[Roberto Valencia, Letter from Zacatraz. Libros del K.O. Madrid, 2018. 384 pp]

review / Jimena Villacorta

The story of El Directo - a young Salvadoran who at the age of 17 was attributed with 17 murders, was in and out of jail and was finally sentenced by his fellow gang members - serves as a canvas for an even bigger picture: the serious social problem posed by violent gangs in Central America, particularly in El Salvador.

Roberto Valencia, a Spanish journalist who has lived in the Central American country for nearly 20 years, has dedicated time and effort to tackling this problem in depth as a reporter for "El Faro," an award-winning Salvadoran news portal . Letter from Zacatraz (as the local media call the maximum security prison of Zacateoluca) is a journalistic account that, through a concrete story, exposes the broader picture of a truly complex reality.

On September 11, 2012 was the first time Valencia sat down to talk with Gustavo Adolfo Parada Morales, alias El Directo, someone who for years had captured the attention of the media, despite the existence of thousands of other young people involved in gangs. That contact staff encouraged the journalist to look for other testimonies, until fill in a book that gathers the direct voice of Parada and that of people who knew him, based on interviews with those who loved him, like his mother or his wife, and with those who confronted him, like some judges.

The result of an unwanted pregnancy, El Directo was born on January 25, 1982 in the city of San Miguel. Barely two decades later, he was already the most dangerous and feared man in El Salvador, or at least that is how the media portrayed him. A member of the Pana di Locos, a clique of the Mara Salvatrucha, he became the main public enemy. From the age of 17, accused of as many murders (of which he only admitted to six) and various other crimes, El Directo was in three juvenile detention centers and nine prisons. He had the opportunity to start a new life in Costa Rica, but he blew it. He did not make it to the United States. He was free for several months, but it wasn't long before the police recaptured him.

Through Parada's life, the author projects the phenomenon of gangs in El Salvador. He emphasizes how this phenomenon affects mainly the lower classes, while the rest of society does not realize the full magnitude of the problem and, therefore, is not interested in seeking a solution. How is it possible, Valencia asks, that a society like the Salvadoran one, with 6.5 million inhabitants, tolerates an average of 10 homicides per day, not to mention numerous other crimes, in a country where 1% of the population are gang members.

The repressive measures applied by the right-wing (ARENA) and left-wing (FMLN) governments have not improved the gang problem. Gangs have been growing, both outside and inside detention centers, many of which are in a deplorable state. Precisely the condition of the prisons aggravates the status: the infrastructure is damaged, there is great insalubrity and overcrowding is extreme. In most of the prisons, gang leaders have a large part of the control and from there they dominate their respective organizations. "El Salvador's prison system is the most overcrowded in the hemisphere, a statement certified by the Organization of American States," says Valencia.

El Directo was imprisoned several times, where he was seriously wounded on multiple occasions, sometimes by the Mara Salvatrucha, who declared him a traitor and threatened to kill him, and other times by police and prison employees. After a few months in jail, he decided to reform and renounce his activity in the MS. This brought him various opportunities, but he returned to prison. He was finally killed in 2013, at the age of 31, by members of his new gang, La Mirada Locos, because he had been accused of ordering the murder of someone in the organization whose wife he had been having an affair with.

It is interesting to note how in a country where a large number of crimes are registered, for at least ten years the case of El Directo had absolute priority in the media, which often exaggerated Parada's criminal record. "We live in a country where big murderers have been granted amnesty. Drugs circulate with relative freedom and, despite the fact that police officials have said that there are important names in business, the state apparatus and the army involved in drug trafficking, we have not seen any arrest at that level", says to Valencia the President of the Central American University, José María Tojeira. And he adds: "Income tax evasion is a widespread vice among the wealthiest sectors. The police is still managed with a significant Degree of corruption. Deputies are pardoned or investigated for acts in which the life or honor of other citizens have been severely threatened". For his part, Fernando Saenz Lacalle, Archbishop Emeritus of San Salvador, regrets that journalists, commentators, analysts and politicians repeat over and over again, "like a church choir, the false refrain of 17 years, 17 murders". In his opinion, "perhaps they went too far in exhibition and arrogance", according to Valencia.

