From civil war to 'civil society': Has the end of the Cold War brought peace to Central America?

International Affairs

Volumn 74, Issue 3, 1998, Pages 587-615

  Pearce, Jenny ^a  

^a NONE

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EID: 0037606465     PISSN: 00205850     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1111/1468-2346.00036     Document Type: Article

References (97)

1. E.g. F. Halliday, The Making of the Second Cold War (London: Verso, 1983).
2. st session, 17 November 1987 (Washington DC: Government Printing Office, 1988). Other useful books are: Thomas W. Walker, ed., Reagan versus the Sandinistas: the undeclared war on Nicaragua (Boulder, CO, Oxford: Westview, 1987) and H. Sklar, Washington's war on Nicaragua (Boston, MA: South End Press, 1988).
3. st session, 17 November 1987 (Washington DC: Government Printing Office, 1988). Other useful books are: Thomas W. Walker, ed., Reagan versus the Sandinistas: the undeclared war on Nicaragua (Boulder, CO, Oxford: Westview, 1987) and H. Sklar, Washington's war on Nicaragua (Boston, MA: South End Press, 1988).
4. st session, 17 November 1987 (Washington DC: Government Printing Office, 1988). Other useful books are: Thomas W. Walker, ed., Reagan versus the Sandinistas: the undeclared war on Nicaragua (Boulder, CO, Oxford: Westview, 1987) and H. Sklar, Washington's war on Nicaragua (Boston, MA: South End Press, 1988).
5. See H. Smith, European Union foreign policy and Central America (London: Macmillan, 1995).
6. This is the argument of John A. Booth, 'Central America and the United States: cycles of containment and response', in J. D. Martz, United States policy in Latin America (Lincoln and London: University of Nebraska Press, 1995), pp. 184-214. See also William Leogrande, 'From Reagan to Bush: the transition in US policy towards Central America', Journal of Latin American Studies 22: 3, 1990.
7. This is the argument of John A. Booth, 'Central America and the United States: cycles of containment and response', in J. D. Martz, United States policy in Latin America (Lincoln and London: University of Nebraska Press, 1995), pp. 184-214. See also William Leogrande, 'From Reagan to Bush: the transition in US policy towards Central America', Journal of Latin American Studies 22: 3, 1990.
8. Steve C. Ropp, 'The Bush administration and the invasion of Panama: explaining the choice and timing of the military option', in Martz, United States policy in Latin America, pp. 88-109.
9. Inter-American Dialogue, The Americas in 1997: making cooperation work, a report of the Sol M. Linowitz Forum (Washington DC: Inter-American Dialogue, May 1997), p. 2.
10. These are distinctions initially developed by Johann Galtung in the 1960s and subsequently developed into a more complex set of distinctions in a later work. See J. Galtung, Peace by peaceful means: peace and conflict, development and civilization (Oslo: International Peace Research Institute, 1996). Here the distinction is used in its simplest formulation, echoing Isaiah Berlin's distinction between positive and negative liberty. Negative peace refers to the absence of violence and positive peace refers to the active construction of the 'good society' (equitable, just, etc.) where recourse to violence would no longer take place.
11. José Miguel Cruz and Luis Armando González, 'Magnitud de la violencia en El Salvador' Estudios Centro Americanos (ECA) 588, October 1997. These are figures from the Fiscalía General de la Republica; the figures for international homicides as opposed to violent deaths are 7,673, 7,877 and 6,792 for the three years. The authors find some discrepancies in different statistical sources, but conclude that there has been an average of 131 international murders for every 100,000 inhabitants in the last three years, compared with 130 violent deaths per 100,000 in the 12 years of civil war; these figures compare with a figure of 33 per 100,000 in 1974, before the war broke out. The National Civil Police estimated in 1996 that there are 150,000 weapons registered in the hands of civilians, and over 120,000 in circulation and not registered, many because they are for the 'private use' of members of the armed forces. Seven per cent of adults in the metropolitan area of San Salvador, some 58,000 people, admitted that they possessed a gun for 'protection', but many of the weapons in circulation are, according to the police, owned by minors and therefore the actual figures will be much higher: José Miguel Cruz, 'Los factores posibilitadores y las expresiones de la violencia en los noventa', ECA 588, October 1997.
