Product Description
Everything a successful "spy" must know on the country.Strategic and practical information on government, national security, army, foreign relations, economy, technology, mineral resources, as well as culture, history, traditions, government and business contacts and more... ... Read more

Product Description
El Salvador Privatization Programs and Regulations Handbook ... Read more

Product Description
When the war in El Salvador came to an end with the signing of the Peace Accords in Mexico in 1992, there were many unresolved issues facing the country. This book gives an account of the history of El Salvador, and the inequalities and political corruption in Salvadoran society which were contributory causes of the long-running civil war. The ecological crisis facing the country, and the unresolved issues of land tenure are also examined. El Salvador: Peace on Trial reviews the efforts which are being made to rebuild communities, and the obstacles which remain on the road to a stable and peaceful future. ... Read more

Product Description
An analysis of the crisis in El Salvador during a period of convulsive turmoil in Latin America and the Caribbean. The author provides the social and political background of El Salvador from the early 20th century to the 1979 coup which marked the first time in fifty years that civilians were included in the Salvadoran government. The role of the military as a mediating force between the several-thousand-strong ruling class and the developing élites of a newly industrializing society is covered thoroughly. ... Read more

Product Description
Both academics and diplomats frequently cite postwar El Salvador as an example of successful conflict resolution and democratization. Salvadoran human rights advocates, however, have had to continually and publicly express their support of key provisions in the 1992 peace accords. This freedom of expression contributed to the punishment of those responsible for the murder of opposition leader Francisco Velis and medical student Adriano Vilanova. Human rights advocates have been less successful in other areas, however, including their opposition to amnesty laws for wartime human rights violators and their work against vigilante death squads.

This study covers the 1992 peace accords, which include the removal of human rights abusers from the military, the creation of a truth commission and the demilitarization of public security. It also discusses the troubling indications that the government is once again reducing the space available for freedom of expression, including the undermining of the Office of the Human Rights Counsel, the hostile attitude of President Francisco Flores, evidence of internal espionage and a changing international context. Later chapters focus on police reform. The book concludes by presenting some suggestions for increasing freedom of expression in transitional societies such as El Salvador. There is much evidence that shows human rights are likely to be a better protected right when citizens and civil society institutions routinely exercise their right to freedom of expression. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Inequality, media and democracy in post-conflict El Salvador
Lawrence Michael Ladutke's book "Freedom of Expression in El Salvador" critically examines in detail how individuals and organizations in post-war El Salvador have utilized their newly gained ability to dissent, question and criticize the traditionally powerful elements of Salvadoran society.Following the signing of the Peace Accords in 1992, the transition to a more democratic and open society was predicated upon the ability of all members of the society, the vast majority of which had been essentially voiceless, to freely express themselves and to call for compliance with the mandates of the accords.However, as Ladutke explicity points out, powerful interests who held power in El Salvador, both before and after the civil war, were extremely reticent about releasing their grip on the reign of power, specifically the military and associated police forces.

Ladutke's study focuses principally on the state's security apparatus and its many failures to comply with the agreed upon measures of the peace accords.Particularly important in this regard in his examination of the role of the dominant media in helping to ensure non-compliance with many measures of the accords.He points out that in the majority of cases the dominant newspaper and broadcast media actively worked against
compliance, for example the disbanding of the bloody Treasury Police, by horrendously distorting what the accords actually required.

The author also summarizes several individual cases whereby the new openess toward freedom of expression curtailed the impunity of the traditional police/military human rights abuser.He makes in quite clear that media reaction to human rights abuses or failure to comply with the Peace Accords has been highly dependent upon who the victim was -- wealthier victims received greater and more favorable attention.

This type of study is very important because it penetrates far beyond the easily thrown about terms of "conflict-resolution" and "democratization" and examines how the facts actually play out on the ground.What does "freedom of speech" or "impunity" mean in a society that has ended a brutal conflict but not the fundamental inequalities that lie at the root of the conflict? This is the question that implicitly underlies Ladutke's study.

