El Salvador is the smallest Spanish-speaking nation in the Western Hemisphere.
El Salvador, which is Spanish for 'the saviour' - or Jesus Christ - sits on the West Coast of Central America, bordered by Guatemala and Honduras. A tiny country, El Salvador is both the most densely populated state in Central America, with a population of 6.7million, and the most industrialised. El Salvador is about the size of the U.S. State of Massachusetts, with about 6.5 million inhabitants, wtih about 644 people per square mile,
From 1980 until 1992 there was bitter civil war between the small wealthy elite dominating the government and economy, and the disenchanted majority of the population. This was followed by a succession of natural disasters, including two earthquakes that devastated the country in 2001, and hurricanes.
The 12-year civil war, a series of natural disasters and their consequent dislocations have left their mark on El Salvador, which is the fourth poorest nation in an impoverished Latin America, with 50 percent of the Salvadoran population living in poverty. 90 percent of the country’s natural water is contaminated, and half the population drinks untreated water. The people of El Salvador struggle to attend to the most basic necessities while a push for the disastrous recipes of privatization continues.
This turbulent history has left its mark on the country and both the society and economy are still recovering.
Poverty and social inequality continues to define much of contemporary El Salvador with a third of the population living on less than $1 a day.
This Central American country has been ravaged by war and natural disasters but the spirit of the people is strong. El Salvador has suffered from a tremendous resource drain caused by the country’s civil war, natural disasters, and a lack of economic development. El Salvador’s primary export and cash crop, coffee, was seriously affected by the Civil War and by the drop in world coffee prices. The substantial trade deficit has been offset by external aid and from the large number of Salvadorans living abroad.
Civil War
Between 1978 and 1991, El Salvador was engulfed in a violent civil war that pit communist guerillas against the elected government. Over 75,000 people lost their lives, and those who lived were exposed to appalling crimes. Finally, the day arrived (January 16, 1992) when the parties signed a peace agreement, which brought back the light and the chance to turn madness to hope.
The most enduring short-term impact of the war was the destruction
of much of the country’s infrastructure. By mid-1987, observers estimated that the total cost to the economy due to lost agricultural production, damaged infrastructure, and funds which were diverted from economic to military purposes totaled approximately US$1.5 billion.
High levels of unemployment and the privatisation of many public services such as health and education have contributed to economic hardship.
Poverty and lack of reliable food stocks in rural El Salvador have caused mass emigration.
In 1992 a United Nations-brokered peace agreement ended the civil war, but no sooner had El Salvador begun to recover when it was hit by a series of natural disasters, notably Hurricane Mitch in 1998 and earthquakes in 2001. These left at least 1,200 people dead and more than a million others homeless.
Fifteen years after the signing of the Peace Accords El Salvador is still struggling to build a real and lasting peace. While the war has ended, most Salvadorans continue to experience violence through escalating human rights abuses, threats to democracy, lack of economic opportunity and environmental devastation.
The war reached cities and families, sacred areas and educational centers. It struck at the very heart of any sense of justice, and it singled out as an enemy anyone who was not on a list of friends. The victims were Salvadorans of all backgrounds and all social and economic classes.
While the peace agreement brought an end to the formal, structural violence, the post-war era of El Salvador suffers from deadly violence, which takes the form of kidnappings, gang violence, domestic violence, and high rates of juvenile delinquency.
El Salvador has been classified as the most violent country in Latin America.
While many of the reforms outlined in the United Nations Peace Accords were successfully implemented, many Salvadorans consider their current situation to be no better now than it was before the civil war. Half of the six million Salvadorans are unemployed. Poverty and the proliferation of guns have led to high homicide rates - 12 times higher than murder rates in New York. Lack of environmental protection laws has resulted in pollution, trash and sewage problems. Less than three percent of the country remains forested due to the heavy cultivation of coffee, sugar and cotton.
Life in El Salvador
Nearly a quarter of El Salvador’s six million population lives on less than one US dollar per day.
