El Salvador At Peace
Recovery from the brutalization of civil war was slow. Many disaffected former combatants remained on the fringes of society, while unemployment soared and the circulation of firearms went unchecked. Delinquency, crime and violence ensued. The first postwar elections , held in March 1994, resulted in Armando Calderon Sol of the ARENA party assuming the presidency, beating the FMLN's Ruben Zamora. The new government pursued a neo-liberal, free-market economic policy and privatized large sectors of the economy, including the controversial sale of Antel, the state telecommunications company. IMF loans were used to stabilize the currency and encourage growth in GDP. On the downside, the cost of living rose, poverty increased and unemployment reached unprecedented levels, while large-scale privatization further concentrated wealth in the hands of the elite. Public dissatisfaction increased with the government's perceived failure to comply with the Chapultepec Accords and with the amnesties granted to members of the military accused of committing human-rights atrocities. The profound divisions in society that had originally led to civil war grew wider than ever, and civil violence intensified. Following its failure in the 1994 elections, the FMLN's fortunes were revived by impressive results across the country in the March 1997 municipal elections , including winning the capital's prized mayoral seat. However, failure to build on these results allowed ARENA's Francisco Flores to triumph in the presidential elections of March 1999, though only 40 percent of the electorate turned out to vote - highlighting widespread contempt for politicians of both major parties. Much of the country concentrated on the hardships of daily life. Hurricane Mitch hit the country in October 1998, killing 374 and making 56,000 people homeless. The government's response was slow, and much of the international effort was focused on harder-hit Honduras and Nicaragua. Infrastructure was destroyed, agricultural output badly damaged and disease spread across the affected areas, primarily the low-lying flood plain of the Lempa and San Miguel Grande rivers. A report by the Universidad de Centroamerica (UCA), in March 2000, listed El Salvador as one of the most violent countries in Latin America, with widespread gang warfare, narcotrafficking and civil violence. A spate of kidnappings of business people for ransom has gone largely unchecked, and the small-talk of the nation is littered with the term delincuencia . One attempt to combat civil disorder is the highly controversial US military training base which President Flores has allowed to be established in El Salvador - avowedly to fight drug trafficking, though Salvadoreans are still naturally suspicious of US military intervention in their domestic affairs.
the islands in the gulfjack says "I was with nice guide, he show me the islands in the gulf of fonseca, his website is www.larutadelzapamiche.com, he gived me a backpacker price like 55$ we were 5 persons, but the place is the best , he don't have this price in the website, so you need to ask about that."
Your Tip for El Salvador
Help other backpackers! Write your own guides and backpacking tips to El Salvador - they will appear instantly on this page - Please only write a tip/guide to El Salvador - visit the main El Salvador forum to ask a question!
Please do not post links to your site here (they won't work) - please use the El Salvador webguide section below! Thanks.
|
