Countries of the World/COUNTRYS.BIN/dp/0124/01248.txt

Text File | 1991-06-25 | 25KB | 399 lines

$Unique_ID{COW01248}
$Pretitle{350}
$Title{El Salvador
Chapter 2B.   The Lower Sector}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{Mary W. Helms}
$Affiliation{HQ, Department of the Army}
$Subject{percent
rural
population
indian
land
number
1980s
farms
salvador
sector}
$Date{1988}
$Log{}
Country:     El Salvador
Book:        El Salvador, A Country Study
Author:      Mary W. Helms
Affiliation: HQ, Department of the Army
Date:        1988

Chapter 2B.   The Lower Sector

     The vast majority of Salvadorans were members of the lower sector of the
population, which was composed of full- or part- time laborers, peasant
smallholders, and the unemployed. Although there was considerable diversity
within this large social sector, most of its members shared the common
denominators of dependence on the cash economy and insufficient earning power
for even a minimally adequate standard of living. The variation within this
population reflected degrees of landlessness, types of employment, residence
locations, and relationship with economic and military power holders.

     In 1981 approximately 58 percent of Salvadorans lived in rural areas,
some as full-time estate workers (colonos), others owning or more likely
renting (arrendatarios) small plots of marginal land, and many, both those
with small plots of land and the vast number who were landless, as seasonal
wage laborers or unemployed. During the 1980s, the number of workers depending
on agriculture for jobs increased, as a result of both population growth in
the rural areas and the civil conflict, which eliminated more nonagricultural
than agricultural jobs.

     The extent of access to marginal subsistence plots varied according to
the degree of plantation development in the various regions of El Salvador.
The hilly northern departments of Chalatenango, Cabanas, and Morazan, adjacent
to the Honduran border, contained relatively few large estates. Consequently,
subsistence farms continued to exist there. But such farms, being small and
with marginal soil quality, generally did not provide full self-sufficiency or
year-round employment. Nor was much cash available from the sale of produce,
for the government, concerned with providing affordable food for city
dwellers, kept food prices low. Consequently, members of these peasant
families migrated seasonally to cash crop (coffee) estates at harvest time,
when they obtained temporary jobs at very low wages, or moved to San Salvador.

     Peasants living in areas where coffee, cotton, and sugarcane were grown
extensively were less likely to have access to subsistence plots, although
valiant attempts were made to cultivate the rocky, marginal land on the steep
hillsides of the volcanic ranges of central El Salvador, where coffee estates
absorbed all good land in the central valleys and on the cultivable slopes.
The development of cotton estates on the low- lying coastal plain and of
sugarcane, grown between the coastal cotton and hilly coffee regions, also
dislocated many peasants. In addition, large-scale mechanization in the 1970s
eliminated the need for sizable labor forces on these estates. For example,
one 6,000-hectare cotton estate employed a total regular work force of only
thirty-five people. The development of grazing lands for export cattle on the
coastal plain and in some interior valleys again reduced available subsistence
land while requiring very few laborers. In the 1970s, more of El Salvador's
land resources were used for cattle grazing than for production of food crops.

     In addition, as social unrest grew among rural laborers, large estate
owners preferred wherever possible to increase the use of seasonal rather than
permanent workers. In the cotton-growing areas, for example, the number of
colonos decreased by 60 to 95 percent during the 1960s. Overall, the number of
landholdings with colono arrangements dropped from a high of 55,000 in 1961 to
17,000 in 1971. Permanent agricultural workers were thought to be more
susceptible than temporary workers to political organization and therefore
were believed to constitute more of a potential threat to elite land rights.
This attitude further increased the number of underemployed and unemployed
landless laborers in the countryside. A few statistics illustrate the
situation in general. In 1961, about 12 percent of the rural population was
landless; by 1971 the figure had reached 29 percent; in 1975 the number of
landless was estimated at 41 percent. Similarly, from 1950 to 1970 rural
unemployment stood at 45 to 50 percent. By 1975 only 37 percent of rural
workers worked full time, 14 percent worked an average of nine months, 19
percent worked an average of six months, and a full 30 percent worked for only
two to three months annually. By 1980 an estimated 65 percent of the rural
population was landless and dependent on wage employment.

     The small percentage of the labor force employed in industry was somewhat
better off than agricultural workers, but only about 12.8 percent of the labor
force was employed in industry in 1961, and by 1971 that number had dropped to
9.8 percent (see Industry, ch. 3). Their low numbers in part reflected the use
of capital- intensive technology, which made it unnecessary to hire a large
work force. Jobs also were few because industry in general, and manufacturing
in particular, remained limited as a result of capital flight caused by
political instability, the unsettled economy, and damaging guerrilla attacks.

     Enlisted military personnel, another component of the lower sector, were
young peasant conscripts or volunteers who had joined the armed forces to
enjoy three meals a day and a warm place to sleep; some of the conscripts had
been impressed into service in response to manpower shortages. After discharge
from active duty, some ex-servicemen signed on for further service and
benefits as military reservists in the GN or in civil defense groups.

The Middle Sector

     The small proportion of society constituting a middle class-- about 8
percent in the early 1980s--included skilled workers, government employees,
professionals, school teachers, smallholders, small businessmen, and
commercial employees. These people were caught between the polar extremes of
wealth and poverty.  Not being members of the traditional oligarchy-- although
the great success of nineteenth- century coffee production had stimulated the
development of the middle sector as well as of the elite--the middle sector
traditionally had little direct influence in government affairs. Similarly,
although profoundly influenced by the United States, members of this
population sector did not have sufficient wealth to enjoy ready access to
schooling or travel in that country. Instead, having only a tenuous toehold on
property and limited power within the existing Salvadoran system, the middle
sector found its position precarious and felt seriously threatened by El
Salvador's political and economic crises.

     After the depression of the 1930s, the middle sector hoped to improve the
standard of living for all Salvadorans through agrarian reform and through
legalized peasant organizing. In the 1960s and early 1970s, various
professionals and other members of the middle class tried to promote
meaningful elections and called for a transition to more open and
participatory democratic procedures. As economic and political crises deepened
in the 1970s and 1980s, however, many members of the middle class became
alienated by the rising tide of political violence. Many of these Salvadorans
wished that the problem of "subversives" would simply go away so that order,
stability, and economic growth could be restored. Others, however, chose to
become increasingly active in political parties or popular organizations.

Indians

     In contrast to most other Central American countries, El Salvador in the
late 1980s did not contain an ethnically distinct Indian population. Native
communities of Pipil and also Lenca, located mainly in the western
departments, constituted perhaps 60 p