By the 20th century, 95 percent of El Salvador's income came from coffee exports, but only 2 percent of the population controlled that wealth.
Today El Salvador's major industries, other than coffee, are: textiles, sugar, beverages, petroleum, chemicals, fertilizer, textiles, furniture, light metals and cotton. The largest source of income however, is money sent from Salvadoran relatives who have left the country.
|
Some of the reasons why SalvAide works
in El Salvador:
- 19% children under five years old suffers from stunted growth due to poor nutrition
- Less than half of children attend secondary school (education is NOT free!)
- 20% of the adult population are illiterate
- 60% of the rural population does not have access to adequate sanitation facilities
- A quarter of the population does not have access to an adequate water supply
| Social Indicators for El Salvador |
| |
|
| UN Human Development Index Ranking for 2004: |
103 (out of 177 countries) |
| Number of western hemisphere countries that rank below El Salvador: |
6 |
| |
|
| Life Expectancy at Birth: |
70.6 years |
| Infant Mortality Rate (per 1,000 live births): |
33 |
| Under-five Mortality Rate (per 1,000 live births): |
39 |
Population without sustainable access to
an improved water source: |
23% |
| Children underweight for age (% under age 5): |
12 |
| Physicians per 100,000 people: |
126 |
| Undernourishment (% of population): |
14% |
| Infants with low birthweight: |
13% |
| Public expenditure on health care (as % of GDP): |
3.7% |
| |
|
| Adult Literacy Rate: |
79.7% |
| Public expenditure on education (as % of GDP): |
2.5% |
| |
|
| GDP per capita: |
$4, 890 |
| Minimum wage (monthly) |
$61.80 to 158.40 (depending on sector) |
| Monthly basic survival expenses |
$246.46 (rural) to $316.06 (urban) |
| Rank of remittances from family members living abroad among national sources of income |
#1 |
| Percentage of households receiving remittances |
22% |
| |
|
| Population living below $1 a day (%), 1990-2002: |
31.1% |
| Population living below $2 a day (%), 1990-2002: |
58% |
| Annual Population Growth Rate, 1975-2002: |
1.6% |
| Population under age 15 (% of total), 2002: |
35.1% |
| Population age 65 and above (% of total), 2002: |
5.3% |
| Fertility Rate (births per woman), 1970-75: |
6.1 |
| Fertility Rate (births per woman), 2000-05: |
2.9 |
| Cell phones per 1,000 people (2002): |
138 |
| Internet users per 1,000 people (2002): |
46.5 |
| |
|
| Official development assistance received (2002): |
US$233.5 million |
Official development assistance received
(as % of GDP) (2002): |
1.6% |
| Share of the wealth of the poorest 10% |
0.9% |
| Share of the wealth of the richest 10% |
41% |
| Total debt service (as % of GDP) (2002): |
3.2% |
| Total armed forces (2002): |
17,000 (40% of 1985 figure) |
| Total Exports, 2003: |
US$1.35 billion |
| Total Imports, 2003: |
US$3.93 billion |
| Official Unemployment Rate (2002): |
6.2% |
|
El Salvador has the highest level of environmental damage in the Americas, leaving its lush, volcanic beauty and the health of its residents in jeopardy. The disastrous flooding from Hurricane Mitch in 1998 was primarily a result of erosion due to deforestation.
Many of the country's river systems suffer from pollution, and some experts fear that at the current rate of destruction, the country will run out of drinking water in less than 15 years.
|
Key challenges
More than a decade after El Salvador’s civil war ended, many cases of torture, disappearances and massacres remain unresolved, making reconciliation hard to achieve. Levels of violence remain high, particularly amongst young people who have few opportunities for employment and are drawn into local gangs.
Historically, agriculture was the basis of El Salvador’s economy. Now the agricultural sector is in crisis, following years of under-investment, natural disasters (droughts, floods and hurricanes) and a fall in the international price of cash crops such as coffee and sugar. The country’s largest source of income now is remittances sent by migrant workers living in the USA. Meanwhile, El Salvador has to import much of the food it needs to feed its own population.
