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On the 32 Anniversary of the Sumpul Massacre, Las Aradas
Named Cultural Patrimony Site
May 16th , 2012
On May 14th, hundreds of family members and community members from the
department of Chalatenango and elsewhere around the country gathered in Las
Aradas, near the shores of the Sumpul River to commemorate the massacre of over
600 civilians by the armed forces of El Salvador and Honduras on May 14th,
1980. The event was marked by a mass, the testimonies of survivors and speeches
by representatives from The Ministry of Culture, the UN High Commission on
Refugees and Tutela Legal, the Catholic Church’s human rights arm in El
Salvador. Read more and see photos from the event>>
Sister City Committee Member Reflects on Human Rights
Delegation to Honduras
By Libby Pappalardo
On our first morning in Honduras, we awoke to news of a horrendous fire at
Comayagua Prison where 370 prisoners burned to death. Held at gunpoint,
prisoners were kept from fleeing the fire and the dead were left on a curb
outside the prison to decompose in 90 degree heat. This total lack of respect for human life
became a central theme throughout our 8-day human rights delegation to
Honduras, organized by the Chicago based organization, La Voz de los de Abajo. Read more>>
Permanent Residency Now for Central Americans with
Temporary Protective Status!
On March 8th, the Share Foundation, Centro
Romero of Chicago, Causa Oregon, and CRIPDES held a press conference and rally
to launch the Residency Now campaign in El Salvador. The Residency Now campaign
is aimed at getting Permanent Residency status for the approximately 64,000
Hondurans, 212,000 Salvadorans, and 3,000 Nicaraguans who have been awarded Temporary
Protective Status (TPS) between the late 1990´s and today. To show support, the Sister Cities’ election
delegation participated in the event and we are asking committees to write
letters of support for the campaign, as did the Chicago-Cinquera sister city
committee on May 6th. Read more>>
Salvadoran Anti-Mining Movement Reacts to Appointment of
New Attorney General and Newest Pacific Rim Press Ploy
On April 25th CRIPDES and the
National Roundtable against Metallic Mining in El Salvador (the Mesa in
Spanish) held a rally and press conference in front of the office of the Attorney
General of the Republic reiterating demands for justice in the case of murdered
environmentalists. The rally was held as the
Legislative Assembly announced the appointment of Astor Escalante as the new
Attorney General. 35 North American organizations signed on to a solidarity statement
read at the rally. A few days later, Canadian mining company Pacific Rim
released a statement accused the resistance movement of being anti-development
for opposing their efforts to mine in Chalatenango and sue the Salvadoran
government through a World Bank Tribunal. Read more>>
LD 1853 which loosens Maine’s mining permitting and regulatory
processes. The law was drafted at the request of J.D. Irving LTD, a Canadian-owned
logging company that owns the land being targeted for mineral mining. Read more>>
Sister City Mainers React to Attack on Environmental Protections by Mining Interests
March 30, 2012
Mining
companies are not just aiming to start operating in El Salvador, they
also are trying to loosen regulations and move in to states like
Wisconsin and Maine. As we reported in February, Wisconsin is facing the
destructive effects of corporate mining with proposed gold and iron
mines and the expansion of sand mining for hydraulic fracturing. The
mining companies interested in Wisconsin are promoting a bill (AB 426)
that would drastically speed up the mine permitting process and
eliminate environmental protections that are part of Wisconsin’s
existing mine regulations. Similarly, environmental groups and members
of the Sister Cities committees in Maine, were recently alerted to the
efforts of a mining company to change the environmental protections in
that state. Read more>>
Legislative
Elections in El Salvador: Even with “Radical Political Project” FMLN Doesn´t Carry the Day
March 19,
2012
Counterpunch.org
San
Salvador - On
March 11, hundreds of thousands of Salvadorans headed to the polls in the first
major contest between parties of the right and left since the leader of the
latter, Mauricio Funes, was elected president three years ago. Like mid-term
congressional elections in the U.S., voting for municipal officials and
national legislators in El Salvador often becomes a referendum on the
popularity of incumbent chief executives (even if they’re not on the ballot).
This year’s electioneering seemed to be just another fight between the two
major parties, the ruling Frente Farabundo Marti para La Liberacion National
(FMLN) and the conservative Alianza Republicana Nacionalista (ARENA) as they
vied for dominance of the billboards, newspapers, and air-waves of this nation.
