http://voiceselsalvador.wordpress.com/2011/11/28/transnational-movement-encachimbados-brings-occupy-protests-to-el-salvador/
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New post on *Voices from El Salvador*
<http://voiceselsalvador.wordpress.com/author/voicesfromelsalvador/>
Transnational
Movement Encachimbados Brings Occupy Protests to El
Salvador<http://voiceselsalvador.wordpress.com/2011/11/28/transnational-movement-encachimbados-brings-occupy-protests-to-el-salvador/>by
voicesfromelsalvador<http://voiceselsalvador.wordpress.com/author/voicesfromelsalvador/>
by Danielle Mackey
San Salvador
<http://voiceselsalvador.files.wordpress.com/2011/11/telesur.jpg>
photo credit: Rachel Heidendry
The world-wide Occupy Movement arrived to El Salvador on Thanksgiving Day,
as a transnational protest in front of the United States Embassy. The
movement has designated itself Los Encachimbados, which is a colloquial
Salvadoran word meaning indignant. About 70 people gathered, roughly half
Salvadoran and half U.S. citizens.
The group distributed a press
release<http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/3324-thanksgiving-rally-of-the-99-encachimbado-and-indignado-in-el-sa>delineating
the local context of damage that they believe to be caused by
the current international economic system. They call the attention of both
the U.S. and Salvadoran governments to the free trade model, regional
militarization strategies, and environmental destruction and climate
changeall policies that the Encachimbados see as designed by a
transnational elite, and which result in a low quality of life for the
majority of the population of the Americas. People all over the world are
tired of these economic and political policies that benefit onl y 1% of our
world. Were here in front of the U.S. Embassy because no world-wide change
can be generated if the U.S. doesnt change, too, explains Alfredo Carias,
a Salvadoran Encachimbados spokesperson.
The free trade model between Central America and its northern neighbor is
pushing Central American producers out of the market, now that local
companies are having to compete directly against U.S. firms without
protections, and it has also caused decreased environmental and labor
regulations, says Daniel Burridge, an Encachimbados spokesperson, U.S.
citizen and resident of El Salvador. In the end, the poor and the
environment are the ones footing the bill.
The privileges granted to foreign companies through the active free trade
agreement that bonds El Salvador and the United States, the Central
American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA,) has recently yielded a torrid legal
battle. The Salvadoran government faces two
lawsuits<http://voiceselsalvador.wordpress.com/2010/05/26/thinking-twice-about-a-gold-rish-pacific-rim-v-el-salvador/>for
a total of almost $200 million for refusing to grant permissions for
the companies to carry out open-pit metallic mining in several regions
throughout the country. (One of the two cases is still in
arbitration<http://www.minec.gob.sv/index.php?option=com_phocadownload&view=category&id=26:otros-documentos&Itemid=63>;
the other is in
appeal<http://luterano.blogspot.com/2011/11/commerce-group-lawsuit-update.html>
.)
Surrounding the legal battle is a series of
assassinations<http://upsidedownworld.org/main/el-salvador-archives-74/3117-body-of-young-anti-mining-activist-exhumed-from-common-grave>of
four environmental activists, all part of the anti-mining movement.
Despite the violence, activists maintain pressure on the Salvadoran
government to pass a law banning metallic mineral
mining<http://esnomineria.blogspot.com/2010/07/cuatro-razones-para-aprobar-una-ley-que.html>.
I live in a country subject to free trade agreements where mining
companies can arrive, rob the few resources that we have, and leave our
land contaminated and suffering. Im here today because I dream of real
social change for my country, explains nineteen year-old Salvadoran
citizen and Encachimbados participant, Lorena.
The militarization strategies embraced by the U.S. and Salvadoran
governments, according to the Encachimbados press release, criminalize
social protest, subject national security systems to intervention and
supervision by the U.S. government and facilitate violent repression of
activities that jeopardize the interests of global capital. Two days prior
to the Encachimbados protest, in a move that many qualify as a militaristic
violation of the Salvadoran Peace Accords, President Mauricio Funes swore
in a new Minister of Security and Justic
e<http://upsidedownworld.org/main/el-salvador-archives-74/3325-ex-general-replaces-leftist-leader-in-el-salvadors-security-cabinet-as-washington-reasserts-influence-in-central-america>,
the retired army general David Munguía Payés.
Evidence<http://www.elfaro.net/es/201111/noticias/6544/>published by
the El Faro newspaper reveals that the firing of the previous
minister and the selection of a retired army general to replace him was a
decision made under pressure from the U.S. government. This has led others
to criticize the decision as a violation of Salvadoran state sovereignty.
