To Be Partners: A Hope That We Cannot Give Up

To be partners in the search for progress with the United States is an opportunity that the country must value and profit from.

The tradition among Latin American countries has been, in their relationships with the U.S., to ask or to demand something of that country. The visit from President Barack Obama tells us that there is a third path: Becoming partners in the search for economic growth and social development. Of what it would be about, as was made clear yesterday, is that El Salvador would be one of four members of an exclusive group of countries that are not only going to send the U.S. a check charged to cooperation, but also experts from both nations are going to get together to distribute the tasks to find new ways toward progress.

To be partners would also mean that the two nations would have common interests. It is very probable that El Salvador will receive funds to improve public transportation, to expand the Comalapa airport or to attract foreign investors, but, in return, our counterpart will tell us that we have to make institutional changes or remove the barriers that are blocking some initiatives. Certainly, the path ahead is a new one. It is not about borrowing money to build a road anymore. We are going to try and build a common strategy, without that meaning the loss of part of our sovereignty. That is, to go hand in hand looking for the horizon.

Obama said something else yesterday: That he will bring $200 millions to the table for the Central Americans to apply together a new strategy against the assault of organized crime.

That means that the problem of security has taken a regional dimension, but that, individually, El Salvador will partner with the most powerful nation in the world in a unique opportunity to find a flashlight that will illuminate us in a globalized world. To fulfill the role of partners, we must first understand ourselves. This is our first task.