For anyone who is interested in Latin America, the book is a reminder of how difficult it is to overcome powerful interests in highly unequal societies.Also for those interested in media and democracy, Ladutke study provides important insight into the role of the media in maintaining inequality and impunity in El Salvador.

David K. Adams

Democracy elusive 12 years after the peace accords
This well researched, well argued book analyses the extent to which Salvadoreans have been able to exercise freedom of expression in the post-civil war period, and the institutional factors have helped and hindered this. Ladutke addresses these questions through an examation of several post-civil war efforts by Salvadoreans to investigate and achieve justice for human rights violations committed during and after the war, many of which have relied on mechanisms established by the 1992 Peace Accords. These include the efforts to disseminate and implement the recommendations by the AdHoc Commission and Truth Commission investigations, the demilitarization of public security, and a special commission to investigate vigilante death squad activities.

The study is framed by a debate among analysts of democratic transitions regarding the most secure path out of authoritarianism. From the outset, Ladutke rejects the elitist perspective on this transition process. This perspective, which places primacy on political stability through elite pact-making, advocates accommodation and automatic amnesty for rights violators within the regime. Ladutke instead adopts the participatory perspective on democratization, which emphasizes the need for active citizen involvement in the political process, including the process of bringing rights violators to justice. Indispensable to this participation, he argues, is freedom of expression, and one of the pillars on which this freedom rests is an independent press.

Something that impressed me about the book is the careful, convincing way in which it traces a two-way linkage between impunity for human rights violators and freedom of expression. Ladutke establishes that Salvadorean citizen's present ability to articulate criticism of elite action on a range of injustices, is effectively constrained by the fact that most of the assassinations, torture, and disappearances committed by high ranking military personnel and other elites during and since the civil war continue to go unpunished. But he also provides examples that show that when critical voices have managed to be heard in the press and elsewhere (despite well founded fear of repression), rights perpetrators have been brought to justice and worse violations have most likely been prevented.

Another strength of the book I want to comment on is its analysis of the role of the press. As a researcher of Salvadorean social movements who never ceases to be amazed by the distorted coverage (or complete lack of coverage) that movements receive in the press, I found very illuminating Ladutke's examination of the factors underlying reporter self-censorship. This analysis is informed by interviews with over 20 Salvadorean journalists, ranging from beat reporters to the famous host of the daily political affairs program Entrevista Al Día, Mauricio Funes. In presenting journalists' own perceptions of the constraints on objective, critical reporting, Ladutke makes clear that many experience this as a dilemma. While this is anything but a cheerful account of what it's like to be a journalist in El Salvador, it is also refreshing for anyone who has ever wondered what planet most Salvadorean reporters and anchorpeople inhabit while watching or reading the news in that country. As well, Ladutke's qualitative discussions of the content of news coverage of key cases of human rights violations by state authorities, though brief, are excellent in illustrating the way in which the mainstream press in El Salvador blatantly sides with government and elites on issues of social justice, corruption, etc. In these cases, he looks not only at what kinds of sources are cited (and just as importantly, excluded) but gives examples of how they are cited - the subtle uses of language in news articles to discredit opposition voices, and to bury knowledge about elite wrong-doing.

Ladutke's Freedom of Expression in El Salvador is going to be useful to several types of audiences. Apart from academics and activists who care about human rights in El Salvador, it is also a must-read for scholars interested in democratic transitions; in this respect, the book illuminates the medium term fate of what is widely considered to be a model among UN-brokered peace processes. It will also be of great interest to students of media studies. In analysing stuctural factors affecting the news production process, Ladutke addresses a void in the literature - there has been too little attention among western scholars to media coverage of justice issues in the Third World. The clear, concise writing is suitable for advanced undergraduate and graduate students but it will also be appealing to non-academic readers. ... Read more

Product Description
El Salvador Business & Investment Opportunities Yearbook ... Read more