12. José Miguel Cruz and Luis Armando González, 'Magnitud de la violencia en El Salvador' Estudios Centro Americanos (ECA) 588, October 1997. These are figures from the Fiscalía General de la Republica; the figures for international homicides as opposed to violent deaths are 7,673, 7,877 and 6,792 for the three years. The authors find some discrepancies in different statistical sources, but conclude that there has been an average of 131 international murders for every 100,000 inhabitants in the last three years, compared with 130 violent deaths per 100,000 in the 12 years of civil war; these figures compare with a figure of 33 per 100,000 in 1974, before the war broke out. The National Civil Police estimated in 1996 that there are 150,000 weapons registered in the hands of civilians, and over 120,000 in circulation and not registered, many because they are for the 'private use' of members of the armed forces. Seven per cent of adults in the metropolitan area of San Salvador, some 58,000 people, admitted that they possessed a gun for 'protection', but many of the weapons in circulation are, according to the police, owned by minors and therefore the actual figures will be much higher: José Miguel Cruz, 'Los factores posibilitadores y las expresiones de la violencia en los noventa', ECA 588, October 1997.
13. World Bank, El Salvador: meeting the challenge of globalization (Washington: World Bank, 1996), p. 80.
14. Center for International Policy, Central America Update, 29 November-5 December 1997.
15. Ibid.
16. See e.g. E. Lira, 'Guatemala: uncovering the past, recovering the future', in Development in Practice 7: 4, 1997, pp. 395-401.
17. The combined population of the three countries in 1980 on the eve of the escalation in the war was 14.2 million.
18. L. Binford, The El Mozote massacre (Tucson, AZ: University of Arizona Press, 1996), p. 63. This book offers an overview of the human rights violations in El Salvador during the war and a detailed, anthropological account of one of the worst massacres in which the US-trained Atlacatl Batallion massacred over 1,000 people in six hamlets in northern Morazán.
19. Monthly Report of the Project Counselling Service, April 1998.
20. Banco Mundial, Nicaragua: Estudio de la Pobreza, executive summary (Managua: Banco Mundial, 1 June 1995), mimeo.
21. Secretaría General de Planificación, Programa de Gobierno 1996-2000 (Guatemala City, June 1996), pp. 48-9. The government estimates that 52% of the population are indigenous.
22. M. Pastor and M.E. Conroy, 'Distributional implications', in James K. Boyce, ed., Economic policy for building peace: the lessons of El Salvador (Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 1996), p. 157.
23. Alexander Segovia, 'Macroeconomic performance and policies since 1989', in Boyce ed., Economic policy for building peace, p. 51. In fact, the number of people living in extreme poverty in urban areas rose from 23.3% of the urban population to 29.6% in 1992/3: ibid., p. 64. Yet USAID calculated in 1993 that remittances increase the income of poor urban and rural families by one-third, ibid., p. 56.
24. Alexander Segovia, 'Macroeconomic performance and policies since 1989', in Boyce ed., Economic policy for building peace, p. 51. In fact, the number of people living in extreme poverty in urban areas rose from 23.3% of the urban population to 29.6% in 1992/3: ibid., p. 64. Yet USAID calculated in 1993 that remittances increase the income of poor urban and rural families by one-third, ibid., p. 56.
25. Alexander Segovia, 'Macroeconomic performance and policies since 1989', in Boyce ed., Economic policy for building peace, p. 51. In fact, the number of people living in extreme poverty in urban areas rose from 23.3% of the urban population to 29.6% in 1992/3: ibid., p. 64. Yet USAID calculated in 1993 that remittances increase the income of poor urban and rural families by one-third, ibid., p. 56.
26. Quoted in J. Spence, et al., Chapúltepec: five years later (Cambridge, MA: Hemisphere Initiatives, January 1997), p. 32.
27. Quoted ibid., p. 34.
28. One-third of Central America's metropolitan workers were in the urban informal sector in 1982; this increased to 40% by 1988-9: C. Vilas, Between earthquakes and volcanoes: market, state and the revolutions in Central America (New York: Monthly Review Press, 1995), p.157.
