Friday, March 13th, 2009

By J.R. Claeys

The people of El Salvador are very grateful that we are here. There is no disdain for the United States and the people want and appreciate the presence of elections observers. On many occasions I have been hugged, or had my hand shook by random people who have learned I am an observer.

This morning we learned about the party platforms from Rafael Lemus, an ARENA Party deputy, and Gerson Martinez, from FMLN. They described and debated their party stances on education, poverty, health care, the economy and foreign relations.

It is easy to digest the well-rehearsed speeches about poverty and the party plans to make everything better, so I decided to have a closer look at what life is like for a middle-class El Salvadorian.

In the afternoon, I visited a middle-class neighborhood to see for myself the poverty, lack of access to education, water, and food. John Wright Rios showed me his old neighborhood, where like all of El Salvador, the running water is undrinkable, if available at all. We visited workers who were installing new water lines to bring clean water into the neighborhood and we met Community Police Officers patrolling one of the most crime-ridden countries on earth. I spoke with John about the rise of the neighborhood, built on a trash dump and devastated by a mudslide in 1982. In the trench where the water lines were being placed, we could see the cross section of garbage and mud that remain under the homes and streets.

Before dinner, I met Pedro Juan Hernandez and Alfonso Goitia, economists and economic advisors to the government. They described the problems with their economic system during the global recession they find themselves in. El Salvador has a dollar economy, meaning the local currency is the U.S. dollar. Only they have no Federal Reserve now to borrow from, or a body to set interest rates. They are beholden to the IMF and World Bank for loans to prop up their financial institutions. A system that seems to invite more poverty.

Tomorrow I plan to visit a women's aid organization that assists young mothers in the poorest areas of the country. Later we will have our final meeting as a group prior to observing the elections process on Sunday.

UPDATE: Why do the pictures show an X through the party names? When voters go to the polls they will not check a box next to a candidate name. Instead, they will place an X across the party name of their choice to select that party. Two party flags will appear on their ballot, in color, and they will make an X in crayon across one flag to vote. They parties place an X over their flags in their propaganda as a way of saying "Vote for our party." It helps prevent disenfranchisement of the illiterate, who make up a large portion of the population.

» Photo Gallery: Elections Observation Mission