Product Description
Depicting a new stage of Salvadoran history that began in 1979, Mario Lungo Ucles offers an acute analysis of the transformation of El Salvador during the 1980's under the impact of revolution and counterinsurgency. This new and expanded English-language edition of his award-winning book traces the historical roots of the Salvadoran insurgency and demonstrates how the counterinsurgency efforts promoted by the United States failed to anticipate either the durability of the rebels or the rise of the Nationalist Republican Alliance as the country's first explicitly bourgeois political party.Lungo Ucles explains the reasons behind the remarkable outcome of the war in a negotiated settlement and why El Salvador's future requires a major reformulation of the politics and institutions of both the left and the right. This is a work of importance not just for the politics of El Salvador but for other Third World societies in the age of post-Cold War globalization. Mario Lungo Ucles is currently Professor at the Universidad Centroamericana in San Salvador, El Salvador. He is former editor of the journal "Estudios Sociales Centroamericanos" and the author of several books. ... Read more

Product Description

Customer Reviews (3)

Flawed Analysis of the Peace Process
Let me begin with a quibble. The book is filled acronyms. Ms. Juhn makes an attempt to identify these with a beginning listing but may acronyms are omitted. The same problem is repeated with the names of the persons involved. These problems result perhaps because the author is too familiar with her subject matter. It makes for opaque reading at times.

The book would also benefit from additional critical analysis or more exposition of the forces at work on people at an individual level. But, this information may not have been abundantly available.

My biggest problem is with the author's cavalier minimization of the social forces at work and the implications of not addressing these in the final peace accords. For example the author says "There are no villains and no heroes in this story. History is the procession of people fighting to preserve a way of life or to change it. This is no less true in El Salvador than it was in the United States during its own civil war."

I suppose the author would not be an admirer of Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address. There is a powerful vector in human history that is propelled by people's being marginalized and humiliated. Individually a person may be made to feel worthless or deficient. When many people experience this emotion together, as a result of the same causes, powerful social forces may be set in motion.

Too what extent is the current gang violence in El Salvador the result of the failure of the peace process to hold accountable those responsible for the death squads? What will be the long term consequences of the continued concentration of wealth in a few hands?

I appreciate the author's efforts but must express my reservations.

A superb behind the scenes analysis
The peace process in El Salvador was very difficult to understand for outsiders, even Salvadorans like me.This book succeeds in claryfing not only the actual events, but also the underlying motives and incentives for each of the parties involved.

The book begins with a good historical analysis, which puts into perspective all the decisions taken during the actual peace negotiations.Once the historical motivation is clear, the actual strategies for the negotiation begin to make perfect sense.

All in all, this book really shines at explaining the underlying interests of the parties and the tactics they resorted to in achieving a truly remarkable agreement.

The Inside Story of the Salvadoran Peace Process
This book is an excellent study of the behind-the-scenes policy making during the Salvadoran peace process. The author obviously had access to many of the persons involved in the process.It is also lacks theleft-wing bias found in much of the U.S. literature on El Salvador. Irecommend this book for anyone interested in the Salvadoran Civil War aswell as for those who study the topic of negotiated settlements to civilconflicts. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Economic Policy for Building Peace
Commissioned by the El Salvador office of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), this book contains studies of various aspects of El Salvador's economy.In addition to the editor James Boyce, contributing authors are Carlos Acevedo, Deborah Barry, Michael Conroy, Colin Danby, Manuel Pastor, Jr., Eva Paus, Herman Rosa, Alexander Segovia, and Elisabeth Wood.

El Salvador is located in western Central America.The nation suffered through twelve years of civil war (1980-1992) that ended in stalemate.With the help of the United Nations, peace was declared in January 1992.The Chapultepec Accords spelled out the conditions of peace.They included provisions for the redistribution of property, a legal system to enforce property rights and contracts, and defined state obligations to provide economic tasks unfulfilled by the private sector.Although the intent was to link the peace process with economic policy, the new government did not fully support what was visualized.The peace process was in the hands of the United Nations, while the economic policy was in the hands of the World Bank, The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the InterAmerican Development Bank (IDB).The peace process was not tightly bound to economic policy.

