Remarks of Ambassador Charles L. Glazer
American Chamber of Commerce Breakfast
March 5, 2008

It’s difficult to believe that we arrived in El Salvador more than 13 months ago.  This is in large part because this has been such an extraordinary experience.  Salvadorans from all corners of this beautiful country have given the warmest possible welcome to Janet and to me.  It’s for good reason that people call El Salvador “a small country with a big heart.”

Janet and I have enjoyed the physical beauty of the country, from the mountains of Chalatenango to the beaches of Sonsonate.   The only down side is the long line of friends and relatives who are waiting to visit us.  We are at home here in El Salvador.

It is an honor for Janet and me to represent the United States here in El Salvador.  It has also been an honor to have developed an extraordinary set of professional relationships.  It has been a pleasure to work with my friend President Saca and our counterparts in the Salvadoran Government.  The evolution of Salvadoran society and politics since the end of the civil war has been very impressive.  Who would have thought twenty years ago that this country would be an island of political stability in Central America, as well as the most attractive investment opportunity in the region?

Although El Salvador’s political leadership deserves much of the credit for the country’s evolution, its private citizens have played a key role.  The private sector has contributed generously through foundations, working through civic organizations, and fueling a vibrant economy that has surpassed 4% growth two years in a row for the first time in a decade.  

One final thought on what has impressed me so much about El Salvador:  You are a great ally and a leader in the community of democracies.  We have seen that in Iraq, where El Salvador’s soldiers have contributed significantly to the reconstruction of a country suffering the after-effects of almost thirty years of one of the world’s most brutal dictatorships.  Salvadoran troops have the reputation of being among the best soldiers in Iraq with the courage to stand their ground when challenged.  I am personally moved by Salvadorans’ sacrifice in Iraq – especially the five who have lost their lives and the 58 who have been wounded.  We and the people of Iraq are eternally grateful.

El Salvador has also taken a leadership position in the region in fighting organized crime, criminal gangs, and narco traffickers.  El Salvador was the first country to sign and implement CAFTA.  It’s understandable that President Bush considers President Saca to be one of his most important advisers in the region.

I have seen first hand what the U.S. is doing to assist in developing the poorer parts of the country.  Last month I traveled to Chalatenango with President Saca, Education Minister Meza, and Ambassador Danilovich, president of the Millennium Challenge Corporation, to present 115 scholarships for secondary and post secondary education.  This pilot scholarship program for youth in the Northern Region is just one aspect of a broad initiative on education that the MCC is proud to fund as part of our $461 million compact with El Salvador.

El Salvador’s MCC compact is one of the largest in the world, and reflects the Salvadoran government’s effort that is a model for others.  The Northern Transnational Highway, and the network of connecting roads is the part of the project that has received the greatest attention.  Over 500 kilometers of roads will be constructed, rehabilitated, or improved.  These roads will link the Northern Zone to the rest of the country, as well as to regional partners in Honduras and Guatemala.  This will ensure that citizens of the North will have greater access to services and opportunities.

The MCC Compact will bring other benefits as well.  Progress is being made in launching water, sanitation, and community infrastructure projects in 62 eligible municipalities of the region.  FOMILENIO, the Salvadoran organization which administers the MCC Compact, had received over 300 proposals by the January 31st deadline for the first round of projects, and I understand that feasibility studies, design, and initial construction will commence by the middle of this year.  Compact funding offers many local businesses opportunities for technical assistance, training, and other types of business development services.  

We are all aware that the US military has provided extensive humanitarian assistance after natural disasters.  It is less well known that the U.S. Military provides medical assistance on a regular and recurring basis.  In July of last year, I spent a night on the USNS Hospital Ship Comfort while it was docked in Acajutla.  During that visit the ship’s doctors had nearly 40,000 patient encounters.  Most of those treated were poor, with limited access to the health care system.  I visited some of the worksites ashore and saw first hand the connection the crew made with the Salvadorans they helped.  I have traveled to many other joint medical training exercises – we call them MEDRETES – in which the American Military medical units partner with their Salvadoran counterparts traveling to the most remote reaches of the country to deliver much-needed medical care.  Tens of thousands of Salvadorans have benefited from the many types of medical services provided by these joint exercises.  And these missions continue.  As we speak, another MEDRETE is under way in La Union, and another US Naval ship, the Boxer, will arrive in El Salvador in May to provide medical and engineering services.

I have also visited Salvadoran hospitals where American civilian doctors spend their vacations offering free medical care to Salvadoran citizens.  Many of these services are normally unavailable here in El Salvador.  These are valuable missions as they give our doctors and Salvadoran doctors the opportunity to work together and learn from each other.

