Co-Operation, Contestation and Complexity in Peacebuilding: Post-Conflict Security Sector Reform by Nadine Ansorg & Eleanor Gordon

Author:Nadine Ansorg & Eleanor Gordon [Ansorg, Nadine & Gordon, Eleanor]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780367637569
Google: TqCmzQEACAAJ
Goodreads: 54499569
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2020-12-31T00:00:00+00:00

Changing the course? SSR and the government of the FMLN

After the peace agreement, the second window of opportunity for substantial reforms in the security and judiciary appeared in 2009 when the FMLN won the presidential elections. During the peace negotiations and as the main opposition party, the FMLN had advocated for broad reform of military and police and favoured an approach to public security emphasizing social and economic participation as well as violence prevention. But despite winning the presidency and being the largest party in the parliament, the FMLN never held an absolute majority. It won the presidency in 2009 with a moderate candidate, Mauricio Funes. During the first years of his term, Funes (2009–2014) started some reform initiatives although in contradictory directions. Legislation regarding public security continued to call for the involvement of the military ‘to support’ the police to an unprecedented level (Aguilar 2016). Parliament prolonged this ‘exceptional’ possibility seven times between 2009 and 2011. A short period of dialogue between the two most violent youth gangs with the secret involvement of the government decreased the numbers of homicides significantly. But confronted with political opposition, unfavourable opinion polls and a media outcry, the truce ended and violence escalated to even higher levels (INCIDE 2016).

Regarding judiciary reform, the most important financial and technical support after the war had come from the US Agency of International Development (USAID) with a strong focus on training to increase the capacities of and professionalize judges and other judicial personnel as well as on modernizing the criminal and civil codes. While these measures were important, their impact is difficult to analyse. Nevertheless, a process of gradual change in the judiciary can be observed (Cerqueira and Arteaga 2016). The judicial handling of the amnesty law from 1993 is an interesting case in point as human rights groups never stopped trying to revoke the law. In 1993, the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court declared itself incompetent referring to the amnesty as ‘a political act’. Five years later, the chamber ruled: ‘the law admitted interpretations but was not unconstitutional per se’. In 2002, the office of the Human Rights Ombudsman in a rare act of political autonomy declared that the law contradicted the Salvadorian constitution and the country’s international obligations. In 2009, five independent magistrates were elected to the Supreme Court; four of them entered the constitutional chamber.19 When a group of human rights organizations filed a new lawsuit in 2013, the Supreme Court accepted to hear the case declaring the amnesty law unconstitutional in 2016. As a consequence, a series of lawsuits against the perpetrators of gross human rights violations such as the massacre of El Mozote re-entered the courtrooms. While important at the symbolical level, it remains to be seen if this is a turning point of judicial independence and autonomy.

Mainstream media largely ignore the process. There is increasing evidence that a coalition between ARENA and FMLN is blocking the trials. Although the Truth Commission’s report laid more responsibility on ARENA and its supporters

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