According to Alexander Segovia, twenty percent of the population emigrated during the twelve-year war, mostly to the United States, and over 75,000 lives were lost.In 1986, an earthquake hit the capital of San Salvador, killing 1,200 people and leaving 300,000 homeless.

Carlos Acevedo outlines the history of El Salvador's inequality of land ownership and wealth in El Salvador.The peasant farmer of El Salvador has had a rocky time since 1882 when the government abolished communal property.Up until that time, farmers had collectively planted the land with a wide variety of subsistence crops.High demand for coffee became the driving force for establishing private ownership.El Salvador's powerful elite swiftly took control of the land, resulting in the most inequitable pattern of land distribution in the world.Fourteen families controlled the vast majority of arable land that constituted 40 percent of El Salvador's total land area.In 1889, a rural police force was established to enforce the policies of the landowners.To grasp the enormity of the power of the coffee growers, in 1890, coffee constituted 56 percent of El Salvador's exports.By 1931, this grew to 96 percent of all exports from El Salvador.

Manuel Pastor, Jr. and Michael Conroy note that El Salvador is not alone in the population's reaction to inequality in resource (land and wealth) distribution.In other Latin American countries, when distribution pressures build, the result has been flight: people take their capital and/or themselves abroad, go into the hills to wage armed revolution, or adopt long-term radical economic policies that cannot work.This is precisely what occurred in El Salvador.

James Boyce provides the excellent introduction and final summary to this book in his straightforward style.The theme he wants you to follow throughout the book is that "unless the peace process is allowed to shape economic policy, both will fail."Peace rests upon social equality in income and wealth, investment in human natural and physical capital through education and environmental protection, and democratization to achieve balance in the distribution of power.The book's message is one of hope for El Salvador, but only if the government puts full throttle toward making social equality a reality and not merely words in a peace accord. ... Read more

Product Description
El Salvador Telecommunication Industry Business Opportunities Handbook ... Read more

Product Description
This book addresses the question of military disengagement from politics in states emerging from prolonged cycles of military intervention in politics. The case of El Salvador is particularly interesting, given the decades of repeated intervention by the Salvadoran military. These cycles of military intervention indicate that intervention in politics is seen by the military as part of its job. ... Read more

Product Description
Civil conflict remains one of the most significant threats to peace and security in the contemporary era. In Constructing Peace, Lisa MacLeod offers the first ever application of Finnemore and Sikkink's model of norm construction to the study of peace building and conflict resolution by comparing operations in El Salvador and Cambodia. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Powerful story about the civil war in El Salvador
This is a good, but very relentless and depressing history of events leading up the the civil war in the 1980's, and the U.S. role in supporting the oligarchy that brutalized labor, the poor, and the liberal Catholic leaders who took up their cause. During the cold war, we supported a number of horribly repressive governments that declared themselves anti-communist. I visited El Salvador on a business trip in 2005 and was amazed that in bookstores there it is almost impossible to find a history of the civil war that tore the country apart for a decade.I found one personal published account of the war (in Spanish) at an art gallery of all places, and unfortunately I didn't buy it because I thought there would be other broader historical accounts available. I ended up buying this book when I returned, and it was helpful in understanding what happened there. People in El Salvador don't like to talk about the war (at least with strangers). I was fortunate to be given a personal tour of the under-cathedral tomb of Archbishop Oscar Romero, which was quite moving.Remarkably, even there in the safety of the Catholic church there was only a simple sentence declaring that he was assasinated on a given date, but there was no interpretation or historical context of the event.Apparently there are many in El Salvador who want to bury the past.

dated, but still powerful
It seems like so long ago now, the conflict in Central America of the 1980s.Not only was it viewed as a peripheral Cold War conflict, which encouraged the US to support notoriously corrupt and brutal regimes, but it was also a series of extremely complex dynamics in small sovereign nations that virtually no one knew much about.El Salvador, along with Guatamala and pre-Sandinista Nicaragua, was one of the worst countries "down there."

