When I arrived in El Salvador in 1990, during what was known as the second offensive” I was sreuck by the number of army troops on the highway on the road from the airport to San Salvador, the capital. The rebels hsd earlier kidnapped and held hostage the Secretary General of the Organization of American States at the El Camino Real Hotel, where incidentally I was staying.
I was leading an evaluation of of a USAID-funded ptogram of graduate kegal studies at tge Faculty of Law of tge University of Costa Rica, in San Jose. In addition to attending classes and interviewing students and professors at the University in San José, I also traveled to El Salvador, Guatemala, and the Dominican Republic to interview firmer fellowship recipients and graduates and their employers in two specialties of the graduate legal studies program, agrarian law and criminal law reform.
The graduate legal studies program and fellowships were part of a broader effort by A.I.D. to strengthen legal education and judicial and legal reform in Central and South America.
Strengthening the legal system was viewed as a key component of a strategy aimed at developing and strengthening democratic governments built on the rule of law, a goal which was originally central to the Alliance for Progress launched by President John F. Kennedy in 1961.
In El Salvador, I remember the feeling apprehension I felt as I walked across a big intersection and open space between where my armored car from the U.S. Embassy let me off and tge entrance to tge secure compound of the National Police where I had an appointment to interview the boss of one of the graduates of the criminal law program at the University of Costa Rica.
The situation in the country was highly volatile. An armed insurrection was in progress. Only days before, there had been an armed clash several blocks from my hotel.
My interview with the police official was quite successful. I learned that the graduate of the UCR criminal law program was contributing significantly to the reform of police procedures with the goal of improving their compliance with international human rights norms. My interview with the lawyer graduate corroborated the kind of work he was doing.
I stayed only one night in El Salvador, and felt relieved when my plane took off for my next stop in Guatemala.
While USAID quit funding legal reform efforts like the program described, slow and painful progress was being made.
Legal reform, however, is a long-term project.
There can be little doubt, however, tgat USAID was on the right track, trying to promote democracy and the rule of law.
Abandoning that goal and the funding of similar programs has contributed to the instability in the region, and the hopeless political and economic conditions that drive so many to emigrate looking for a better life in the U.S.