In the run up to the election, the right wing took advantage of friendly
coverage in a mass media securely under the control of the Salvadoran 1%. There
was more than the usual amount of sensationalistic reporting on street crime,
gang violence and the country’s continuing economic problems, like high
unemployment, which right-wing critics blame on the Funes government. Read
more>>
94 House Members
call on Secretary Clinton to Suspend Assistance to Honduras
March 18, 2012
Thanks to the advocacy work of
people around the country, including many in our own network, 94 Congresspeople
signed on to a letter sponsored by Ill. Rep Jan Schakowsky calling for the
cutting of US military aid to Honduras because of the ongoing violation of human
rights and democracy. The letter has now received significant coverage in the
Honduran press and was even covered by CNN here in the US. Additionally, 7 US
senators also sent a letter to the State Department raising their concerns
about the ongoing human rights violation.
Showing that the work is having an impact, the Honduran government has
organized a delegation to come to Washington DC to lobby Congress to try to
minimize the concerns raised in the letters. Also in damage control mode, the US State Department has made public
statements trying to say the letter would hurt US efforts to improve human
rights conditions in Honduras. Read press
release and sign on letter>>
El Salvador Prepares for March Legislative and Municipal Elections
February 27, 2012
Think
the media coverage of the Republican presidential nominee race is
overwhelming? Just try surviving campaign season in El Salvador. As
March 11th approaches, everyone is thinking about the municipal and
legislative election. Walking down the streets of San Salvador,
watching television or listening to the radio, voters are bombarded with
campaign ads from all of the political parties, new and old, competing
in the upcoming election. In addition, the Supreme Tribunal of El
Salvador is using the media outlets to educate the Salvadoran electorate
about the look of the new ballot and the new voting centers that will
be operating as part of the expanded Voto Residencial
program.As Univision reports below, the March elections will be
observed by thousands of observers from around the world. Sister Cities
will be having a small election observation delegation in which members
of our network will be trained as observers by the Social Iniciative for
Democracy (ISD), will meet with social movement leaders to learn about
the political climate and new election reforms and will observe at
voting centers in Cinquera, Cabañas, and Las Americas, Cuscatlán.
Read a sampling of election
coverage>>
Report back from the MOFGA-Chicago Sustainable
Agriculture Delegation
By
Jim Hoover, Chicago-Cinquera Sister Cities
Between January 21st and 31st, I participated in a sustainable agriculture
delegation with members of the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association
and a fellow member of Chicago-Cinquera Sister Cities. We stayed in
Buenas Vista, El Zapotal and, our sister city, Cinquera and learned about the
communities’ small business and sustainable agriculture programs which ranged
from community farms to natural medicine projects to honey cooperatives.
It was a very worthwhile delegation with much good feeling and
solidarity. Read more and see photos from the delegation>>
Council on Hemispheric Affairs
Reports on “The Slide Towards Re-Militarization” in El Salvador
February
16, 2012. Originally posted on www.coha.org/
The appointment of retired military officers to
public security leadership positions over the past three months is being seen
by many as a serious challenge to democracy in El Salvador. President
Mauricio Funes argues that these appointments are legal, that they have not
been done under either internal or external pressure, and that they constitute
an appropriate response to public insecurity. There is indeed a genuine and
intense preoccupation regarding security in El Salvador. A November 2011 poll
by the University Institute of Public Opinion (IUOP) found that 76.4% of
respondents believe that crime increased in 2011, as compared to 2010.[1]
El Salvador has one of the highest homicide rates in the world (4,085
homicides, 66 per 100,000 persons in 2010).[2] Read more>>
Anti-Mining
Update: Solidarity with Panama and The Social Costs of the ICSID Trial
On
February 10th, as clashes continued between the government of Panama and
indigenous groups resisting hydro-electric dams and mining project on their
territory, the National Roundtable Against Mining in El Salvador
organized a protest in front of the Panamanian Embassy in San
Salvador to express their worry and outrage about the situation.
