Herramientas para el análisis del contenido del Discurso político.- Caso: Elementos del lenguaje Religioso en los Discursos de Toma de Posesión de Presidentes de El Salvador 1989- 2016.

Dar Click Aqui para ver la investigación: Herramientas para el análisis de contenido

Caso: Elementos del lenguaje

Religioso en los Discursos de Toma de Posesión de Presidentes de El Salvador 1989- 2016.

The political use of religion in the discourses of the presidents of El Salvador 1989- 2014

During the electoral campaign the different political parties and their candidates try to get the support of different social groups, including the religious people. According  UCA-El Salvador (Univerdad centroamericana) in its report No 122 (IUDOP) "Survey on religion for Salvadorans” only 8% of total Salvadorans do not profess any religion (p. 16). Additionally, the survey shows that currently most of the population considered themselves Christian, the research describes that the Catholic and Evangelical Churches are the most trusted organizations in the country. In contrast, political parties and the National congress are the most questioned institutions and most of the people do not believe in their structure and functioning.

For this reason, it is easy to think that political actors consider the religion as important, that is why elements of religious language seem to appear a lot in political discourses, but it is curious that these elements still appears when the presidents are not candidates anymore and take the power. For example, the president Cristiani (1989- 1994) in his inaugural speech said: "this morning, and as a personal promise, I commit myself to God and before the people to dedicate each day of my mandate to work for democracy". Subsequently Calderon Sol (1994-199) in his first speech to the Nation said: "Our social agenda is oriented, in one way or another, to protect the Salvadoran family, because in it, we learn the most beautiful lessons of life, such as loving God, your country and your neighbor”.

On the other hand, Francisco Flores (1999-2004) also in his inaugural speech said: "We put our faith in God, whom we ask wisdom, to undertake the task entrusted to us”. Then, the president Antonio Saca (2004- 2009) said, "Today I bow my head before Almighty God to ask the gifts of the Wisdom and humility ... the best begins today to be reality”. The first president of a left party, Mauricio Funes, declares: “the only privileged ones of my administration are those that our martyred bishop, Monsignor Oscar Arnulfo Romero, defined as the poorest, as the most vulnerable, as those who were excluded from economic and social development”.  Then, the following president Salvador Sanchez Ceren states: “As Mauricio (Funes) has already stated, our martyred bishop Monsignor Romero, will guide the steps of this new government as he did in the previous one”.

As it can be seen, in El Salvador the religious language has been use for all presidents since the democracy was established. Then, what is the problem of the use of religious categories in political speeches? The real issue is that the religious behavior is very difficult to know if it is authentic or not, especially in the political scenario, for that reason anybody can take advantage of the collective religious imagery to instrumentalize “the name of God” with the objective of a particular political interests unrelated to democracy and religion as other authors have described like O’Connell, D. (2012).

Starting from this point, there are other questions that can be asked to the presidents to identify if their actions are as “Christians” as their words, for example:

There was transparency in the management of state funds? It has been clear whether the funds of the State projects have reached their target? Have the political parties contributed to investigate of acts corruption? Did the privatization policies of the Public services benefits the most of population?

The answers of this questions use of the elements of the religious language seems to project that the religious and political roles do not have greater distinctions and can be confused both types of Leaderships. The goal rather than communicate a religious message seems to be the persuasion of being a sensitive leader.

For the above, should not fall into the game of editorialists or politicians who disguise with arguments Religious fears, offenses and frustrations, since the true spirit of Christianity should not be part alone Of discourse but also of practice. And as another Christian religious rhetoric put forward in Matthew 7:21 " "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.

References:

 - O’Connell, D. (2012). “God Wills It: Presidents and the Political Use of Religion” (Doctoral dissertation, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY).

- IUDOP. (2009). “Encuesta sobre la religión para los y las salvadoreños” Inform #122 Recovered from: http://www.uca.edu.sv/publica/iudop/Web/2009/informe122.pdf

Fidel Castro, sus ausencias y presencias.

Fidel Castro ha muerto, pero ¿qué nos dice su funeral al mundo? de los jefes de Estado del globo "pocos" fueron los que asistieron a los actos fúnebres de Fidel, o al menos no hubo prácticamente ningún invitado sorpresa más allá de los predecibles en la izquierda como los presidentes de Venezuela, Bolivia, Nicaragua y Ecuador (por latinoamerica México quizás el único invitado fuera de línea).  Además de estos, llegaron otro poco de África y Asia, que sumados eran más o menos 20 representaciones en su mayoría mandos diplomáticos intermedios. A partir de esto, nos debe llamar la atención directamente las ausencias de los jefes de países como Rusia, Francia y Corea del Norte, solo por mencionar algunos afines ideológicamente y muy importantes en la geopolítica. A partir de esto surge una nueva pregunta ¿A qué se puede deber esta ausencia?

Ahora muerto Castro, y hablando fríamente, parece no hay razón o motivación de la comunidad internacional para mostrar apoyo a un régimen con un futuro incierto más allá de los Castro. Yendo a los actos fúnebres ¿con quien se quedaba bien en el mapa mundial formal? parece que con casi con nadie,.

Sin embargo, pocos dudan del reconocimiento de Castro a nivel mundial, en el mundo casi ningún líder es tan admirado y odiado al mismo tiempo, Fidel es muchas cosas pero no un desconocido, de ahí que llame la atención las ausencias de los líderes mundiales. Sin duda alguna, cualquier casi cualquier gobernante actual se queda corto en curriculum si se compara con su historia, pero en la coyuntura actual Cuba no reúne condiciones de país emergente ni de potencia a nivel mundial y ni siquiera de "cliente" político importante. Cuba, un país admirable en los méritos educativos, sistema de salud y el ámbito deportivo (solo por mencionar algunos) pasó un bloqueo que se observó hasta en los actos fúnebres del Comandante de la revolución. 

¿Hubiera pasado lo mismo con la muerte de un jefe de estado de una superpotencia? yo creería que no, ya que aunque no fuera un líder conocido representa los intereses de los países dominantes, es decir, sería de "los que importan". Dicho esto, Fidel muere sin la compañía de los líderes de los países fuertes, sin embargo, sus ideas, su modelo de país y su propia vida tendrá un espacio importante en los anales de la historia de la humanidad. Las ausencias en el funeral Fidel Castro fueron efímeras, pero su presencia en la historia será eterna.