Roberto Valencia concludes that the problem with the media is that at first they were benevolent towards the gangs, and then they magnified the phenomenon, without talking about the repressive measures and policies used to combat them.

Carta desde Zacatraz is not a condescending book, but the criticism does not stifle all hope. It warns that Salvadorans have become accustomed to living with this problem. Today it is more common to avoid certain places that are known to be dangerous than to try to fight for the betterment of the country. But he encourages confidence that shattered lives like El Directo's will serve to make new generations want something better for themselves.

After breaking off relations with Taipei, the Salvadoran government could give Beijing the management of a strategic port in the region.

Until a few years ago, China had no interest in Central America, basically because of the lack of raw materials. The diplomatic relationship that the region, almost as a bloc, maintained with Taiwan also diverted its attention. But the dynamic has changed. Encouraged by Chinese promises, El Salvador joined in August other neighboring countries that have been closing their embassies in Taipei. Why is China now interested in Central America? The Salvadoran case points to a desire to gain weight in an area of historic U.S. influence.

article / Jimena Villacorta

"After this careful analysis, advertisement that my government has made the decision to break the so-called diplomatic relations maintained until this day between the Republic of El Salvador and Taiwan and establish diplomatic relations between the Republic of El Salvador and the People's Republic of China". This is how Salvadoran President Salvador Sánchez Cerén announced the establishment of diplomatic ties with Beijing on August 20. The decision followed that adopted in May by the Dominican Republic and in 2017 by Panama, breaking the support of Central American countries to Taiwan.

Taiwan responded to this advertisement by assuring that the government of El Salvador had demanded an "astronomical sum" of money to finance the Salvadoran port of La Union and the campaign for the 2019 presidential elections of the government party, the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN), extremes that the Salvadoran government denied. The Taiwanese Minister of Foreign Affairs, Joseph Wu, presented the rupture of relations as a decision of Taipei, for the refusal to yield to those pressures, although everything indicates that the initiative was Salvadoran.

The internship of hidden payments is, of course, nothing new in the links between Taiwan and Central America, as it has been demonstrated the submission of checks to leaders of El Salvador and other countries to maintain diplomatic recognition so convenient for the Asian island. It is, in any case, a margin of corruption that, sometimes in the form of commissions, has also accompanied the landing of China in various countries.

The step taken by the Salvadoran government was criticized by the civil service examination. The mayor of San Salvador, Ernesto Muyshondt, of the Nationalist Republican Alliance (ARENA), described the decision as "terrible" and regretted that the leaders of the FMLN not only support "the repressive and murderous dictatorships of Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua", but also that "now they are breaking with a democratic country to establish relations with another dictatorship".

The civil service examination criticized that the Government is moved by partisan interests and leaves in the air the treaties and agreements signed with Taiwan, which has been a strategic partner for the country for 85 years and one of its main cooperators in areas of technology, health, agriculture and Education. Thus, there has been the loss of cooperation projects, financial resources and other aid, such as the scholarship plan for Salvadoran students in Taiwan.

U.S. Alert

The change of partner will foreseeably mean the substitution of Taiwanese programs for Chinese investment projects. In recent years, El Salvador has imported much more from China ($804 million in 2016) than from Taiwan ($135 million), but has exported similarly to both countries (about $50 million to each). It is normal that Taiwan will now stop favoring the purchase of Salvadoran products, which it used to prioritize, and that China will compensate the new relationship with investment in infrastructure.