Meanwhile, the Salvadoran social movement is waiting to hear the ICSID´s
decision about whether or not the Pacific Rim lawsuit falls under the
jurisdiction of the international court and can continue. The Salvadoran
government has already spent $5 million defending itself against the Pacific
Rim and Commerce Group lawsuits and this price tag has serious economic and
social implications for the people of El Salvador. Read more about the solidarity protest and the hidden costs of these
unjust lawsuits>>
The 20th
Anniversary of El Salvador's Peace Accords and the life of Martin Luther King
By Jim Wallace, speech given at the Salvadoran Consulate of New England
Today we commemorate two profoundly important events: The
life of Martin Luther King and the 20th anniversary of the signing of the Peace
Accords, January 16, 1992. Let me begin with some nearly forgotten words of
Martin Luther King, Jr., exactly one year before his murder. He spoke in the context
of the U.S. war against Vietnam. "As I have walked
among the desperate, rejected, and angry young men, I have told them that
Molotov cocktails and rifles would not solve their problems. I have tried to
offer them my deepest compassion while maintaining my conviction that social
change comes most meaningfully through nonviolent action. But they ask -- and
rightly so -- what about Vietnam? They ask if our own nation wasn't using
massive doses of violence to solve its problems, to bring about the changes it
wanted....” Read
more here>>
Connecting
Movements from Wisconsin to El Salvador,
Citizens Say NO to Mining
February
6, 2012
On
Thursday, January 26th the Wisconsin Assembly passed a bill that would make the
process of gaining iron mining permits in the state easier. The project
proposes an open pit mine that would stretch over 22 miles. The mine would
contaminate the Bad River Watershed, which is the main source of water for the
nearby city of Ashland and the wild rice beds of the Ojibwe Bad River
Tribe. The Ojibwe Bad River land is considered a sovereign nation and
they have signed treaties with the U.S. government that stipulate that the
Ojibwe resources will not be infringed upon. Violation of these treaties
can be considered an act of war. Read more here>>
Join the Sister Cities
Election Observation Delegation:
March 6th-14th, 2012!
Join
our delegation to accompany the CRIPDES communities during the March 11th,
2012 municipal and legislative elections. Participating in the Election
Observation Delegation is an exciting way to learn about the Salvadoran
political process, respond to the request for observers from our partners,
accompany the rural communities and advocate for free and fair elections. As
the first elections since the FMLN’s taking control of the executive, the 2012
elections will show the Salvadoran people’s support or disapproval of the
administration of President Mauricio Funes and determine the balance of the
legislative assembly and the legislation that will be passed in the next few
years. In addition, the March election will be the first elections in which new
electoral reforms like the inclusion of independent candidates and residential
voting will be implemented. Read more and sign up for the delegation>>
Removing the
Veil: El Salvador Apologizes for State Violence on 20th Anniversary
of Peace Accords
From
NACLA
On Monday morning, January 16, crowds gathered in the small community of El
Mozote to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the signing of the Peace Accords
that ended El Salvador´s 12-year-long civil war. El Mozote, in the rural
department of Morazán, is the site of a 1981 massacre of more than 1,000
civilians, primarily children, carried out by the Salvadoran Armed Forces. At
the solemn event, El Salvador’s first leftist president, Mauricio Funes, named
the military officers implicated in the horrific massacre, stating, we must
“remove the veil that has blinded us for three decades.” Read more here>>
Mining Ban: Good for the Grand Canyon, but Not for El
Salvador?
From the
Huffington Post
With patriotic fanfare, the Obama administration announced this week that it
would ban new uranium mining projects around the Grand Canyon. He pointed out
that millions of people depend on the Colorado River, which runs through the
Grand Canyon, for drinking water. "We have been entrusted to care for and
protect our precious environmental and cultural resources, and we have chosen a
responsible path that makes sense for this and future generations,"
Salazar said. Makes sense to me too. But too bad U.S. trade partners have to
worry that if they pursue similarly responsible stewardship, they could get
rewarded with a big fat corporate lawsuit. That's what has happened in El
Salvador, where the international corporation Pacific Rim
is suing the government for the right to mine the country's gold
resources. Like many in the Colorado River Basin, people in El Salvador are
concerned that mining could contaminate their drinking water. More than half
the population relies on one river, the Lempa. Pacific Rim is demanding
compensation of more than $77 million under the investor protections of the
U.S.-Central America Free Trade Agreement. Read more here>>
How El Salvador Joined the Occupy Movement
by
Alexandra Early. Originally posted on Counterpunch.org
At the
U.S. embassy here on Thursday (Nov. 24), Ambassador Carmen Aponte held a
gala Thanksgiving dinner for a select group of local and North American guests.
Outside the castle-like embassy compound, there were some uninvited visitors as
well. Nearly 100 Salvadorans and U.S citizens gathered to display our
solidarity with the global Occupy/Indignados movement in the first
Central American OWS-inspired protest. The demonstrators included university
students, environmental activists, and “gringos” (like myself) who work
with human rights and community development organizations based here in the
capital…We were all united around a common concern, namely the impact of
corporate globalization on working people here and in North America. Read more and see more press
coverage>>
Press, Pictures
and Stories from the Sister Cities 25th Anniversary Midwest Tour
From
October 3rd to October 19th, Sister Cities celebrated our
25th Anniversary out on the open road between the cornfields
visiting our committees in the Midwest. Sister Cities staff members were
accompanied by Agustin Menijivar, president of the CCR (the Chalatenango
regional wing of CRIPDES), and leader of the historic community or Arcatao;
Kenia Ortez, community leader in San Sebastian, the site of the Commerce Group
mine; and Estela Garcia, Salvadoran organizer and new Sister Cities staff
member. We gave several well received presentations about the Salvadoran national
reality and social movement at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, Ferris
University, Grand Valley State University, Northeastern Illinois
University,Newman University and the Dorothy Stang Popular Education High
School. We also spoke at community events, met with Congressional
representatives and represented Sister Cities at four Occupy encampments. Read more>>
In These Times
Magazine: Free Trade Deal in Action: Milwaukee Firm Seeks $100 Million From
El Salvador Govt.