29. The share of income accruing to the wealthiest 10% of Salvadorean households rose from 31% to over 38% between 1977 and 1990-91; inequality in access to land is widely acknowledged to be the main source of endemic poverty for the 73% of the Salvadorean population defined by USAID in 1994 as rural: Manuel Pastor and Michael E. Conroy, 'Distributional implications', in Boyce, ed., Economic policy for building peace, p. 157. The Guatemalan government estimates that 10% of its population enjoy 44% of total income; at the other extreme, 20% of the population share only 2%, Secretaría General de Planificación, Programme de Gobierno 1996-2000, p. 51. The 1979 agricultural census estimated that 65% of private land was held by only 2% of productive units larger than 45 hectares; farms up to seven hectares - less than is required to feed the average family - accounted for 90% of productive land units and only 16% of all privately owned land. There has been no shift in this pattern of land holdings since the war ended, and in 1997 there were over 300 land disputes in 15 of Guatemala's 22 departments: Gustavo Palma Murga, Promised the earth: agrarian reform in the socio-economic agreement, Accord, Negotiating rights: the Guatemalan peace process, (London: Conciliation Resources, Issue 2/1997), p. 74.
30. The share of income accruing to the wealthiest 10% of Salvadorean households rose from 31% to over 38% between 1977 and 1990-91; inequality in access to land is widely acknowledged to be the main source of endemic poverty for the 73% of the Salvadorean population defined by USAID in 1994 as rural: Manuel Pastor and Michael E. Conroy, 'Distributional implications', in Boyce, ed., Economic policy for building peace, p. 157. The Guatemalan government estimates that 10% of its population enjoy 44% of total income; at the other extreme, 20% of the population share only 2%, Secretaría General de Planificación, Programme de Gobierno 1996-2000, p. 51. The 1979 agricultural census estimated that 65% of private land was held by only 2% of productive units larger than 45 hectares; farms up to seven hectares - less than is required to feed the average family - accounted for 90% of productive land units and only 16% of all privately owned land. There has been no shift in this pattern of land holdings since the war ended, and in 1997 there were over 300 land disputes in 15 of Guatemala's 22 departments: Gustavo Palma Murga, Promised the earth: agrarian reform in the socio-economic agreement, Accord, Negotiating rights: the Guatemalan peace process, (London: Conciliation Resources, Issue 2/1997), p. 74.
31. The share of income accruing to the wealthiest 10% of Salvadorean households rose from 31% to over 38% between 1977 and 1990-91; inequality in access to land is widely acknowledged to be the main source of endemic poverty for the 73% of the Salvadorean population defined by USAID in 1994 as rural: Manuel Pastor and Michael E. Conroy, 'Distributional implications', in Boyce, ed., Economic policy for building peace, p. 157. The Guatemalan government estimates that 10% of its population enjoy 44% of total income; at the other extreme, 20% of the population share only 2%, Secretaría General de Planificación, Programme de Gobierno 1996-2000, p. 51. The 1979 agricultural census estimated that 65% of private land was held by only 2% of productive units larger than 45 hectares; farms up to seven hectares - less than is required to feed the average family - accounted for 90% of productive land units and only 16% of all privately owned land. There has been no shift in this pattern of land holdings since the war ended, and in 1997 there were over 300 land disputes in 15 of Guatemala's 22 departments: Gustavo Palma Murga, Promised the earth: agrarian reform in the socio-economic agreement, Accord, Negotiating rights: the Guatemalan peace process, (London: Conciliation Resources, Issue 2/1997), p. 74.
32. Financial Times, 9 March 1998.
33. For an overview of these processes see Vilas, Between earthquakes and volcanoes; or, for a detailed case-study of how this dynamic impacted on one locality of the region, J. Pearce, Promised land: peasant rebellion in Chalatenango, El Salvador (London: Latin America Bureau, 1986).
34. For an overview of these processes see Vilas, Between earthquakes and volcanoes; or, for a detailed case-study of how this dynamic impacted on one locality of the region, J. Pearce, Promised land: peasant rebellion in Chalatenango, El Salvador (London: Latin America Bureau, 1986).