The military has played a large role in the daily lives of Salvadoran
citizens since 2009, when President Funes deployed the army to patrol
alongside the Civilian National Police force in especially violent zones
around the country. Many civil society organizations have decried this
decision as
unconstitutional<http://www.fespad.org.sv/planes-de-seguridad-fracasan>,
and have noted that it follows the tone set by the U.S.-funded Merida
Plan<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%C3%A9rida_Initiative>,
which presses for militarized public security
policies<http://www.fespad.org.sv/documentos/estudio-sobre-la-ejecucion-extrajudicial-de-jovenes.pdf>for
the treatment of common delinquency, gang activity, and drug
trafficking. However, troop deployment has not decreased the homicide rate
in El Salvador, which has held
steady<http://www.elfaro.net/es/201111/noticias/6544/>at 12
assassinations daily. Soldiers have no ability to make arrests or
bring charges against anyone; the fact is that they really are for
intimidation purposes, explains Burridge, who also works in social
services in a marginalized urban neighborhood known as La Chacra. In fact,
within the first fifteen months of the new policy, the Human Rights
Ombudsman received 158 formal reports of human rights
violations<http://www.contrapunto.com.sv/derechos-humanos/pddh-tiene-158-expedientes-contra-militares>against
the civilian population by patrolling soldiers.
Though a brutal civil war ended about two decades ago, the legacy of
violence and militarism continues to plague El Salvador, and in 2009, it
was classified by the Geneva Declaration on Armed Violence and
Development<http://www.genevadeclaration.org/measurability/global-burden-of-armed-violence/global-burden-of-armed-violence-2011.html>as
the most violent nation in the world. The Encachimbados movement
stresses that the militaristic policies fashioned by the transnational
elite foment the daily violence that haunts Salvadorans. Were here today
in front of the U.S. Embassy because the U.S. is largely responsible for
the problems we face here, explains U.S. citizen and Salvadoran resident,
Christine Damon. For instance, I work in youth security. The U.S War on
Drugs and export of small and large arms is directly contributing
to<http://www.pcasc.net/our-committees-and-campaigns/venezuela-solidarity/drop-the-drug-war/drop-the-drug-war-campaign/failure-or-fraud-the-us-drug-war-on-latin-america/>the
deaths of the twelve mostly-young men who die daily here. Furthermore,
the 1% is not interested in changing this reality. Its convenient for
youth to be in poverty, to be excluded, to not be paying attention. Im
here
because I question this reality. Damon, who holds the hand of her 8
year old son as she speaks, adds, I want him to grow up in a safer world.
Until there is a more just distribution of resources, that simply will not
happen.
The Encachimbados movement cites its third major concern as environmental
destruction and climate change. El Salvador is classified as the most
vulnerable country in the world to natural
disasters<http://www.laprensagrafica.com/lo-del-dia-edi/114094--el-salvador-es-el-mas-vulnerable-del-mundo.html>,
but the amount of greenhouse gases that it emits is almost nothing,
whereas one-third of greenhouse gases worldwide are emitted by the US,
explains Burridge. While carbon emissions continue to wreak havoc in
vulnerable places like Central America, he continues, the U.S. also
continues to block meaningful action to regulate greenhouse gases. Tropical
Depression 12-E <http://www.elfaro.net/es/201110/noticias/6441/> recently
swept through Central America, dumping record amounts of rain on El
Salvador and causing 34 deaths, 50,000 evacuations, and an estimated $840
million of losses in infrastructure and agriculture.
<http://voiceselsalvador.files.wordpress.com/2011/11/embassy.jpg>
photo credit: Rachel Heidendry
The Encachimbados participants emphasize that they are part of a worldwide
transnational social movement, coming together to cast an analytical eye on
the status quo for the majority world population and to posit alternatives.
Our capitalist system classifies human beings as a means to profit, and
this has us enslaved, argues Eric Rivera, a 23 year old Salvadoran
journalism student. Our economic system oppresses us psychologically,
spiritually, in our private lives, in our professional lives. We have to
propose a new form of life; one that is based on solidarity, mutual support
between people, and one which is organized horizontally, To his left,
another voice chimes in: I want a world thats not so centered on
consumerism. I want our focus to be on recognition of each other as human
beings, muses 20 year old electrical engineering student Marvin Marmol.
The Encachimbados Thanksgiving Day appearance was the beginning of a
growing movement in El Salvador. We will be permanently mobilized to build
a global system that tries to promote the interests of the 99% of humanity
and the interests of the Mother Earth, says Burridge. Be on the lookout
for us in the future.
<http://voiceselsalvador.files.wordpress.com/2011/11/img_3210.jpg>
Photo credit: Rachel Heidendry
*voicesfromelsalvador<http://voiceselsalvador.wordpress.com/author/voicesfromelsalvador/>
* | November 28, 2011 at 10:20 pm | Categories:
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*A means can be justified only by its end. But the end in its turn needs to
be justified.
(Also quoted as "The end may justify the means as long as there is
something that justifies the end.")
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Their Morals and Ours (1938)*
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