By Ana Lottis, Seattle CISPES
We gathered between April 9 and 11at The Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington: Over seventy of us,representing twenty-four organizations, with seven hundred years of combinedexperience as organizers and activists. We came from several Northwest cities –Portland, Olympia, Tacoma, Seattle, Bellingham, and Vancouver, B.C. – and ...
A new El Salvador Watch column highlighting progressive change in El Salvador’s social ministries Notoriously the most corrupt ofministries under ARENA party leadership over the last 20 years, the Ministry ofPublic Works has begun to truly fulfill its function under the new direction ofPresident Funes’ appointed minister, long-time FMLN leader ...
Remembering Romero: Thirty years later
May 24, 2010
I stood at the back of a small sanctuary, looking up the aisle toward thewooden pulpit. I imagined sitting in the pews, listening to Monseñor Romerogiving Mass. What had it been like for the congregants on the morning of March24, 1980, witnessing his murder? I was struck by a sense ...
By Leah Wilson From April 12th-16th,delegations from Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Norway, the UnitedStates, and Canada participated alongside El Salvador’s National RoundtableAgainst Metallic Mining (known as the Mesa)in an international conference entitled “Mining in Mesoamerica: SustainableDevelopment or a Threat to National Sovereignty?” The objectives of the conference – held in ...
Funes Administration, Human Rights Office Defend Autonomy ofNational University, Refuse Calls to Repress Student Occupation By J.L. Heyward On March 17, a two week long student shutdown of theUniversity of El Salvador (UES) ended with off-campus student negotiations andan agreement by the Minister of Education, Human Rights Office and the SuperiorCounsel of ...
El Salvador Watch, March 2010 CISPES newsletter
March 12, 2010
download the 2010 Spring El Salvador Watch newsletter here (aqui para la version del bolitin en español como PDF ) Or click below for the articles included in the March 2010 edition of El Salvador WatchContents: Obama Latin America Policy Short on “Change” Eighteen years later, President Funes moves forward ...
“They tried to defeat us but we intend to fight for life”
March 11, 2010
El Salvador WatchInterviews Hector Berríos, member of MUFRAS-32and the NationalCoalition against Metallic Mining The anti-mining movement in the department of Cabañas surgedin 2005 in response to Canadian mining company Pacific Rim’s proposal to reopenthe El Dorado gold mine in San Isidro as well as explore and extract gold atseveral other sites ...
Obama Latin America Policy Short on “Change”
March 11, 2010
By Josh Elliot, Olympia CISPES Since his inauguration, President Obama has been talkingabout seeking equal relationships with governments in Latin America. During theSummit of the Americas last April, Obama talked about respecting democraticallyelected leaders and the sovereignty of individual nations. In his openingremarks, he stated, “There is no senior partner and ...
Eighteen years later, President Funes moves forward with implementation of Peace Accords
March 11, 2010
By David Grosser, Boston CISPES Eighteen years after their original signing, the PeaceAccords that ended the civil war between the FMLN and the Salvadoran government(then headed by ARENA) are once again in the news. The new FMLN government ofPresident Mauricio Funes and Vice President Salvador Sánchez Cerén, has, sincetaking office in ...
East Coast CISPES Chapters Share Skills at Regional Training
March 11, 2010
by Eli Latto, Boston CISPES On a Saturday morning in early December, in a basement roomof the Borough of Manhattan Community College, twenty-five people in socks sitin a circle of desks. A girl holds up a pair of Doc Martens shoes, examiningthem for clues as to who their owner might be. ...