This book offers an intimate portrait of a gathering revolution, cataloguing the injustices and casual brutalites in a frightening indictment.The bottom line is that a layer of evil people simply must be swept away and the US has no business standing in the way of it.In other words, it is the classic argument for "indiginous revolution," dismissing the claims of cold warriors that the revolutionaries are communists supported by Moscow, etc.While this is only of historical interest, it is a useful case study of misguided policy, which we would do well to study today.

The stories in the book are truly horrible.One young army officer, for example, raped a young aristocrat but was let off from prosecution because he appeared "promising."As scary as they are, I have since discovered that some of them are inaccurate.For example, the future president of El Salvador, whose name I think was Napoleon Duarte, was reported to have been tortured and that the tips of his fingers on one hand were cut off during interrogation.It turns out that he lost them as a construction worker.This diminishes the credibility of the book somewhat, but it is still very powerful.

Recommended for a look at the COld War mentality and as a guide to the self-deception that can go on in Washington DC. ... Read more

Product Description
El Salvador Mineral & Mining Sector Investment and Business Guide ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

The future of education and healthcare may look like this...
This book is an inspired, readable, and labor of love account of the growth of popular education in El Salvador.The writer shares the continuing challenges faced and rewards shared by students, teachers, andthose who teach the teachers.

As in El Salvador, the US, especiallyTexas, California, Florida, New Mexico, Arizona will increasingly facesimilar challenges.With the growth of the Spanish speaking populations inthe U.S. over the next twenty years, educators and health careprofessionals will be challenged to adapt and at times abandon certainprofessional roles and attitudes, in favor of more indigenous methods andmessengers for advancing literacy and promoting life enhancing healthpractices and interventions.Public policy in Texas is already shiftingtoward the use of community based practitioners in healthcare with a viewtoward building social capital in Hispanic cultures that can becomeself-sustaining.Professional treatment and education models are notabandoned, but new program growth may be toward the use of professionals toteach the teachers, health educators, and care givers to care for their owncommunities, and build community based, rather than, state driven programs.

Social service professionals in the U.S. may see their future in thisbook. ... Read more

Product Description
Geography, history, people, language, culture, traditions, economy, government, politics, constitution, places to visit, info for travelers... ... Read more

Product Description
El Salvador Business Law Handbook ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

A little biased?
Saul Landau holds the Hugh L O'Bounty (sp?) chair at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona. In his first year there, i took his class, and this book was the reading material. The previous reviewer mentioned that he might be biased, and having known him, he certainly is. (just from reading the book you can arrive at this certainty on your own.)

beacause of the thouroughness of the previous review, i will only add a few things. it is obvious (through this book) that the united states intervened in the civil wars in central america in the 1980's. but why would america be so involved in these civil wars? to stamp out the possibility of the rise of more "communist" states, of course. but why is that so important?the main theme from landau is that it is important to realize that the reason for this was to protect the big buisiness interestst that were involved in the agriculture of these central american nations. it is also important to recognize that these countries were not even interested in the communism, but rather, for the people to regain their own soviergnity from the big american companies that have taken all of the people's land (and the corrupt governments were not working for the people, but only to line their own pockets).

a little history about saul landau, now. he has made several documentaries, covering similar issues that are discussed in this book, including more than one with his good friend, fidel castro. in the span of the 1900's, only one country in latin america has stamped out poverty: cuba.

a quick note on my 3 star rating. i couldnt feel that because of the blatent bias of the book, that i could give it 5 stars. the previous reviewer also mentions certain historical aspects that he left out, and that is another reason to drop it a couple of stars.

Book Review
"The guerrilla wars of central America" by Saul Landau , 222 pages Publisher Weidenfeld and Nicolson , London , 1993 £ 20.00

