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Secretary General Insulza Confirms that the OAS will Accompany the Process Until Gang Violence is Ended in El Salvador

The Secretary General of the Organization of American States, José Miguel Insulza, travelled to El Salvador, where he met with President Mauricio Funes, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Hugo Martinez, the Minister of Justice and Public Security, David Munguía, the President of the Legislative Assembly, Sigfrido Reyes, and the military bishop Fabio Colindres. The main focus of the conversations between Insulza and the authorities was the peace process opened by the Catholic Church of El Salvador and civil society with gang leaders, to put an end to the criminal violence in the country, which at times has reached the highest levels in the region in terms of the number of victims.

In order to contribute to these proposals, and in conversations with the government of President Funes, the chief representative of the OAS, through the Secretariat for Multidimensional Security, support the plans put forward by the church and non-governmental organizations, which seek possible exits from the cycle of criminal violence. After successive work meetings between Adam Blackwell, the OAS Secretary for Multidimensional Security, and Monsignor Colindres, the regional organization committed itself to the programs of rapprochement between the gangs, which concluded on Friday with an agreement between two rival gangs – Salvatrucha and Mara 18 – to put an end to their criminal activity.

In this context, Insulza visited La Esperanza Prison, located on the outskirts of San Salvador, accompanied by Bishop Colindres, to listen to the proposal of the prisoners who committed themselves to stop their violent actions, and later attended an event in which they turned over weapons they had kept in an irregular manner. Both agreements, which were approved of by the Office of the Attorney General of the Republic, came into force on Thursday and Friday, during the visit of Insulza to El Salvador. In La Esperanza Prison, in the presence of the Secretary General, two representatives of the gangs read one text each in which they expressed their decision to halt the aggressions between them, in the belief that violence mainly affects their families. Later in Barrios plaza, in the old center of the capital, in front of a church, six young masked men turned over dozens of arms in front of Secretary General Insulza, Bishop Colindres, the representative of civil society, Raúl Mijango, and the accredited diplomatic corps.

In his addressed, Insulza praised the concern of the government to deal with the issue of public insecurity, and applauded the decision of the Church to open itself to unprecedented mechanisms in the search for peace between the gangs. He strongly criticized the prison systems of the countries of the region, saying that, far from building rehabilitation centers, they make prisons into schools for criminals, and called on regional governments to invest more resources in citizen security.

At the conclusion of his visit, following the surrender of arms, an act he attended at the express invitation of Bishop Colindres, the OAS Secretary General declared his satisfaction that “suddenly, facing a problem that seemed to have no solution, in a country that has had one of the highest homicide rates in the region, we are seeing a reduction in the death rates by a third, thousands of lives saved, that is the before-and-after difference that is happening with this agreement between the gangs.” He thanked Monsignor Colindres and Raúl Mijango “for their persistence in convincing the inmates that this is a possible road to peace, and for giving an opportunity to those who have committed serious crimes, when they have said they are willing to cooperate.”

Insulza said the chief cause of death in El Salvador is homicide involving firearms, and insisted on the direct relationship between criminality and these arms. Therefore, he said, “the OAS wants to participate in this process in which the surrender of arms has a great symbolic value.” “If the presence of the OAS Secretary General helps in this peace proposal, I will be here,” he added, “and I hope everyone does their part so that this country becomes a nation of peace.”

Concerning the Salvadoran prison system, Insulza insisted on the need to humanize the prisons, and called on governments “to be capable of achieving acceptable living conditions, respecting the human rights of those who must pay for their crimes behind bars for years.” He said, in general terms, Central America suffers from a notable overcrowding of its prison population. “Some people believe that the poor living conditions are an additional punishment for those who have committed crimes, that is added to the punishments put in place by a court, but that should not be so, because then there is no space for rehabilitation. This should change,” he said.

Before leaving for Washington, Insulza expressed his intention that the OAS become a guarantor of the peace process between the gangs and declared his hope that “this incipient process becomes a way out of the violence, and puts an end to the culture of death.” He added his hope that his visit “helps to build an opportunity for this beloved nation, in its path to justice and peace,” and warned that “this is a national challenge.”

During his visit, Inzula clarified that the only objectives of visit had to do with security issues, and that the government has not asked for the mediation of the OAS in the conflict between the legislative and judicial powers in El Salvador. He added that, in his opinion, “Salvadoran democracy is strong enough to resolve the differences that have emerged between these two branches of the state, something that happens frequently in the countries of the Americas.” He stressed that “the OAS is not a supranational organization, it is a multinational organization, or multi – state, and therefore has no power to ask ‘What is happening here?’ or to say I’m going to fix this.”

A gallery of photos of the event is available here.

The video of the event is available here.

A selection of photos of the visit to La Esperanza Prison is available here.

For more information, please visit the OAS Website at www.oas.org.

Reference: E-255/12