The Carrot, the Stick, and the Seeds: U.S. development policy faces resistance in El Salvador

Categories Central America, food justice, social movements, solidarity1 Comment

When I visited the Bajo Lempa region of eastern El Salvador this year, my new acquaintances taught me a joke.

“Why aren’t there coupes de états in the United States?” they asked me. “I don’t know, why?”

Community members in the Bajo Lempa speak out against tourism development on their lands. Photo: Voices on the Border.
Community members in the Bajo Lempa speak out against tourism development on their lands. Photo: Voices on the Border.

To find out why, read my recent article for the Americas Program.

When the U.S. Ambassador in El Salvador required the country to re-evaluate a program distributing local seeds to farmers in order to receive development aid, people took note. Yet this is just the latest problem facing the Millennium Development Corporation funds at the source of the controversy. Local social movements have described the Millennium funds are a Trojan Horse for U.S. development interests in El Salvador, as they promote transnationals and large-scale tourism development. I describe the dispute over the funds and the actions local organizations have taken to define their own terms for development.

Read the article here.

En español en Subversiones. El desarollo arrollador en el Bajo Lempa, El Salvador.

1 thought on “The Carrot, the Stick, and the Seeds: U.S. development policy faces resistance in El Salvador

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.