Carlos Quintanilla Schmidt was elected vice president of El Salvador in March 1999 for the Nationalist Republican Alliance party known by its Spanish acronym, ARENA. A lawyer by profession, Quintanilla, 47, was the law school dean at Jose Matias Delgado University. As vice president, he is coordinating efforts to help rebuild a country devastated by two earthquakes, one in January and another in February. More than 1,200 people were killed and scores were left homeless. Quintanilla was recently in Chicago to meet with the local Salvadoran community, which numbers around 80,000, and to encourage them to invest in their homeland.
Q. What role have Salvadorans in the U.S. played in the economy at home?
A. Salvadorans living abroad have maintained a large part of our economy thanks to their remittances. After the earthquake, they responded immediately by sending money and provisions. Last year, more than $1.7 billion was sent home. There are so many opportunities to work with Salvadorans living abroad. For example, we would like to convert the payments into investments. They can invest in their own country. This opens the possibility of a very important commercial exchange with the community.
Q. What is the long-term damage after the earthquake?
A. The tragedy of the earthquake has united the Salvadoran community in all parts of the world. There were more than 300,000 homes damaged or completely destroyed. If you multiply that number by five people in each home, that equals 1.5 million Salvadorans. If we take into account that the population of El Salvador is 6.5 million, this means that 25 percent of the population was directly affected. Also, we lost 25 percent of the public schools in the country. We have two hospitals completely destroyed. Forty percent of the small businesses were damaged. Many of these small businesses were operated in family homes. The damage to the agriculture industry affects 20 percent of the national production of coffee. We saw damage to public buildings, churches; our cultural heritage was damaged. Many roads and highways were damaged and water and well systems collapsed. The most important thing we need at this time is to rebuild the homes. We need to guarantee that families have an adequate place to live and sleep. That is why we have established a non-profit foundation called Roof for a Brother. We need to rebuild 150,000 homes. We are inviting Salvadorans abroad, businesses, international organizations and foreign governments to participate.
Q. The Bush administration extended “temporary protected status” to Salvadorans in the U.S. and offered financial assistance. How will that help with the reconstruction?
A. We have received about $300 million in donations from foreign governments, including money from the U.S. government that President Bush offered to Salvadoran President Francisco Flores during a meeting they had in March. The U.S. is giving $110 million, of which $52 million will be disbursed this year and $58 million next year. Since the earthquake, we think help from Salvadorans will increase. They are not only sending money for their families, but they are sending money to help these families raise walls and repair their business. It’s very likely that this year there will be an increase in the money sent. Temporary protected status allows 150,000 Salvadorans to have a temporary visa and earn better salaries. This guarantees them stability for 18 months. This means for us that they can work and send home their remittances without worry. It’s important that the Salvadorans who are here can work and stay here to help with the reconstruction of the country.
Q. Almost 10 years ago, the civil war ended in El Salvador. What is the political reality today?
A. The peace accords were signed Jan. 16, 1992, in Mexico. Since then, El Salvador has had important transformations in political and social life. First, there has been a great opening for citizens to participate in civil society.
Also, all the political parties today have the opportunity to participate openly. In the last congressional elections of 2000, no party had a clear majority. The political party with the most deputies is the party of opposition, the FMLN [Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front], which was the armed guerilla group. Our political party, ARENA, has three or four fewer legislators than the FMLN. There is always a process of negotiation in all of the political activities in the country. Even the city of San Salvador has a mayor who is from the FMLN.
Q. How is the use of the U.S. dollar affecting the country?
A. One of the most important projects of the president of the republic has been to make the dollar legal currency. It is the law of monetary integration. This will help avoid inflation. If we didn’t have the dollar as legal currency, all of the dollars coming into the country would have to be transferred to colons. We think that globalization is opening us to the world. We have a free trade treaty with Mexico, Chile and the Dominican Republic. We are negotiating a free trade treaty with Canada and Panama. We have asked the United States for a free trade treaty with Central America. The fact that we have more than 25 percent of our population in the United States is part of that globalization process. There are so many villages in El Salvador where the dollar circulated because money was sent so often. All we needed was a formal law that in any place or any business the dollar would be accepted as currency. About 20 percent of the money circulating in El Salvador is in dollars. As a result of the earthquake, the “dollarization” process has been set back. The law went into effect Jan. 1, and Jan. 13 we had the first earthquake. If there weren’t an earthquake, we would have a 35 percent to 40 percent circulation of dollars. The dollar every day has greater circulation in the operations of the country.
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An edited transcript translated from Spanish.