35. J. Dunkerley, The pacification of Central America (London: Verso, 1994), p. 23.
36. Ibid., p. 145.
37. A. Segovia, 'The war economy of the 1980s', in Boyce, ed., Economic policy for building peace, p. 31.
38. Vilas, Between earthquakes and volcanoes, p. 161.
39. Ibid.
40. Breny Cuenca, El poder intangible.La AID y el Estado Salvadoreño en los años ochenta (San Salvador: CRIES/PREIS, 1992).
41. This and the details that follow come from: William Leogrande, 'Making the economy scream: US economic sanctions against Sandinista Nicaragua', Third World Quarterly 17: 2, 1996, pp. 329-48.
42. Quoted ibid., p. 336.
43. Ibid., p. 342.
44. The combined membership of rebel groups totalled 3,614 at the time of disarmament: Conciliation Resources, Negotiating rights: the Guatemalan peace process, p. 88. This compares with 7,500 FMLN combatants in El Salvador; E. Wood, in 'The peace accords and post-war reconstruction', Boyce, ed., Economic policy for building peace, p. 89.
45. The combined membership of rebel groups totalled 3,614 at the time of disarmament: Conciliation Resources, Negotiating rights: the Guatemalan peace process, p. 88. This compares with 7,500 FMLN combatants in El Salvador; E. Wood, in 'The peace accords and post-war reconstruction', Boyce, ed., Economic policy for building peace, p. 89.
46. See D. Pritchard, 'Refugee repatriation and reintegration', in R. Sieder, ed., Central America: fragile transition (Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1996).
47. J. Schirmer, 'The seeking of truth and the gendering of consciousness: the CoMadres of El Salvador and the COAVIGUA widows of Guatemala', in Sarah A. Radcliffe and Sallie Westwood, eds, 'Viva': women and popular protest in Latin America (London: Routledge, 1993), pp. 30-64.
48. The role of a range of new civilian organizations in the discussions of the peace accords in Guatemala has been noted by a number of observers. See e.g. Tania Prado Palencia, Peace in the making: civil groups in Guatemala, CIIR Briefing (London: Catholic Institute for International Relations, 1996); R. Wilson, The people's conscience? Civil groups, peace and justice in the South African and Guatemalan transitions, CIIR Briefing (London: Catholic Institute for International Relations, 1997). The challenge nevertheless remains in terms of the implementation of the accords.
49. The role of a range of new civilian organizations in the discussions of the peace accords in Guatemala has been noted by a number of observers. See e.g. Tania Prado Palencia, Peace in the making: civil groups in Guatemala, CIIR Briefing (London: Catholic Institute for International Relations, 1996); R. Wilson, The people's conscience? Civil groups, peace and justice in the South African and Guatemalan transitions, CIIR Briefing (London: Catholic Institute for International Relations, 1997). The challenge nevertheless remains in terms of the implementation of the accords.
50. The full text of the most significant Guatemalan peace accords is reproduced in Conciliation Resources, Negotiating rights: the Guatemalan peace process.
51. Peter Sollis, 'Partners in development? The state, non-governmental organisations and the UN in Central America', Third World Quarterly 16: 3, 1995, pp. 525-42. See also Francisco Alvarez Solís and Pauline Martin, 'The role of Salvadorean NGOs in post-war reconstruction', in Deborah Eade, ed., Development in Practice Readers, Development in states of war (Oxford: Oxfam, 1996), p. 52; Kees Biekart, La cooperación no gubernamental Europea hacía CentroAmérica: la experiencia de los ochenta y las tendencias en los noventa (El Salvador: Prisma, 1994); Laura MacDonald, Supporting civic society: the political role of NGOs in Central America (Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1996).
52. Peter Sollis, 'Partners in development? The state, non-governmental organisations and the UN in Central America', Third World Quarterly 16: 3, 1995, pp. 525-42. See also Francisco Alvarez Solís and Pauline Martin, 'The role of Salvadorean NGOs in post-war reconstruction', in Deborah Eade, ed., Development in Practice Readers, Development in states of war (Oxford: Oxfam, 1996), p. 52; Kees Biekart, La cooperación no gubernamental Europea hacía CentroAmérica: la experiencia de los ochenta y las tendencias en los noventa (El Salvador: Prisma, 1994); Laura MacDonald, Supporting civic society: the political role of NGOs in Central America (Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1996).
