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How can you take 16 years of a Government failing to fulfill the responsibilities acquired in the agreements, when the plaques that contain the names of the disappeared people are not enough to hail the terrible reality of war, when there is still impunity, when there are still boys and girls, like me, who wonder what their lives would have been like if their father had not died. (Photo Aporrea.org/Seinforma)

My country is still much like a poor girl with a painted face; a place where 40% of population live in unimaginable levels of poverty and because there are a lot of people that do not and will not have access to basic services such as water. Besides, there are thousands of children out of the school, wandering the streets…how many wasted minds!

By Carmen Maria Arguello/Seinforma Canada Correspondent

San Salvador.- I take this opportunity given by the technological era to reach your minds through a computer to tell you a little bit about the situation of my country, 16 years after the Peace Agreements signed in Chapultepec, January 16, 1992.
   I would like to say that, after so many years of absence, I see everything, apparently, different. The new highways have impressed me, the huge department stores have captivated me, the large amount of cars in the streets has left me breathless. I would think that these things are a part of the progress achieved by the country during the 16 years of “peace”.
   Nonetheless, for my great disappointment, not the highways, nor the department stores, nor the cars have had a positive effect on the way I see El Salvador, because my country is still much like a poor girl with a painted face; a place where 40% of population live in unimaginable levels of poverty and because there are a lot of people that do not and will not have access to basic services such as water. Besides, there are thousands of children out of the school, wandering the streets…how many wasted minds!
   The fact that we still talk about the Peace Agreements as the salvation of our country, as the only way out of the armed conflict, does not surprise me. How can you take 16 years of a Government failing to fulfill the responsibilities acquired in the agreements, when the plaques that contain the names of the disappeared people are not enough to hail the terrible reality of war, when there is still impunity, when there are still boys and girls, like me, who wonder what their lives would have been like if their father had not died.
   Salvador does not live in peace! It has not lived in peace for a long time and I think that it is time to stop the farce that the Peace Agreements represent. The weapons have only been passed into a different set of hands. It is not even possible to say that the weapons have been lowered, because it would be cheating our selves.
    It is well said that peace is not simply an absence of war; peace is an existence of a State for everyone, justice for everyone where the law does not favour someone for having more resources, where no one can leave the country with millions stolen from official entities.
    El Salvador is not the example that many international organizations are trying to set. Actually, we, Salvadorians, should be ashamed for having accepted this farce 16 years ago and continue accepting it without resistance after so many years, so many deaths and so many tears.
   You cannot leave in peace in a country where people are afraid to step out on the streets. You cannot talk about peace in a place where the police are feared, where the army is winning foreign battles in unknown lands, where nobody seems to care about the future of thousands of stones and bullets that cross the Salvadorian sky.
    Today, 16 years after that memorable day when Salvadorian people accepted to live in this deception, I want to share with you my frustration of seeing a strike of fallen minds in which my country finds itself. We are all at fault, because things in Salvador are not well, because at some point we were defeated by fear, because at times our own comfort was more important.
   I would like to say that there is so much that can be done for our homeland, yet very few people are willing to walk that road; I would like to say that, as of today, no political option can get the country out of the backward state that we decided to live in because of lack of bravery and courage.
I would like to say that dinners at Wendy’s and trips to Paris seem to win over the groups that are trying to wake the population up from that dream of sixteen years.
   Today, I feel sorry for the uncertain future of the country. Today, I feel sorry because there were times when I felt that it was worthless to fight any longer. El Salvador does not need more department stores, but water for everyone; we do not want to have a currency we do not recognize; we do not want any more children wasting their lives in the downtown streets.
   We want real peace, even if it costs us blood, sweat and tears. We do not want to send our farm workers to die in Iraq, we do not want men’s and women’s rights violated in the maquilas (sweatshops), we do not want to continue giving away products of our efforts to the government employees who store them in the Caiman Islands.
   Stop the farce!!! Today, I want to ask for El Salvador in real peace!

Complementary Reading: The Lies of Chapultepec 92 www.seinforma.ca/leadingchapultepeceng.html