The Guerrilla wars of Central America by Saul Landau discusses 3 bitter and bloody civilwars in Nicaragua, El Salvador and Guatemala. It identifies the USinterventions and the oligarchic rule in those countries as the root causesfor the guerrilla wars in Central America. The USintervention has started as early as in 1830 when US troops crushed arevolution in Argentina. Another example for selfish US policy is thecapturing of more than half of Mexican territory in 1848 by US. As per theUS State department the interventions in and after 1850 were "Toprotect US property interests during revolutions" The colonial pattern in the division of wealth in Central America and theOligarchic rule impelled people to see revolution as the only way toachieve justice. The issue of Monroe doctrine in1823 claiming western hemisphere as a US sphere of influence by presidentJames Monroe and the president Theodore Roosevelt considering the Caribbeanas a vital American lake has resulted in US fortification in CentralAmerica. Saul Landau states that even thoughCentral America does not fit in to the US economic strategy and even thoughthe region is secure to the US, the central American region is veryimportant to US as it symbolizes a struggle between the USSR "the backer ofall terrorist, guerrilla movements" and the "Force of democracy" the US.The author firmly state that its was not the USSR. Interventions thatcaused guerrilla wars in Central America. He justifies the action of USSRPrime ministers Krushchev in 1962 October Cuban Missile crisis stating thatit was an action to deter US invasion of Cuba to crush the revolution.Through out this book Landau has accused and proved with facts that hisidea of US as the troublemaker in Central America is justifiable. How everhe has given less emphasis to USSR actions which creates a doubt in thereader whether the author is biased. The second chapter discuss the successof Sandinistas in NicaraguaagainstAnastasio Somoza Garcia on19 July1979. As a results ofthedefeatin VietnamtheUSPolicy makers were reluctant to send US troopsto Nicaraguawhichwas a major factor forSandinistas victory . Here too the author remains silent about USSR aid tothe Sandinistas , but elaborates the training given to national guard bythe US . In 1981 the Contras (contrarevolucionarios) was formed. TheSandinistas did not take the CIA involvement with Contras seriously withthe author refers to as a major cause for the fall of Sandinistas. ElSalvador was free of US interventions until 1980. By 1979 the rule of theoligarchy has made the country unstable. Farabundo Marti became the chieforgainizer for Salvadorian communist party.He was killed during anduprising by Hernandez Martinez. The first revolutionary guerrillaorigination was formed in 1969 - 1971.The author discusses the US supportfor the coup against military regime in 1979. Even after the killing ofthree nuns by the Duarte forces on 02.12.1980 the US official justified thekillings stating that the nuns were political activists and continued tosupport the Duarte government. A white paper issued by US state departmentindicated that the USSR was supplying tons of arms and ammunition to theguerrillas and was shameless to state that the Salvadorian government wascomplying with the human rights laws. These incidents have been cleverlyphrased by the author to create displeasure within the reader about theambiguous US policies. In Chapter four of this book the author discussesabout Guatemala. Here too he points out two reasons for the guerrilla warswhich are the unequaldivisionofwealth and propertyin the country.Saul Landau emphasises the firstpoint by stating that 40% of the countryland was owned by the United Fruit Companyand56% by the Guatemalaoligarchy leaving only 4% for the people . The oligarchy welcome the UFCOas it offered US governmentprotection .The second root cause for thebreakout of guerrilla war as per the author was thedecisionby USpresidentDD Eisenhower to overthrowthe elected government ofColonelJacoboArbenz. In 1951 Arbenz won the presidential election and wasfavoured by the communist party and the middle class as well. His radicalideas of redistribution of land owned by UFCOand ordering of theconstruction of a power plant which challenged the UFCO's electric powermonopoly has been cleverly put to the minds of the reader as the reason forUFCO to support the CIA in the coup to overthrow Arbenz in 1953. The USblind eye to human rights violation and the abuse of aid and wealth byofficials have been common features in all the 3 countries discussed inthis book. Fourth chapter further discusses the coup by CIA, the birth ofGuatemalan guerrillas and the occurrences up to the peace talks in 1990. Ingeneral it is prominent that the author has gone through a lot of troubleto collect details for this book and has presented in a very good manner.How ever the words used to interpret certain occurrences by the authorshows the shadow of the his anti-USattitude. The author himself statethat the book is a result of lots of research.When going through the bookthe reader should not forget the fact that validity of the information musthave certainly affected due to bias, oversight, distortion and severalother factors as this book contains materials from several sources such asresearches andindividuals. ... Read more

Product Description