Many farming families, unable to make a living from the land, end up as street vendors in the capital city, San Salvador. Others work in textile factories, where wages are low and working conditions poor.
El Salvador is vulnerable to many types of natural disaster including earthquakes, hurricanes and droughts. The country was badly hit by Hurricane Mitch in 1998 and again by a series of earthquakes in 2001.
El Salvador has a long history of destructive earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. San Salvador , the capital, was destroyed by earthquakes in 1756 and 1854, and it suffered heavy damage from earthquakes occurring in 1919, 1982, 1986, and twice in 2001.
On the morning of Saturday, January 13,2001, an earthquake shook El Salvador with a destructive force 50,000 times more powerful than the Oklahoma City Bombing. It was 80 times more devastating than Hiroshima , and had the force of 20,000 of the fiercest tornados. In a matter of seconds, much of El Salvador was devastated, including entire families. Again in February of 2001, an earthquake again struck.
It was reported that there was a total of 278,456 destroyed homes and 1,329,806 homeless people. The impact the earthquakes of 2001 had on the children and families of El Salvador has been wide-ranging and severe. Survivors faced water shortages and disease as landslides cut off many communities or made access to the families extremely difficult. Delivering food and clean drinking water was challenging.
|
|
Key Events in the History of El Salvador
1524 - Spanish adventurer Pedro de Alvarado conquers El Salvador.
1540 - Indigenous resistance is crushed and El Salvador becomes a Spanish colony.
1821 - September 15: El Salvador gains independence from Spain. Conflict ensues over territory's incorporation into Mexican empire under Creole general Agustin de Iturbide.
1823 - El Salvador becomes part of the United Provinces of Central America, which also includes Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras & Nicaragua.
1840 - El Salvador becomes fully independent following the dissolution of the United Provinces of Central America.
1859-63 - President Gerardo Barrios introduces coffee growing. Coffee becomes the country's principal export crop.
1932 - Some 30,000 people are killed during the suppression of a peasant uprising led by Agustin Farabundo Marti. Marti and others are later publicly executed. The indigenous population is decimated.
Civil war
1961 - Right-wing National Conciliation Party (PCN) comes to power after a military coup.
1968 - A theology of liberation and a “preferential option for the poor” is articulated by Latin American Bishops in Medellín, Colombia.
1969 - El Salvador attacks and fights a brief war with Honduras following the eviction of thousands of Salvadoran illegal immigrants from Honduras.
1977 - Jesuit priest Rutilio Grande, S.J. is assassinated by the death squad. He is the first of seven priests killed in the next two years. This tragedy is the catalyst for a profound transformation in the new Archbishop of El Salvador, Oscar Romero.
Violence and repression escalates. The US increases military and economic aid.
Wealthiest 6% earn as much as the poorest 63%. Landlessness among rural families has risen about 30% in the last 15 years to 41%.
1977 - Anti-government guerrilla activities intensify amid reports of increased human rights violations by government troops and death squads; General Carlos Romero elected president.
1979-81 - Around 30,000 people are killed by army-backed right-wing death squads.
1979 - General Romero ousted in coup by reformist officers who install a military-civilian junta, but this fails to curb army-backed political violence.
1980 - February 17: Archbishop Romero writes a letter to President Carter: “Please don’t send any military, economic or diplomatic aid to this government or there will be a blood bath in my country.” Carter ignores his plea.
March 23: Romero calls soldiers to obey higher law of God and not kill their brothers and sisters.
March 24: Archbishop Oscar Romero assassinated at the Chapel of the Divina Providencia while celebrating mass.
May 24: Six hundred campesinos die at the Sumpul River Massacre. US Ambassador Robert White denies that the killings occurred.
December 2: Four church women are kidnapped, raped and murdered.
1980 - Naming itself after the 1930’s revolutionary leader, the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN) is formed in opposition to the government.
1980 - Jose Napoleon Duarte becomes first civilian president since 1931.