I have also enjoyed visiting many of the projects sponsored by USAID.  The US has delivered more than $1.7 billion in direct assistance to El Salvador since the end of the civil war.  Much of this assistance went to the physical reconstruction of the country in the first years after the war.  As El Salvador has evolved in the years since, so has our aid program.  Now we train judges and prosecutors; offer alternatives to youth who might otherwise be tempted to join gangs; and work with Salvadoran government and private-sector counterparts to protect the environment.

We have also worked together to bolster El Salvador’s economy and strengthen its democracy through free trade and a vigorous market economy. 

Only two years in force CAFTA has been of great benefit to El Salvador.  El Salvador has enjoyed double digit increases in exports to the US in some sectors.  For example, in the year 2007, El Salvador’s exports to the US of non-traditional products – including “nostalgia” products like cheeses, the world-famous pupusa and lorocco -- increased by over 15%.  And even the textile industry, though hard-hit by competition from countries like China, increased exports to the US the first eleven months of last year by over 5% year over year.  Increased exports mean more jobs, better incomes and greater opportunities for all Salvadorans.  El Salvador’s implementation of CAFTA and other forward-thinking trade policies are reasons why El Salvador is leading the way in the region.

Even with all we have accomplished together, a number of challenges lie ahead.  I see two major challenges for Salvadoran political, business and civic leaders.  The first is to preserve and nurture this positive investment climate.  The second challenge is to ensure that economic prosperity resulting from your positive trade policies benefits all Salvadorans across all sectors of society.  Taking concrete steps to spread the economic benefits of free trade and a market economy will strengthen democracy, increase confidence in public and private institutions, deter criminal activity, allow Salvadorans to find their financial future here rather than overseas, and most importantly of all, improve the lives of so many.

Let me focus just a moment on the first of these challenges, because you in the private sector have a very important role – no, a responsibility – in addressing it.

Experts estimate that the cost of crime amounts to approximately 11% of GDP.  That’s a hidden 11% tax on all business done in the country.  The murder rate in El Salvador is one of the highest in Latin America.  All of us who live here make certain sacrifices in our daily lives to protect ourselves and our families from crime.  But as a businessman and investor myself, I want to emphasize that El Salvador’s public security crisis can also create an economic crisis and a disincentive to foreign investment in El Salvador.  There is no doubt that El Salvador must have direct foreign investment to grow and prosper.  Foreign investment means a stronger economy, more jobs, increased tax revenues, and a better life for all.

Public security is the number one priority of the American Embassy.  And something that I can’t help but think about everyday.

We are working closely with our Salvadoran counterparts on this issue.  Several weeks ago we dedicated the new site of the International Law Enforcement Academy, a regional body under State Department auspices that trains judges, prosecutors and police officers in the latest crime-fighting methods.  The U.S. is contributing over $7 million to build the Academy, and although San Salvador’s ILEA serves the entire continent, Salvadoran officials make up more than 25% of the students in each class.

The Cooperative Security Location at Comalapa Airport is a bilateral effort to combat drug-trafficking – a scourge that has not affected El Salvador to the degree that it has some of its neighbors, but that nonetheless remains a threat to the security and economic welfare of the country.Drug traffickers bring with them violent crime and political corruption.  The CSL is a testament to the determination of our two countries to keep narcotraffickers out of El Salvador.

The Minister of Public Security and Justice, Rene Figueroa and I recently dedicated a new anti-gang unit in which US and Salvadoran law enforcement authorities work side by side to combat the pandillas.  We have also created, under the State Department’s international law-enforcement program, the position of Regional Gang Advisor.  This important State Department official will be based at the Embassy here in San Salvador and will dedicate himself full time to working with US and local law enforcement authorities to fight gangs throughout the -region.

President Bush recently announced the Merida Initiative.  As part of this initiative, the President has asked Congress to appropriate $50 million to help combat crime in Central America.  And President Bush has said this is just a start.

The United States is dedicated to working with our Salvadoran friends to address these challenges, but it won’t be easy.  Resources are hard to come by.  Political will is harder.  Salvadorans of all political persuasions, inside and outside of the government – must dedicate themselves – fully -- to solving the public security problem and demanding respect for the rule of law.

I have worked very closely with the government and the government officials charged with public safety.  Here is my conclusion:  The government is trying very hard to implement the measures that are necessary to protect its citizens.  Murder rates have dropped, and that’s important.  I hope to see a similar focus by Salvadoran authorities, the media and the public on other violent crimes –most importantly assaults and robberies on the buses.  When we see the rate of these violent crimes drop, we’ll know that El Salvador has taken a second important step.

The executive branch of government cannot do it alone. 