This is where the possibility that China may take over the concession of the port of La Unión Centroamericana, in the southeastern end of El Salvador, in the Gulf of Fonseca, comes in. The Government has recognized the Chinese interest in this area, while the civil service examination criticizes the lack of information in the negotiations. The U.S. Embassy has even raised suspicions about the risk that, given the lack of transparency in the negotiations, China could use the facilities as a military base. Ambassador Jean Manes stated that "China's strategy of expansion in the region, not only economically but also militarily, is alarming". In fact, Washington has been warning for some time about China's increased presence in Central America, as in the case of the Panama Canal, in principle with civilian projects but which in certain circumstances could call into question U.S. security.

The U.S. Embassy has also indicated Chinese interest in buying Perico Island, located next to the port of La Unión. Last October, Ezequiel Milla, mayor of La Unión, stated that he had met with Bo Yang, a Chinese businessman and vice-president of the Chamber of Commerce between China and El Salvador, to discuss the sale of the island to build hotels. For his part, the businessman admitted having discussed purchase intentions with the owners of the private part of the island, where several families reside, who must be willing to vacate their homes. The island contains an important reservation of flora and fauna.

Unexploited port

The port of La Union is strategically located on the Gulf of Fonseca, where El Salvador, Nicaragua and Honduras converge (it is the only access of this country to the Pacific). In addition, it can connect in a matter of a few kilometers to the dry canal that Honduras is about to complete by widening the road linking its facilities in Puerto Cortés, on the Atlantic, with the Gulf of Fonseca. Honduras' coastline in the Gulf does not meet the appropriate conditions for a deep-water port, so the natural outlet for its goods to the Pacific would be La Unión.

The port construction project began in 1994, under the presidency of Armando Calderón Sol, with the goal of becoming the future "hub of the Americas", so that ships larger than the Panama Canal could dock there. Thanks to a loan from the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC), the project was launched. The port was built between 2005 and 2008 and inaugurated in 2010.

Under the presidency of Antonio Saca, there were two decrees for its concession. The first one, in 2008, was a master concession formula, that is, there would be only one operator managing the port for 25 years; however, an agreement could not be reached in the Legislative Assembly. In 2009, the second decree was presented, which proposed a company composed of the state-owned Autonomous Port Executive Commission (CEPA) and an international operator, with a 10% and 90% shareholding, respectively. But due to the change of government and other internal complications it was not approved either.

In June 2010, with Mauricio Funes as president, the port of La Unión was inaugurated under state administration, with the hope of being able to agree on a concession that same year. Finally, it was decided to apply the master concession. In September, the Assembly approved Decree 834, which contains the port concession law. Given the lack of approval of the bidding instructions and the contract by other institutions, the port concession was postponed for a couple of years, during which time the interested companies dropped out of the talks.

The bidding process was finally launched in 2014, but the tender was declared void in 2015 because there were no bids to operate in the infrastructure. In 2017, some laws were modified to attract investors, given the urgency of operating the port, whose maintenance has cost the country almost US$20 million in the last decade.

Special Economic Zone

If to date the facilities have attracted so little interest from investors, what benefit could China see in La Unión? ARENA congressman Mauricio Vargas does not believe that Beijing has any economic interest in the port, but rather is pursuing strategic objectives, as the Gulf of Fonseca provides access to three Central American countries and is part of the area that the United States considers important for its own security.

To make the La Unión option more attractive, in July 2018 the FMLN government presented the Special Economic Zone Law for the South Eastern Region of El Salvador, an area corresponding to La Unión and a score of neighboring municipalities. Thanks to tax advantages, China could turn that Pacific point into a distribution center for its products in the Central American Northern Triangle and Nicaragua. The connection through the Honduran dry canal would facilitate connection with the Atlantic.

The civil service examination believes that the creation of this special economic zone, which in the event of a massive influx of Chinese products could negatively affect local manufacturing, has been agreed in advance with China. The ECA president, however, denies obscurantism in the process. "We have nothing to hide. The process we are carrying out is transparent; we have entered an enquiry stage. The interest of our administration is to operate the port of La Unión and we must see it as a project for the country". He assured that there are companies interested in the concession also from Europe and America, not only from Asia.