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Salvador: El Salvador
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El Salvador is a member of the United Nations and several of its specialized agencies, the Organization of American States (OAS), the Central American Common Market (CACM), the Central American Parliament, and the Central American Integration System (SICA). It actively participates in the Central American Security Commission (CASC), which seeks to promote regional arms control. From 2002-03, El Salvador was chair of the OAS anti-terrorism coordinating body, CICTE. El Salvador ... is a member of the World Trade Organization and is pursuing regional free trade agreements. An active participant in the Summit of the Americas process, El Salvador chairs a working group on market access under the Free Trade Area of the Americas initiative. El Salvador has joined its six Central American neighbors in signing the Alliance for Sustainable Development, known as the Conjunta Centroamerica-USA or CONCAUSA to promote sustainable economic development in the region.
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These joint initiatives with El Salvador are part of a greater effort by the U.S. government to combat gangs and gang-related violence in North and Central America. The Department of Justice, under the leadership of Attorney General Gonzales, has made the fight against gangs one of its highest priorities. Just last year, Attorney General Gonzales created a new, national anti-gang task force, the National Gang Targeting, Enforcement and Coordination Center (GangTECC) -- led by the Department's Criminal Division and made up of agents from ATF, DEA, FBI, USMS, the Bureau of Prisons, and Department of Homeland Security's Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). GangTECC works in close collaboration with the new National Gang Intelligence Center, the Gang Squad prosecution unit in the Criminal Division, and the FBI's MS-13 National Gang Task Force, as well as with other federal, state, local and overseas law enforcement agencies.
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Under its export-led growth strategy, El Salvador has pursued economic integration with its Central American neighbors and negotiated trade agreements with the Dominican Republic, Chile, Mexico, Panama, Taiwan, Colombia, and the United States. The trade agreement with Taiwan will enter into force in 2008. Central American countries began negotiating an Association Agreement with the European Union in 2007. Trade agreements with CARICOM and Canada are under negotiation, while an agreement with Israel is being considered. Exports in 2006 grew 3.7%, while imports grew 11.6%. As in previous years, the large trade deficit was offset by family remittances.
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Situated on the Pacific coast of Central America, El Salvador has Guatemala to the west and Honduras to the north and east. It is the smallest of the Central American countries, with an area equal to that of Massachusetts, and it is the only one without an Atlantic coastline. Most of the country is on a fertile volcanic plateau about 2,000 ft (607 m) high.
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In 1821, El Salvador and the other Central American provinces declared their independence from Spain. When these provinces were joined with Mexico in early 1822, El Salvador resisted, insisting on autonomy for the Central American countries. In 1823, the United Provinces of Central America was formed of the five Central American states under Gen. Manuel Jose Arce. When this federation was dissolved in 1838, El Salvador became an independent republic. El Salvador's early history as an independent state--as with others in Central America--was marked by frequent revolutions; not until the period 1900-30 was relative stability achieved. Following a deterioration in the country's democratic institutions in the 1970s a period of civil war followed from 1980-1992.
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After El Salvador, Posada spent time in terrorist activities in Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador. Money from Miami, said Posada, was used to finance the 1997 bombings aimed at the tourist industry in Havana—bombings that killed an Italian tourist, Fabio di Celmo, and injured several people. Posada admitted paying Salvadorans to go to Cuba to plant those bombs. After Posada and three of his cohorts were detained in Panama, Justino di Celmo, father of the dead tourist, appeared on Cuban television to appeal to Panamanian President Mireya Moscoso not to release Luis Posada. The families of the 57 Cubans killed in the 1976 explosion of the passenger jet are pleading for justice. Time will tell if Posada’s financiers can pay his way out of this one.
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El Salvador