Spanish born and with degrees from three continents, Padre Cortina teaches earthquake engineering at the University of Central America, the Jesuit university in San Salvador. Ten years ago he escaped the fate of six of his fellow priests assassinated by the army at the university, because then as now, he was living and working among the peasants in the mountains of Chalatenango. The ministry of education, he replied, has not reached the children of the mountains. Nor has foreign investment or GDP growth reached their parents. Or, for that matter, most Salvadorans, for whom the country's leading growth industries seem to be armed robbery and kidnappings.
Violent crime dominates newspapers and conversations.
He is right. In the national elections since the war ended, Salvadoran voters have weighed their options. In 1994 they voted for the right. In 1997 they turned left. This year most of them stayed home.