53. Peter Sollis, 'Partners in development? The state, non-governmental organisations and the UN in Central America', Third World Quarterly 16: 3, 1995, pp. 525-42. See also Francisco Alvarez Solís and Pauline Martin, 'The role of Salvadorean NGOs in post-war reconstruction', in Deborah Eade, ed., Development in Practice Readers, Development in states of war (Oxford: Oxfam, 1996), p. 52; Kees Biekart, La cooperación no gubernamental Europea hacía CentroAmérica: la experiencia de los ochenta y las tendencias en los noventa (El Salvador: Prisma, 1994); Laura MacDonald, Supporting civic society: the political role of NGOs in Central America (Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1996).
54. Peter Sollis, 'Partners in development? The state, non-governmental organisations and the UN in Central America', Third World Quarterly 16: 3, 1995, pp. 525-42. See also Francisco Alvarez Solís and Pauline Martin, 'The role of Salvadorean NGOs in post-war reconstruction', in Deborah Eade, ed., Development in Practice Readers, Development in states of war (Oxford: Oxfam, 1996), p. 52; Kees Biekart, La cooperación no gubernamental Europea hacía CentroAmérica: la experiencia de los ochenta y las tendencias en los noventa (El Salvador: Prisma, 1994); Laura MacDonald, Supporting civic society: the political role of NGOs in Central America (Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1996).
55. This argument is explored a little more in J. Pearce, 'Building civil society "from the outside": the problematic democratisation of Central America', Global Society (May 1998).
56. Alvaro de Soto and G. del Castillo, 'Obstacles to peace-building', Foreign Policy 94, Spring 1994, p. 71.
57. Boyce, ed., Economic policy for building peace.
58. A. Segovia, 'Domestic resource mobilization', ibid., p. 123.
59. E. Wood, 'The peace accords and reconstruction', ibid., p. 82. There has been considerable debate about the impact of agrarian reform in El Salvador, some of which has taken place between academics in the pages of the Latin American Research Review (LARR).
60. E. Wood, 'The peace accords and reconstruction', ibid., p. 82. There has been considerable debate about the impact of agrarian reform in El Salvador, some of which has taken place between academics in the pages of the Latin American Research Review (LARR).
61. See Mitchell A. Seligson, 'Thirty years of agrarian transformation in El Salvador', LARR 30: 3, 1995, pp. 43-74;
62. Martin Diskin, 'Distilled conclusions: the disappearance of the agrarian question in El Salvador', LARR 31: 2, 1996, pp. 111-26.
63. Boyce, ed., 'Introduction', ibid., p. 4.
64. A. Segovia, 'Performance and policies since 1989', ibid., p. 57.
65. World Bank, El Salvador, p. 3.
66. S. Baranyi, 'UN verification: achievements, limitations and prospects', in R. Sieder, ed., Central America, p. 256.
67. P. J. Williams and Knut Walther, Militarization and demilitarization in El Salvador's transition to democracy (Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1997), p.169.
68. R. Sieder and P. Costello, 'Judicial reform in Central America', in R. Sieder, ed., Central America, p. 192.
69. J. Spence, et al., Chapúltepec, p. 19.
70. Ibid., p. 10.
71. Ibid., p. 16.
72. The ONUSAL mission ended in April 1995, leaving only a small team of specialists to continue verifying the remaining agreements.
73. This is the conclusion, for instance, of the study by Hemisphere Initiatives on postwar El Salvador: 'There can be no doubt that the characterization of political life is incomplete. Numerous authoritarian tendencies and practices remain. While substantial institutional change has occured, in each case there has been a struggle between traditional forces and modernizers. One force for change, the international community, is waning in influence', J. Spence, et al., Chapúltepec, p. 5.
74. Ibid., p. 10.
75. Latin America Monitor: Central America, April 1997.
76. For a useful discussion of the problems of political parties and party systems in postwar Central America, see Rodolfo Cerdas Cruz, 'Political parties and party systems', in R. Sieder, ed., Central America, pp. 15-54.
77. Thirty thousand jobs were lost in the public sector, a loss of one-third since 1988: David Dye, et al., Contesting everything, winning nothing: the search for consensus in Nicaragua, 1990-95 (Cambridge, MA: Hemisphere Initiatives, November 1995), p. 10. Managua has some of the best-educated taxi drivers anywhere in the world.
