14 March 2011

Obama Seeks to Strengthen U.S.-Salvadoran Relations

By Merle David Kellerhals Jr.
Staff Writer

Washington — The United States and El Salvador have enjoyed strong political and economic ties for more than three decades. President Obama’s visit during a five-day, three-nation trip to Latin America that begins March 19 is designed to underscore the value of that relationship, the White House said recently.

Obama visits Brazil and Chile then concludes the trip in San Salvador, El Salvador, March 22–23.

White House press secretary Jay Carney said the president and first lady Michelle Obama will meet with the leaders and speak to the people of these countries to discuss a broad range of issues including economic prosperity and job creation through increased trade and partnerships, energy and security cooperation, shared values and other regional and global concerns.

“The trip will provide an opportunity to engage key bilateral partners, to highlight the president’s engagement with the hemisphere, and to advance our efforts to work as equal partners to address the basic challenges facing the people of the Americas,” Carney said earlier in a White House statement.

Assistant Secretary of State Arturo Valenzuela said in congressional testimony last month that U.S. economic engagement with the Western Hemisphere extends far beyond foreign assistance for Latin America and the Caribbean. The Western Hemisphere is one of the critical economic partners for the United States, and many of its neighbors are also among its top trading partners.

The United States has launched comprehensive trade agreements with most of its important Latin American partners, especially through the Dominican Republic-Central America-United States Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA-DR), which includes El Salvador.

“Trade is one of the more enduring issues in contemporary U.S.-Latin America relations,” said J.F. Hornbeck, a specialist in international trade and finance for the U.S. Congressional Research Service (CRS). “Latin America is far from the largest U.S. regional trade partner, but historically is the fastest growing one.”

The CAFTA-DR trade agreement, which was signed in 2004, includes Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic. According to the U.S. Trade Representative’s Office, this trading bloc represents the third-largest U.S. export market in Latin America behind Mexico and Brazil.

U.S. exports to the CAFTA-DR countries were valued at $19.5 billion in 2009, and combined two-way trade in 2009 between the United States and CAFTA-DR countries was $37.9 billion.

At his June 2009 inauguration, which Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton attended, Salvadoran President Mauricio Funes declared his intention to expand, strengthen and renew El Salvador’s relations with the United States. Funes cited Obama as the type of progressive leader he hoped to emulate in his administration, according to a report by Clare Ribando Seelke and Peter Meyer, who are Latin America analysts with the CRS.

Funes has spoken with Obama several times since his election. The two first met at the Fifth Summit of the Americas in April 2009, but he has also held consultations with Obama at the White House.

One aspect of the U.S. relationship with El Salvador and the other CAFTA-DR nations is improving the flow of trade through enhanced regulatory cooperation and programs to build trade capacity, Valenzuela says.

In addition to economic trade, El Salvador has worked closely with U.S. counternarcotics programs in Latin America, Seelke and Meyer said. It is viewed as a shared problem.

“In 2008, El Salvador’s National Civilian Police seized 1.35 metric tons of cocaine, 430 kilograms of marijuana and 8.4 kilograms of heroin,” the CRS report said. “U.S. counternarcotics assistance focuses on improving the interdiction capabilities of Salvadoran law enforcement agencies; increasing transparency, efficiency and respect for human rights within the criminal justice system; and aiding Salvadoran efforts to fight transnational gangs.”

El Salvador is the home of the International Law Enforcement Academy, which provides police management and specialized training to the nations of the region.

Valenzuela, who is in charge of the State Department’s Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs, also said in congressional testimony that the United States is launching initiatives to expand social inclusion and provide support for marginalized groups.

“We also seek to advance gender equity through education, outreach and government-to-government dialogue,” he said.

Citizen safety is also a goal that the United States seeks to enhance through the Central America Regional Security Initiative, which has received $260 million in the last year, Valenzuela said. This program and the Caribbean Basin Security Initiative are central to U.S. and Latin American strategy to break the power, violence and impunity of the region’s drug, gang and criminal organizations, he said.

(This is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://www.america.gov)