Speaking For The Voiceless
Speaking for the Voiceless
by Arlin Wasserman and Lisa Danto
On October 10, 1986 an earthquake devastated San Salvador, El Salvador's capital and the country's most densely populated area. Fifteen hundred people died; another 300,000 people became homeless. Most of those who lost their homes were already squeezed out of the economic mainstream by economic and military forces within the country.
They lived in the slums because their former homes in the countryside had been destroyed by bombs or because they had been forced to flee from the army.
A Few came to San Salvador because it was the only place in the country where one could find a job.
After the earthquake, people built small communities from paper boxes and bits of wood and metal. Many of these communities were established on the edges of ravines so that water would be only a few hundred feet away, albeit straight down. Help hardly ever arrives.
The greatest hope for aid came from the United States which gave $24 million for earthquake relief to the Salvadoran government in 1986. That is a small amount in contrast to the approximately $2 billion in military aid the United States has given El Salvador in the past seven years, including $400 million in military aid during 1987.
However, notoriously corrupt government officials have squandered almost all earthquake relief through padding of salaries and patronage fees. More blatant use of aid monies have included tracts awarded to nonexistent Salvadoran corporations, "theft" of earthquake relief materials by the military, and sales of earthquake relief materials by the military, and sales of earthquake relief goods on the open market.
Michigan is one of several dozen states participating in the Union Nacional De Damnificados de El Salvador/Building with the Voiceless of El Salvador campaign (UNADES). UNADES was conceived by Salvadoran refugees in Washington, D.C. last April. The campaign was born out of the realization that U.S. government aid was not reaching those whom it was meant to reach.
In order to minimize the risk of the military pocketing the relief, UNADES-sponsored delegations of North Americans will bring money necessary for specific medical, nutritional and shelter needs of sister communities to El Salvador on a monthly basis. (The first delegation went down Sept. 15). Each month UNADES will report on successes and problems, incorporating the best methods into its continued work. Delegations of Salvadorans will also come to Michigan to facilitate an exchange of information and culture.
The problems of corruption, and economic violence upon the majority of Salvadorans by the government and various corporations have led to a stat of civil war which has existed for over eight years.
In this period, 20% of all Salvadorans have left the country. Of this group more than 500,000 have fled to the United States.
El Salvador is a country where seven in ten people are unemployed and one in four people is without food or shelter. The average per capita income is $250 per year, which is a 38% decline in real wages since 1979.
600,000 people in El Salvador are without homes. About one million Salvadorans cannot afford both food and shelter and must choose between the two if they have any choice at all.
Additionally, El Salvador has the highest infant mortality rate in Central America, with over 9% of children dying before reaching their first birthday. Life expectancy is 45 years.
As a result of military activity, since 1980 about 70,000 Salvadoran civilians have died and another 12,000 have been seriously wounded or permanently handicapped.
The U.S. government foots the bill for the bombings of agricultural lands by the Salvadoran Air Force and the subsequent displacement of campesino populations. This past year, the U.S. gave $608 million dollars in aid to the Salvadoran government, 105% of the amount El Salvador contributed to its own budget. Two-thirds of this was direct military aid, making El Salvador the third largest recipient of U.S. military aid in the world. Keep in mind that this massive amount of aid goes to a country that has not hostile borders and supposedly is not engaged in any military conflicts.
It is too late to deny that there is a civil way in El Salvador. Yet that is what the mainstream U.S. media is trying to do. There are no stories of revolution in El Salvador across front pages or on television. The media labels the civilian resistance Marxist-Leninist; there have been stories attempting to tie the FMLN, an opposition front, to Mohammar Qaddafi. And, while the Reagan administration's support of President Duarté and the military-backed ruling ARENA party has gone unreported, so has Michael Dukakis's meeting with members of the conservative Christian Democratic National Convention.
Within the United States, the FBI has investigated numerous organizations supportive of Salvadoran self-determination. Former FBI agents reported that information was shared with Salvadoran death squads. In an attempt to silence the sanctuary movement, death squads have entered the United States, carrying out acts of sexual assault, kidnapping, and physical and psychological torture against Salvadorans in sanctuary or political asylum in the United States.
In El Salvador, illiteracy, hunger and homelessness are on the rise. There is no indication of compliance with the Arias plan, which calls for a basic guarantee of human rights and recognition of political opposition by the government. Since the election earlier this year brought the right-wing ARENA party into control, death-squad activity in El Salvador has increased.
The Going Home campaign is organizing financial and technical assistance so that displaced Salvadorans may return to their homeland and live independently of the government, thereby challenging its legitimacy. Going Home is also sponsoring campaigns to help food reach malnourished communities throughout El Salvador. They may be contacted at: Going Home/Share Foundation Box 24 Cardinal Station Washington DC 20064 or at (202) 635-5540.
On the local level, Michigan is participating in the UNADES/Building with the Voiceless of El Salvador campaign which works with the earthquake victims in San Salvador. The three communities of displaced people with which Michigan will have a sister relationship with are: Las Rosas, Trujillo and Plan del Pito. UNADES can be contacted at Building with the Voiceless of El Salvador, 1000 East State Fair, Detroit MI, 48203.