1981 - France and Mexico recognize the FMLN as a legitimate political force; US continues to assist Salvadoran government whose army continues to back right-wing death squads.
January: FMLN launches a mis-named "Final Offensive" - a general strike, which failed.
1981 - December: Massacre of over 1,000 campesinos in El Mozote and surrounding villages by the Atlacatl Battalion, trained by the School of the Americas. It is denied by both the Salvadoran and US governments. Deaths in 1981 number over 16,000. By this time, Reagan and the US Southern Command have taken over military direction of the war.
1982 - Extreme right-wing National Republican Alliance (ARENA) wins parliamentary elections marked by violence.
1984 - Duarte wins presidential election.
1986 - Duarte begins quest for negotiated settlement with FMLN.
US aid reaches $625.4 million, over $1.5 million per day.
1989 - FMLN attacks intensify; another Arena candidate, Alfredo Cristiani, voted president in elections widely believed to have been rigged.
November: The FMLN launches a major military offensive (again, called the "Final Offensive") in San Salvador, occupying one third of the capital. By bombing the neighborhoods, the military forces the FMLN to retreat.
November 16: Six Jesuit priests, their housekeeper, and her daughter are assassinated at the Central American University by the Atlacatl Battalion of the Armed Forces.
Peace and natural disasters
1991 - FMLN recognized as political party; government and FMLN agree to UN-sponsored peace accord.
1992 – Under pressure from the United States, peace accords are signed. In a country of 6 million, 75,000 Salvadorans, mostly civilians, were killed and another 300,000 disabled in this 12-year civil war. By this time, 96% of the families were living under the poverty line. The United States invested over $6 billion in this war.
1993- The UN-sponsored Truth Commission publishes a report detailing human rights violations during the war. Salvadoran legislature declares amnesty for those implicated by commission in human rights atrocities.
1994 - ARENA candidate Armando Calderón Sol elected president.
1997 - FMLN makes progress in parliamentary elections; leftist Hector Silva elected mayor of San Salvador.
1998 - October 22-November 5: Hurricane Mitch, one of the deadliest and most powerful tropical cyclones ever, battered Central America, killing over 18,000 people. In El Salvador, 374 died and 55,864 were displaced.
1999 - ARENA candidate Francisco Flores beats former guerrilla Facundo Guardado in presidential election.
2000 – Human rights workers express concerns over increasing US military presence in El Salvador in the name of the “war on drugs.”
2001 - January 13, February 13: Massive earthquakes kill 1,200 people and render another one million homeless.
2002 - July: US court holds two retired, US-based Salvadoran army generals responsible for civil war atrocities, orders them to compensate victims who brought case.
2003 - August: 360 Salvadoran troops dispatched to help fight US war in Iraq.
2004 - March 21: ARENA candidate Tony Saca wins presidential elections with 57% of the vote. Several U.S. government officials had publicly warned the Salvadoran people against voting for FMLN candidate Schafik Handal, implicitly threatening to cut off remittances from family members living in the United States, the main economic lifeline to the country.
December: El Salvador is the first country to ratify the free-trade agreement with the US, Guatemala, Honduras, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, and the Dominican Republic, known as CAFTA. Widespread popular protest against this trade agreement forces the government to pass CAFTA in the middle of the night amidst criticism of anti-democratic pracitces. The agreement is approved by a one-vote margin in the US House of Representatives in July 2005.
2005 - March: OAS human rights court votes to re-open an investigation into the 1981 massacre of hundreds of peasant farmers in the village of El Mozote, regarded as one of the worst atrocities of the civil war.
"The difference between a helping hand and an outstretched palm is a twist of the wrist." ~Laurence Leamer
"What we have done for ourselves alone dies with us; what we have done for others and the world remains and is immortal." ~Albert Pike
Click here to read about Salvadoran Culture
For more information, please contact:
219 Argyle Avenue, Suite 411
Ottawa, Ontario K2P 2H4
Phone:
(613) 233-6215
Email: salvaide@web.net
|
Back to Top
|
