September 30, 2011

El Salvador’s President Funes Addresses the UN

News

On September 23, El Salvador's president, Mauricio Funes, addressed the United Nations General Assembly with a powerful speech in which he called on his fellow leaders to take "bold and creative" action to advance towards a more just and stable future and for their decisions to be guided by on the public good above all else, stating that any other debate is just "sterile."

One of the major themes of President Funes' address was economic inequality and the disastrous consequences it has caused for the world's majority, arguing that the unprecedented economic growth of the past thirty years has also been the "primary cause of many of our adversities," generating unprecedented levels of inequality and injustice. As a solution, he pointed to Brazil as proof that fighting poverty is the best economic policy for difficult economic times like these and warned that without businesses paying a greater share of taxes, nations will be propelled into a "cruel future." Indeed, these two positions -- using the state budget to alleviate poverty and pushing for greater taxes from the wealthy and corporations-- are reflected in the priorities of the first FMLN government in El Salvador.

The major emphasis of President Funes' speech was to call the international community, specifically the United States, to action to combat the organized crime networks that "control more money and influence than our governments in Central America” and have resulted in levels of violence that he noted are greater than in some active war zones in other parts of the world. President Funes emphasized that the route of drug trafficking through Central America ends in the United States, the world's largest consumer of and market for drugs, making a special call to the United States to assume responsibility for the devastation left in its wake and to commit its resources to combatting the "bloodiest war we face as a continent." While the call from Central American countries to the United States to commit its financial resources, which vastly outstrip their own, is understandable, many scholars and activists have raised grave concerns about the forms that such security aid will take, especially given the precedent in Colombia and Mexico.

President Funes ended with a call to unity as a necessity to meeting common objectives in the Americas, noting that the United States' support for the blockade against Cuba, which he called an anachronism, is step towards disunity, which "weakens us as a continent." The blockade against Cuba is not the only US foreign policy with which President Funes parted ways during his address, as he also used his speech to present El Salvador's decision to support Palestinian statehood, stating that both peoples have the right to co-exist and that statehood is necessary to resolving the conflict.

Considering the deeply rooted history of US dominance in El Salvador and Central America and the amiable relationship with the Obama administration that President Funes has been cultivating, his pointed critiques of US policies were significant. He ended his speech, which was well-received by many leaders in the Salvadoran social movement and in the FMLN, by committing to “show the will to lead from the little countries like [his]… to win peace, social justice and the well-being of the men and women that put their faith in us” and emphasizing that “we cannot make the same mistake again, by allowing the privileged to once again be the powerful who provoked this crisis.”

You can watch the entire speech on Telesur here.