78. Ibid., p. 18.
79. G. Prevost, 'The Nicaraguan revolution: six years after the Sandinista electoral defeat', Third World Quarterly, 17: 2, pp. 307-27.
80. The elections of 1996 were significant both for the official turnout of 76% for the fact that the two main contenders, the FSLN and the Liberal Alliance, represented the two forces which opposed each other in the civil war of the 1980s. However, a systematic study of these elections found extensive irregularities, particularly when compared with the widely praised organization and execution of the elections of 1984 and 1990 in which the Sandinistas were in government and were monitored minutely by the international community. See J. Spence, Democracy weakened? A report on the October 20 1996 Nicaraguan elections (Washington DC: Hemisphere Initiatives and Washington Office on Latin America, 22 November 1997).
81. This was the main message of the statement before the Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere, House International Relations Committee, by John Hamilton, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Inter-American Affairs, on 25 June 1997. The statement expressed no concern about the personal debts Aleman was repaying his political backers inside and outside the country and the corruption and clientelism observed by many with the return to power of a man once closely associated with the Somoza dictatorship.
82. This comment is based on field visits to a number of municipalities in Nicaragua, El Salvador and Guatemala in 1997 as part of a research project on 'local power' in communities recovering from conflict, funded by the Project Counselling Services.
83. Envío 6: 190, May 1997, p. 12.
84. Ibid., p. 6. Apart from the three theatres of war, the other countries targeted by CIREFCA were Mexico, Belize, Costa Rica and Honduras.
85. R. Cordero, Evaluation of the reintegration process of the CIREFCA population in the central and northern regions of Nicaragua (Managua: mimeo, May 1996).
86. See e.g. Gonzalo Perez del Castillo and Marike Fahlen, CIREFCA: an opportunity and challenge for inter-agency cooperation (Joint UNDP/UNHCR review, mimeo, May 1995);
87. Mary Ann Larkin, Review of the CIREFCA process (UNHCR, Eval/CIREF/14, mimeo, May 1994).
88. Aldo Dell'Ariccia, 'Políticas de inversión y gestión local para la viabilidad de las areas de exclusión', in PRODERE/PNUD, Planificación local y modernización del eslado (San Salvador: PRODERE, 1994), pp. 114-15 (my translation).
89. There is a vast literature on this topic. For a discussion of the debate in Latin America, see J. Pearce, 'Civil society, the market and democracy in Latin America', in Democratisation 4: 2, Summer 1997, pp. 57-83; J. Howell and J. Pearce, Civil society and development (Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner (forthcoming 1999)).
90. There is a vast literature on this topic. For a discussion of the debate in Latin America, see J. Pearce, 'Civil society, the market and democracy in Latin America', in Democratisation 4: 2, Summer 1997, pp. 57-83; J. Howell and J. Pearce, Civil society and development (Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner (forthcoming 1999)).
91. NGOs played an implementing role in 78% of all social investment funds approved in fiscal year 1995: World Bank Poverty and Social Policy Department, NGOs and the Bank: incorporating FY95 progress report on cooperation between the World Bank and the NGOs (Washington DC: World Bank, June 1996), p. 13.
92. Conciliation Resources, Negotiating rights: the Guatemalan peace process, p. 32.
93. Programme for the Promotion of Sustainable Human Development at the Local Level in Central America, known as PROGRESS.
94. PNUD/UNOPs, Lineamientos para la programación operativo (mimeo, Guatemala City, June 1997).
95. J. Pearce, Promised land.
96. For an interesting study of the difficulty international donors have in reaching the grassroots in such circumstances, despite their stated objectives, and of the tensions between such donors and national government, see Chris van der Borgh, 'Decision-making and participation in poverty alleviation programmes in post-war Chalatenango, El Salvador', European Review of Latin American and Carribean Studies 63, December 1997, pp. 49-66.
97. In Guatemala, the growing popularity of former President Rios Montt's political party, the Guatemalan Republican Front (FRG), particulary in rural areas, expresses a similar trend against the more technocratic and modernizing government of the PAN.