PICA

Advocacy Program on Central America

About the Project : History of the Advocacy Programme : Why an Advocacy Programme ?

PICA's General Objective : About Central America : EU-Central America Relations

Aprodev’s Advocacy Program on Central America, PICA, aims to foster changes in European policies that they may contribute towards a culture of peace, participation of civil society and a more equal distribution of wealth in Central America .

Special emphasis is given to active participation of Central America‘s Civil Society in the formulation of these policies. Although participation is one of the principles of the EU policy, in practice Civil Society organisations are often neglected. T herefore, proposals and positions of Civil Society will be the point of departure for our advocacy work, with special attention to the partners of Aprodev members involved in the program, several hundreds in all, including networks and co-ordinations.

Central America receives a considerable amount of aid from EU funds: together the EU Commission and member states have since 1988 been the largest donors to Central America. The European Union has been present in the peace and democratisation processes and after Hurricane Mitch (1998) the EU started large additional reconstruction programmes.

When it comes to trade relations, Central America at this moment is included in the “General System of Preferences – Plus” that offers some trade benefits, although important products for Central America (bananas, sugar) are not included.

But bi-regional relations are about to change. In 2007, the EU and Central America started negotiations for an Association Agreement, which includes a Free Trade Agreement. This agreement can change fundamentally the relations between the two regions and raise questions about the coherence between the development and trade policies of the EU. These developments offer important opportunities for advocacy and monitoring.

History of the Advocacy Program on Central America

Since the mid-1980s, the Aprodev agencies have paid special attention to Central America . They met in the “Stuttgart Group”, which functioned as an informal structure for coordinating and sharing ideas . When the Stuttgart Group was born, civil wars and the Cold War were dominant themes in the Central American region, and there was a need to obtain reliable information and analyse the situation jointly. After the wars, the region remained a priority for the agencies because of its persistent poverty, and because the peace and democratisation processes have been slow and fragile.

From 2001, there was renewed interest in joint action by the Stuttgart Group. The need to further develop international political advocacy as a tool for strengthening the agencies’ policies was discussed. This led to the Advocacy Programme on Central America (Programa de Incidencia en Europa para Centroamérica, PICA), which has been in operation since June 2004.

Six Aprodev members — Christian Aid, DanChurchAid, Diakonia, ICCO, FinnChurchAid and Church of Sweden — are fully committed to this programme and others are joining the Central America Working Group as observers.

Why an Advocacy Program on Central America?

Attention to Central America these days is sporadic. The international community placed a great deal of emphasis on Central America when it was a battleground for civil wars and the Cold War. Today, the region arouses interest only occasionally, usually when there are “natural” disasters. Nevertheless, there are sufficient reasons for ongoing attention to this region.

The most important reason is the situation in Central America and the work of partners. Peace and democratisation processes have brought some positive change to the region, but many of these changes are superficial in nature. Power structures and the lack of political will pose enormous challenges to those seeking to bring about real change. Advocacy and lobby by our agencies to foster more solid support for these changes from the international community is a key complementary tool to the support of partner organisations in Central America .

An important reason for Aprodev’s Central America Program is that relations between the EU and Central America are based around ideas of integration with “the global economy.” The growing importance of trade subordinates old agendas of development, peace and democracy. We do not want to remain on the sidelines of these processes, but seek to become involved and apply our vision, analysis and ethics to ensure that integration constitutes “trade for people, not people for trade.” (1)

(1) Name of the Ecumenical Advocacy Alliance‘s campaign on trade.

About Central America

After Haiti, Central America is the poorest area in the Western hemisphere. El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua — the countries where the agencies concentrate — are particularly characterised by their economic, social and environmental vulnerability.

Central America’s history is one of colonisation, racism and exploitation. After independence from Spain, military dictatorships followed the same models, defending the economic interests of the elites.

Beginning in the mid-20th century, social problems led to popular uprisings, civil war in some countries and sharp political polarisation in all of them. With the example of Cuba, and later with the victory of the Sandinistas in Nicaragua, Central America became a Cold War battleground, with strong intervention by the United States and bloody repression by the dictators in power at the time. The 1980s brought difficult peace and democratisation processes, with support from the international community, including the EU.

U.S. influence persists these days. Now it is not so much in the military sphere as in the political and commercial arenas. The Free Trade Treaties negotiated as part of CAFTA are the most recent manifestation of this influence.

The problem of poverty is, above all, a problem of the distribution of wealth, of deep inequality among social groups, especially affecting the most vulnerable. In analysing the situation in the Central American region, it is noteworthy that the causes of poverty and social exclusion are the concentration of power, the authoritarian political culture, and the lack of political will on the part of authorities to pursue a poverty reduction agenda. Democratisation has stalled with the establishment of institutions (particularly elections), but has not led to a democratic culture and real participation for the majority of the population. The sharp polarisation persists.

Those who govern tend to respond more to the interests of limited groups than to national interests. The economic solutions proposed are short-sighted and exploitative (assembly plants and generous concessions to mainly foreign companies to exploit natural resources). Meanwhile, historical problems of land ownership for small peasant farmers and indigenous people remain unresolved. This causes, among other things, increasing rates of migration.

The legacy of a patriarchal, authoritarian culture and the lack of political willingness to examine and learn from the atrocities of the past, combined with poverty and exclusion, have led to a high degree of impunity, the destructive organisation of youths in gangs, an almost uncontrollable level of social violence and crime, and a growing wave of murders of women.

EU-Central America Relations

Central America is considered one of the regions of the world where the European Union has demonstrated its greatest moral and financial commitment. Official relations between the two regions date back to 1984, with the start of the San José Dialogue, a moment that also marked the beginning of political relations with Latin America. The initial agenda of the San José Dialogue was the resolution of conflicts, democratisation and the development of Central America. Other issues, such as regional integration, the environment and natural disasters, were later included. Pacification and democratisation gradually came to the region, and the San José Dialogue is considered to have been a success.

The ongoing political dialogue was complemented by high levels of cooperation, manifested specifically in various cooperation agreements since 1985. Today the EU is the largest donor in the Central American region. Since the mid-1990s, Central America’s political importance has decreased. Once the region was pacified, other regions and problems took higher priority on the international agenda. Nevertheless, the region maintains considerable levels of cooperation with the EU.