How do you solve a problem like El Salvador?
Perspectives from a Salvadoran abroad.
I was visiting Switzerland with family about 10 years ago, when we drove past a large plot full of shacks. They looked a lot like the “zonas marginales” (slums) that have peppered every nook and cranny of San Salvador since our civil war in the 1980s. So much so, that one of my family members remarked, “You can understand why these people don’t like immigrants coming over. They come and ruin their cities like this.”
I’d later find out that this was actually a city farm, and it looked dirty because of, you know, the dirt.
At the time I didn’t know what to say. I chalked it up to her being from an older generation. Born in 1986, I was technically born during El Salvador’s bloody civil war, but young (and fortunate) enough not to remember many details. As a child, I mostly remember growing up in one of El Salvador’s rare peaceful boom periods, right after a hard fought peace, but before years of corruption and neglect returned El Salvador to its status as one of the most violent countries in the world.
Ask the average American about El Salvador today and they most likely will talk about caravans and “shitholes”, or MS-13. Hopefully a few will tell you about our beautiful beaches and friendly people. While gang violence and migration are huge problems that need to be addressed in North and Central America, they are merely symptoms of problems that were never fully addressed after the civil war ended.
And if you’re an American, those root problems would scare you too. This is a bit oversimplified, but stop me if this sounds familiar:
For years, the 1% corrupted and manipulated the government to do whatever they wanted: prevented competitors from entering their markets, squashed labor movements, collected zero taxes, and suppressed votes to remain in power. They bought and enabled politicians to meet their needs, and they weakened or outright destroyed institutions to ensure good people trying to play by the rules were silenced or disillusioned.
The biggest difference is that the Salvadoran 1% was much more brutal and effective at achieving their goals.
Solving the Root Issues
ICE has a yearly budget of $5.7 billion. That’s about $200 million more than the ~entire~ Salvadoran general budget. The US spends more money trying to keep Salvadorans (and others) out of their country as El Salvador does on its people.
That also means that if the US diverted even a fraction of its ICE budget into a better and more efficient Foreign Aid program to countries like El Salvador, it could have a huge impact on living conditions for millions of people. People who wouldn’t feel the need to leave their families and everything they know to escape death by violence — economic, physical, sexual.
But you can’t just throw money at the problem either. There’s a pernicious culture of corruption that has persisted through governments left and right, moderate and extreme. Foreign donations routinely find themselves lining the pockets of the same people who perpetrate the cycle of violence.
The Necessary Elements
The US needs to rethink its approach to foreign aid if it truly wants to solve the immigration issue. Here’s a few broad points on how a better program could be structured:
Direct Aid. For any program to be successful, it needs to have direct foreign oversight and execution. This will be a bitter pill to swallow in both countries: Americans will think it unnecessarily increases overhead costs, and Salvadorans will see it as an intrusion in sovereignty.
But it is absolutely necessary for any aid program to succeed. The Salvadoran government has proven itself completely untrustworthy to manage any kind of financial aid. El Salvador has had five former presidents since the 1992 peace accords: 2 two were jailed for corruption schemes in the 100s of millions of dollars, and a third fled the country under similar suspicions.
Top down culture change. That direct aid should have an expiration date, though. As a condition to enter this program, the Salvadoran government should commit to transparency and anti-corruption. An International Commission Against Impunity like the one that has worked well for Guatemala should be instituted and protected.
A bottom up approach. The focus of any program should be at the ground level: education, small and medium business growth, security and affordable housing.
Strategic. Many Salvadorans in-country yearn for the days of old when El Salvador got most of its income from Coffee exports. The reality is that in a new world economy, El Salvador can’t rely on Agriculture, much less on one crop, to sustain its economy.
As the Salvadoran diaspora grows stateside, opportunities for tourism, e-commerce, customer service, investment and more open up if given the right room to grow. There are about 1.5 million Salvadorans in the US, and about 7 million in the El Salvador. Remittances amount to about 15% of GDP, but is often spent on bare necessities or luxury goods. Salvadorans outside El Salvador need better channels to maximize their investment in their country and their families.
The US can’t solve all of El Salvador’s problems, but it would be a benefit to help the country get out of its rut. With few exceptions, most Salvadorans don’t want to leave El Salvador, and they hate the MS-13 too.
The hysteria around immigration and caravans can impede fruitful discussion. And the lack of basic investment in the American people makes it hard to advocate for that same aid to be given elsewhere.
I think that proves the point more than work against it. Americans and Salvadorans are more alike than they know. And it’s time for politicians and the upper class of both countries to realize that investing in its people is the best way for all parties to prosper in peace.
