COFOA Meets with Legislative Candidates on Issues of Water, Toxics and Violence

Two hundred leaders from across La Paz met with candidates from four major parties contending for seats in El Salvador’s legislature in advance of elections. Together with Caritas, a Catholic social service provider, they demanded passage of Article 69 which amends the constitution to make water a human right.  In El Salvador, only 35% of the population ha water fit for human consumption. COFOA leaders want to ensure that water is available to the entire population and will not be controlled by private interests.

COFOA leaders joined a press conference held by the National Water Forum which sent the message throughout El Salvador that “NO CANDIDATE DESERVES ELECTION UNLESS THEY SUPPORT THE HUMAN RIGHT TO WATER”.  Three of the four candidates supported the position. The candidate for the ARENA Party refused to commit. In Sunday’s elections, Salvadorans are also electing 262 mayors and local councils and 20 representatives to the Central American Parliament.  COFOA is pushing for an agreement by all candidates to protect access to water for the entire population.

COFOA leaders also demanded new legislation to control the use of toxic chemicals used by sugar cane plantations and other agricultural giants. Chemicals not only contaminate water, but most of the poorly paid sugar cane workers can expect to contract severe kidney disease.

Leaders also pushed legislators to support measures to combat growing violence in the country.  El Salvador is in the grips of horrific violence perpetrated by rival drug gangs Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) and Barrio 18, whose members are known for sporting full-body tattoos and subjecting recruits to bloody initiation rituals. The gangs, or “maras”, emerged in Latino neighborhoods of Los Angeles in the 1980s and arrived in El Salvador when the United States deported thousands of immigrants who had fled north to escape the civil war. Fueled largely by gang violence, the homicide rate in El Salvador is the fourth-highest in the world: 41.2 a year per 100,000 inhabitants. Gangs have an estimated 50,000 members on the streets in El Salvador and another 10,000 in prison.

This election is especially critical: issues key to COFOA’s work on violence, including judicial appointments and $2.1 billion to fund the initiative to fight gang require a majority.