For
working people, talk of free trade agreements tends to trigger fear of being
pitted against workers in low-wage nations—and being laid off. But another
critical dimension of free trade agreements and the race to the bottom has just
cropped up in Milwaukee. A multinational company named Commerce Group based in
the city is seeking to use the Central American Free Trade Agreement to
overturn El Salvador’s efforts to block pollution from its gold mine. Commerce
Group wants to win $100 million from the government of that poverty-stricken
nation, which has blocked the company from re-opening the mine. Read more>>
Sister Cities
& International Organizations: Climate Change and Hydroelectric Company to
Blame for Historic Flooding in the Bajo Lempa
October
26, 2011- As thousands of Salvadorans return to their homes and begin to
rebuild their lives after last week’s historic rain and floods, many officials
and civil society organizations in the region are blaming climate change for
the catastrophe and calling upon the government to respond appropriately.
Officials throughout Central American have attributed the extreme rain totals
to climate change. Raul Artiga of the Central American Commission on
Environment and Development (CCAD) stated, "Climate change is not
something that is coming in the future, we are already suffering its effects.” Read more>>
The is Sun Shining but the Crisis Has Not Ended
October
20, 2011- For the first time in 10 days the sun is shining on El Salvador and
the forecast calls for more sun in the upcoming days. But as President Funes
remarked “The emergency has not disappeared, the emergency continues, that is
why we have given instructions, as the central government, that every public
and private institution that is involved in these efforts keep working, because
we still have a lot of families to take care of.” Read
more>>
The Rain Continues in El Salvador
October
19, 2011- The crisis caused by a succession of tropical storms in Central
America grows as the rain continues to fall in El
Salvador. There have been 90 deaths reported in Central
America and over 700,000 people affected on a regional level. Read more>>
El Salvador Declares a State of Calamity in Response to
Tropical Storms
On
Monday El Salvador declared a State of Calamity in response to the topical
storms that continue to hit El Salvador and break records for the amount of
recorded rainfall. The amount of rain that fell during Hurricane Mitch in
1998 is only about 68% of the rain that has already fallen in the last week and
it continues to rain. Read more>>
El Salvador in
State of Emergency Due to Tropical Storm
El
Salvador declared a state of emergency on October 14th, due to flooding
from a Tropical Depression and rains that have continued for 12 days without a
break. Another Tropical Storm predicted for October 17th. At
present, 20,000 people nationwide are in shelters and 36 people have died in mudslides
or drowned in flooding. The storm has caused severe flooding in the CRIPDES
Regions of San Vicente, La Libertad and Northern San Salvador, as well as in
the regions of Achuachapan, La Paz, Sonsonate and Usulutan. Read more here>>
Social Policy
Magazine: Learning From 25 Years of Solidarity, Struggle, & Tortilla-Making
in El Salvador
This
summer, Sister Cities celebrates twenty-five years of cross-border solidarity
with the campesinos of El Salvador. Among other things, this milestone means
that North Americans visitors have been coming into rural communities and
trying their hand at making tortillas, a key element of any Salvadoran
meal.Inevitably our well-meaning gringo tortillas turn out square, burnt, too
thick, or too small — much to the amusement of our hosts. However, many of the
most informative and moving discussions with Salvadoran families occur at the
kitchen table and over the tortilla grill. In that setting, our obvious
culinary shortcomings are quickly overlooked, amid face-to-face conversations
about the past ordeals of civil war, the condition of local crops and roads,
the tragedy of forced emigration, and what North American and Salvadoran
communities can do together through an on-going cultural exchange that benefits
both partners. What flows from this and many other personal encounters is
a stronger mutual commitment to link struggles for social and economic justice
in our two very different but deeply intertwined countries. Read
more>>
The Nation
Magazine Reports: Like Water for Gold in El Salvador
In April 2011, writers John Cavanagh and Robin Broad visited El
Salvador to learn about the fight against metallic mining and the transnational
mining company Pacific Rim. Aided by Sister Cities staff they visited
communities in Cabañas, met with government officials, and talked with
anti-mining leaders throughout the country. In their August edition, The Nation
Magazine printed their powerful recount of the mining situation in El Salvador.
Read the article
here>>
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