street blockades and building occupations. The US Ambassador to El Salvador even expressed explicit support for this law in a speech earlier this year, condoning the use of police force in protecting US trade interests.

Resurgence of death squad-style threats and murders: In early May the Archbishop’s Legal Aid and Human Rights Defense Office (Tutela Legal) released a report implicating the Salvadoran National Police (PNC) in eight death squad style assassinations in 2006 alone. CISPES has published a list of recent repression beginning with the July 2006 murder of the Manzanares couple, the parents of long-time activist “Mariposa”. Since then, threats and assaults on activists have increased; death threats have been sent to SETA, the water workers’ union; two FMLN activists have murdered in Coatepeque; Rev. Antonio Romero was murdered in September; and two student activists have been disappeared: Jose Omar Chavez, son of a historic community organizer, who has been missing since July 8, 2005, and Francisco Contreras, a youth activist who has been missing since February 6 of this year. In both cases, their families have evidence that leads many people to believe the police and/or death squads were involved in their disappearances, but their calls for investigation have fallen on deaf ears. These political attacks are reminiscent of the intimidation tactics used in the 80s, and social movement groups have called for immediate investigation into these acts of repression!

ARENA is militarizing the police, which is a direct violation of the Peace Accords. The separation between police and military in El Salvador has declined dramatically since originally established by Peace Accords in El Salvador. It is now common to have groups of soldiers “patrolling” rural and urban neighborhoods in El Salvador, something that current President Saca has promoted. El Salvador’s National Civilian Police, or PNC, was created by the 1992 Peace Accords to do the work of law enforcement in El Salvador. However, the PNC has increasingly been used to violently repress protests in El Salvador, especially the protests against the CAFTA free trade agreement and against vendors struggling under new-CAFTA imposed intellectual property laws.

El Salvador has become the satellite for U.S. military and police training in Latin America, despite it’s poor human rights record: El Salvador is already the second largest recipient of military training in Central America, is the host of a U.S. military base at the Comalapa airport, and in early 2005 an FBI office was opened in San Salvador. The ILEA has the capacity to train 1500 students per year, more than the current Western Hemisphere Institute for Security and Cooperation, also known as the SOA. Salvadorans fear a return to the sort of torture and repression practices used by the graduates of that US-sponsored school in the 1980s. Meanwhile, U.S. officials refuse to acknowledge the corruption, misconduct and human rights violations committed by the PNC, and continue to support the Salvadoran police, both through explicit statements and by sponsoring the ILEA in El Salvador.