Activists march for decriminalization in Argentina An evaluation of hemispheric drug policy was the central issue at last week’s 43rd General Assembly of the Organization of American States (OAS), which brought together representatives from 35 nations in Antigua, Guatemala, and marked US Secretary of State John Kerry’s first Latin American ...

President Funes swears in new officials in public security. On Tuesday, May 28, El Salvador’s President Mauricio Funes swore in José Ricardo Perdomo as Minister of Security and Rigoberto Trinidad Pleités Sandoval as Director of the National Civilian Police (PNC). The new officials replace the former Security Minister, retired General ...

Staff and volunteers at the Salvadoran consulate in L.A. help Salvadorans enroll in TPS. Yesterday (Thursday, May 30), the US Department of Homeland Security announced an 18-month renewal of its Temporary Protective Status (TPS) program for El Salvador. TPS was originally granted to undocumented Salvadorans living in the US in ...

"And, if Beatriz were your daughter, would it be illegal to save her life?" (Photo: Amnesty International) On Wednesday, May 29th, the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court of El Salvador ruled to deny Beatriz the therapeutic abortion her doctor’s say is necessary to ensure her life. Four of the ...

Photo: Diario CoLatino A new poll by the Jesuit Central American University (UCA) gives a significant advantage to the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN) party and its presidential candidate for the upcoming February 2014 elections, current Vice President Salvador Sánchez Cerén. The poll, published on Tuesday, May 28th, found that ...

Workers and university groups gather outside the Legislative Assembly to call on legislators to not approve the P3 law. On Thursday, May 23, amidst a renewed push by the US government for its approval, the Legislative Assembly passed the controversial Public-Private Partnership (P3) law with support from all political parties. ...

US Ambassador Mari Carmen Aponte publicly calls on Legislative Assembly to approve P3 law. On Monday, May 20th, the proposed Public Private Partnership (P3) law came up for debate in the Treasury Commission of the National Legislative Assembly in the wake of a mounting pressure campaign from the US government. ...

ARENA TSE magistrate Walter Araujo (left) and ARENA presidential candidate Norman Quijano (right) Walter Araujo, the magistrate representing the right-wing Nationalist Republican Alliance (ARENA) party on El Salvador’s Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE), has announced he will not support Norman Quijano, the ARENA candidate for the February 2014 presidential elections. Araujo, ...

Former generals Francisco Salinas and David Munguía Payés. Today, the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court ruled that the appointments of David Munguía Payés as Minister of Public Security and Justice, and Francisco Ramón Salinas as Director of the National Civil Police (PNC), violated the Constitution of El Salvador. Payés ...

"Beatriz has the right to live." On Tuesday, May 7, at the request of the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court, the Institute of Legal Medicine (IML) – the state forensics institute – released a medical evaluation of Beatriz that deemed she is not at risk of death, and that ...