An important part of the solution lies in the courts.  The annual Human Rights Reports of the Department of State have for the past six years identified judicial inefficiency and corruption as an obstacle to effective democracy in El Salvador.   We know there are many honest, efficient judges, doing their part to build an effective judiciary in which Salvadorans and foreign investors can have confidence and be proud.  But all too often, there are those who wish to continue “business as usual”.  This impacts honest citizens and business people who deserve and need a reliable, predictable and honest judiciary.

Many of you have told me in private that you lack confidence in the courts, that decisions are arbitrary, unpredictable and slow to come.  Yet I see little public pressure to strengthen the process for dealing with judicial corruption.

The National Assembly should approve a revised criminal procedures code during the next few weeks, ensuring transparency and predictability in criminal courts and giving judges, prosecutors and police the critical tools necessary to ensure public security.   An improved, modernized criminal code is within the grasp of the current Assembly.  Salvadorans deserve improved access to justice and the greater public security it promises.  The fiscalia and police deserve to have criminal cases heard quickly and adjudicated impartially according to the law of the land.  I urge the Assembly, the judicial branch, the executive branch and civil society to step forward and do what is right to protect your country.

It is my wish that during my tenure we ratify a new bilateral extradition treaty.  Salvadorans accused of crimes in the US who have fled here to avoid prosecution should be taken off the streets and returned to the US to face justice.  The existing agreement dates back to 1911 and is both outdated and limited in its reach. 

The Director of the FBI tells me that the most effective tool to fight organized crime and gangs is the wire tap.  This tool is critical to tracking down criminals, infiltrating their organizations and getting them off the streets.  The National Assembly should quickly vote to amend the constitution as required and enact a wire tap law with strong safeguards to prevent abuse. 

An asset forfeiture law must also be enacted without delay.  The government needs to have access to the ill-gotten assets of criminals.  How can I ask my government to contribute money to the police and to crime prevention if there are cash and assets readily available to the government if an asset forfeiture law existed – I am told that currently there would be an estimated 1.4 million dollars available to the government if such a law were enacted.  The people, the government and the legislature of El Salvador need to muster the political will to pass such a law.

You as business leaders have to play a key role in meeting this challenge – and that means getting involved in addressing the crime issue.  Business leaders need to speak loudly in the national dialogue on crime and judicial corruption, and to fully dedicate yourselves to solving these problems.  The truth is, many of you can hire your own private security force to protect your businesses, yourselves and your families.  But most of your employees cannot.  If they ride the bus to work, they might be robbed or worse.  If they walk to work, they might be attacked.  That is no way to live.  And ladies and gentlemen, that kind of crime makes the headlines and reduces direct foreign investment and tourism.

El Salvador needs – El Salvador deserves – a strong public-private partnership to tackle crime in all its forms.  Business leaders should combine their resources and expertise with El Salvador’s dedicated police, prosecutors and other public servants to attack the crime epidemic head on.  And I am not only talking about reducing the shockingly high murder rate.  I am also talking about making the buses and streets safe for ordinary, hard-working Salvadorans.

This does not mean just contributing money.  It means taking a leadership role.  It means dedicating time and resources to help manage and combat the problem.  It means demanding the information necessary to hold government, judicial and parliamentary institutions to account.  Crime requires an extraordinary response from civil society.  Only then will El Salvador control its critical crime problem, which in turn will make better lives for its citizens, and as I have said several times already this morning, attract the foreign investment that the country needs to further develop its economy.

Our Embassy will work side-by-side with those who step forward.  We will lend our support and guidance when asked.  Remember that no one is exempt from crime.  We and our family members can all be victims tomorrow.

Let me close with some thoughts about the year ahead.  It’s an election year for both of our countries – for the United States in November of this year, and for El Salvador in January and March of 2009. 
We will, of course, follow elections in El Salvador with great interest.  There are too many political, economic and family connections between our two countries not to do so.

What you won’t see, however, is the US taking sides in these elections.  We will respect the Salvadoran people’s sovereign right to choose their next leaders.

But we do support several abiding principles that guide us at home and abroad. 

We support elections that are free, fair, transparent and peaceful.

We support government policies that strengthen democratic institutions, promote respect for human rights, foster a market-based economy, and support free trade.

We are ready to work with governments and officials who share these principles.

We hope the next president of El Salvador will follow the recent tradition of actively cultivating a strong relationship with the United States.   Our achievements together over the past two decades – USAID programs, Military Cooperation, MCC,  CAFTA, cooperation on public security issues and on narcotraffiking– clearly demonstrate the benefits of a strong bilateral relationship.

The challenges of which we have spoken this morning belong solely to the people of El Salvador.  My friends the future is up to you.
Thank you.