Haiti Videos > Opinions > VIDEO Eske se vre yo pa...

Is something we do with pride and honor," said Col. Hugo...

Dredscotts Says...

is something we do with pride and honor," said Col. Hugo Angulo, the military adviser to El Salvador's mission to the UN, in a phone interview.

The unit's helicopters -- MD500s, the "Ferraris of helicopters," Colonel Angulo said, will function as medevacs for troops and the local population, among other purposes.

The helicopters are best, he added, for the harsh desert climate of Timbuktu.

(On March 17, near the city of Gao in northern Mali, two Dutch peacekeepers died in an Apache helicopter crash, during a military exercise.)

Each soldier in the El Salvador unit will earn a monthly paycheck of about $1,300 while participating in the mission, Colonel Angulo said. "It's a 24/7 environment of sand, wind and MNLA [in English, the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad] movement.

We know they are not going to give us candies but could do bad things to my contingent.

The level of risk is very high; the situation is not exactly Miami or St. Petersburg."

The soldiers, he added, are expected to stay for one year and not even see their family during that time -- let alone contend with "no decent bathrooms."

The Minusma operation is vital to El Salvador, Colonel Angulo noted, as the country will be working under its own flag as a self-sustaining unit. "That is the most beautiful thing that has happened," he said in an additional phone interview.

"Our own sustainability to engage in what is necessary for peace and the environment."

He added that, "For us it is the commitment -- compromiso -- as if you're married."

People at the El Savador mission in New York easily acknowledged the risk of going to Mali, which is now the UN's bloodiest operation in its portfolio, tallying 46 casualties since its deployment, but El Salvador emphasized how much it wanted to help. Minusma is facing so many complex challenges, it has become an incubator for the use of sophisticated technological tools, provided through Dutch and Nordic military expertise.

These tools are meant to counter the deadly attacks by the wide range of jihadists scattered around northern Mali.

(Minusma has stumbled in serious ways itself; recently, an independent panel assigned by the UN concluded that Rwandan members of a UN police unit in Gao used "unauthorized and excessive force" in killing three Malian civilians and wounding four others during a violent protest in January 2015.)

tktktk
El Salvador Air Force MD500 helicopters to be supplied to Minusma, the UN peacekeeping mission in Mali. The word "peligro" near the tail rotor warns of danger in that zone of the aircraft.

"Our country is very happy to return back to the international community this important mission for all who are suffering in the world," Colonel Angulo said.

Moreover, the El Salvador contingent "is fully integrated with UN requirements related to gender," he insisted.

But that amounts to only four female peacekeepers going to Mali: two doctors, a nurse and a cook.

El Salvador has been involved in UN peacekeeping operations since the Korean War and is the second-largest peacekeeping contingent from Central America, after Guatemala.

Colonel Angulo said his nation was committed to the education and training of troops in conflict zones, including the missions in South Sudan and Darfur.

"We have been a part of UN peacekeeping missions since the 1950s, so we are very engaged," Colonel Angulo said, referring to El Salvador's own civil war, which lasted from 1979 to 1992, during which a UN peacekeeping mission was installed from 1991 to 1995. During the war, El Salvador was rocked by tremendous political violence, pitting the left-wing Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN) against right-wing death squads backed by Presidents Carlos Romero and José Napoleón Duarte.

In 1991, the FMLN was formally recognized as a political party and the government signed a peace accord, sponsored by the UN, with the group.

Therefore, the country, Colonel Angulo suggested, has insight into the value of peacekeeping.

The mission, known as Onusal (UN Observer Group in El Salvador), was composed of human rights, military and police divisions and set up to ensure the demobilization of the FMLN. In 2009, Mauricio Funes, a former rebel and a journalist, was elected president of El Salvador, and the FMLN remains the governing party under President Salvador Sánchez Cerén.

"El Salvador is a small country, but we compromise with international support and peacekeeping as an operational philosophy," Colonel Angulo noted.

Alexander Brotman
Alexander Brotman is the Joseph S. Nye Jr. External Relations Intern with the Center for a New American Security in Washington, D.C. He has a B.A. in film studies and media and communications from Muhlenberg College.

