Don't forget about El Salvador

Nina Lakhani reports on the suspicious break-in at the University of Washington Center for Human Rights in The Guardian with Confidential files on El Salvador human rights stolen after legal action against CIA.

A computer and hard drive containing testimonies from survivors were stolen from the office of the director of the University of Washington Center for Human Rights (UWCHR) last week.

The director’s office was the only one raided, there were no signs of forced entry, and items of monetary value were left behind, raising concerns that it could have been a targeted attack linked to the group’s sensitive work, said UWCHR.

This is very troublesome.

The FMLN is set to hold a national congress at the end of the month.

The FMLN has held national conventions to elect its leaders, but this is the first time the group is holding a congress to facilitate such a wide-ranging discussion. The gathering will debate three key documents looking at the social and economic structure of the country, the programmatic guidelines and general strategy of the party. It will also discuss measures to strengthen the party's structures.

Green Left Weekly spoke with vice-minister for overseas Salvadorans and  member of the FMLN international relations department Liduvina Magarin here. Sounds very democratic.

Salvaodran tailors flee to make a new life for themselves in Mexico.

Insight Crime's Aaron Daugherty takes a look at some comments from Security Minister Benito Lara in which he seems to criticize "iron fist" security policies characterizing them as an "abrupt change in rhetoric for an administration that has implemented a militarized approach to combating the country's deadly street gangs." El Salvador's government has been pursuing a combination of soft and hard approaches to the gangs - basically what every government does.

In some ways, Lara is correct in that we don't spend enough time describing the soft policies (the ones we believe are all more effective). However, that was the same as when Tony Saca was in power and his policies were simply characterized as super mano dura with no mention of all the other soft policies that ARENA was trying. It's never been an either / or approach to security. There's also the recognition that what politicians and security officials say is not the same as what they do.

Finally, El Salvador is still rejecting calls for an international commission along the lines of Guatemala's CICIG.

While it's obvious why El Salvador's government would be reluctant to have any corruption exposed, it is under pressure from the international community to take steps to combat impunity. The decision to renew the USAID plan is likely an attempt to appease foreign backers (the most notable being the United States) while also limiting the body's ability to actually investigate graft. Similar concerns have been raised about the new anti-corruption body in Honduras being put in place by the Organization of American States.

It might not be as effective and it might be designed to appease foreign powers, but that doesn't mean that it can't do any good. As I've written before, CICIG's success in Guatemala will force Honduras and El Salvador to work overtime to convince their own citizens and the international community that they don't need an international commission. I'm not sure that will be enough but it should help. COHA also recently published an article defending the FMLN's decision to put the party and its members ahead of the country in An International Commission Against Corruption Questioned as a Solution in El Salvador.

If the FMLN is serious about tackling corruption, it can work to ensure that the current Fiscalia is not re-elected and that the next one has the resources and the will to do the job.