He has worked for State Representative Alice Peisch of Massachusetts, Africa Center in Dublin, Harvard School of Public Health and Amnesty International.

Categories: Peace and Security, UN Peacekeeping
Tags: El Salvador peacekeepers, Minusma
We would love your thoughts.

Please comment:

El Salvador Is Sending Peacekeepers and Helicopters to UN's Mali Mission
BACK TO TOP

Subscribe
Login
guest

{}[+]
Name*
Name*
Email*
Email*
Website
Website
This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

2 COMMENTS
Newest
Lourdes Jarquin
Lourdes Jarquin
2 years ago
Good job Colonel Angulo former chief commander of Salvadorean Air Force ( 2010-2012) and minister counselor of the Mission of El Salvador to the UN, New York (2013-2015).

You sent El Salvador Air Force peace corps (troops and helicopters) to Malí.

El Salvador is proud of you.

0
Reply
eusebio manuel vestias pecurto
eusebio manuel vestias pecurto
8 years ago
each UN member country should contribute to peace and stability in Mali

0
Reply
Related Posts
United States President Harry Truman arrives in San Francisco
The UN CHARTER: A Question of Faith, Our Final Podcast Episode
Vahan Kostanyan, Armenia's deputy foreign minister, in his office in November 2023.
Armenia Says Peace Is 'Realistic' With Azerbaijan but Awaits the Right Signals
tephen Schlesinger, US historian and Bob Rae, Canada's Ambassador to the UN
Why the UN Still Matters: A Conversation With a US Historian and a Canadian Diplomat

Volunteer Doctors Went to Rebel-Held Northwest Syria to Help Save Lives.

Then the Bombs Started.

What Happened to the UN's Mediation Abilities?

How the Russian-Backed Wagner Group, Infamous for Sexual Violence and Pillaging, Is Failing in Mali
Search
Search
Search...

The Two-State Solution Quiz. Test your knowledge of the yet-to-be implemented two-state solution mandate.

United Nations Intensive Summer Program
THIS WEEK'S MOST POPULAR
UN Report on Oct. 7 Sexual Violence Documents Far Fewer Incidents Than Israeli Accounts
Dawn Clancy
OPINIONS
NGO Approvals by a UN Committee Could Finally See 'Long-Overdue' Reform
Maithili Pai
and
Francisco Pérez
OPINIONS
Ending Impunity for the Crimes Against Palestinian and Israeli Civilians, From A to Z
Mona Ali Khalil
OPINIONS
The Key to Security Council Reform Is Fewer Permanent Members, Not More
Ian Martin
The Hurdles Keep Growing for the UN's New Gaza-Aid Troubleshooter
Damilola Banjo
UNSCripted and Act of Creation - Listen to the Latest Episodes
RSS
PassBlue UN Podcasts
Act of Creation - A Question of Faith
February: Guyana Is Not Giving Up on a Ceasefire in Gaza
January: Palestine's Desire for Statehood Can't Be Ignored, France's UN Envoy Says
ALL PODCASTS â†'
Global Connections Television - The only talk show of its kind in the world
Recent Comments

Ukraine Is Courting the Mideast...

1 day ago by Mariah
Maybe it is time for a women's peace conference, like...

Ending Impunity for the Crimes...

3 days ago by Dr Bilali Camara
We do not need an injust UN of the 5...

The Key to Security Council...

3 days ago by John Doe
9 members with veto power including Russia?

How will anything...

NGO Approvals by a UN...

4 days ago by Richard Thomas Jordan
As Dean of UN NGOs for 40 years in person,...

NGO Approvals by a UN...

5 days ago by Saha
I am glad for this article.

Morocco has obstructed the...

United Nations Intensive Summer Program
Support Independent Women-Led Journalism >>
DONATE NOW
PassBlue logo
PassBlue is a nonprofit, independent women-led media company that covers foreign affairs and the United Nations with a focus on women's issues and the impact of major world powers on ordinary citizens.

We are strongly committed to high-quality original reporting, and our team strives to ensure that these powers are accountable for their actions and decisions.

Posted March 11 2024 at 5:45 PM

REPLY to this message

or start a NEW Topic

  Topic »