www.Cispes.org May 17, 2013 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 and Salinas are both former military generals who retired […]
From May 10th to 13th, thirty activists from 12 different countries, including Canada, the U.S., Germany, Mexico, Ecuador, Guatemala and Honduras, participated in a fact finding mission in El Salvador to investigate the effects of gold mining on the environment, public health and social cohesion. The delegation was organized by the National Rountable Against Mining […]
Obama and the Militarization of the “Drug War” in Mexico and Central America May 7th, 2013 Written by Alex Main for the Center for Economic and Policy Research During his trip last week to Mexico and Costa Rica, President Obama sought to down play the U.S.’s security agenda in the region, emphasizing trade relations, […]
US Unions Join May Day March in El Salvador to Reject US Privatization Push www.Cispes.org SAN SALVADOR – An estimated 80,000 Salvadorans representing a wide array of labor organizations, university students, women’s organizations and anti-mining activists, among others, as well as the leftist Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN) political party, took to the streets […]
On Wednesday April 4th, the communities and organizations that make up the National Roundtable Against Metallic Mining held a press conference rejecting the actions of the company Pacific Rim, which recently increased it´s lawsuit against El Salvador from $105 million dollars to $300 million. The Mesa declared: “This lawsuit is an attempt to undermine the […]
WHAT: Salvadoran activists will travel to Canada and the US to garner support for their campaign to make El Salvador the first country to ban metal mining. The “Water Is More Precious than Gold” tour is part of a continent-wide public education campaign that is raising awareness about the negative impact of US/Canadian mining operations […]
March 14, 2013 by Gerson Chávez (Diario El Mundo), translation by Cispes.org A hundred unionists marched to the US Embassy in Santa Elena yesterday to demand that US Ambassador Mari Carmen Aponte cease pressuring for the passage of the Public-Private Partnership Law. According to Wilfredo Berríos, coordinator of the Salvadoran Union Front (FSS), approval of […]
February 14th, 2012 On Wednesday, February 6th, a special hearing was held for the 10 young leaders from the communities of El Progreso 3 and Santa Cecilia –members of the Movement of Popular Resistance (MPR-12) – who were accused of illicit association. Of the 10 young men, 8 were arrested early in the morning of […]
An Interview with Emerson Marroquín At 19 years old, Emerson is one of the eight young leaders arrested in the middle of the night on October 12th, 2012 in the communities of El Progreso 3 and Santa Cecilia, thrown in jail and accused of illicit association under the Law Against Organized and Complex Crimes. […]
We talk a lot here at Sister Cities about solidarity, emphasizing that our sister communities are working “in solidarity” with one another, but what does that mean? And even more important, what does it look like in practice? I arrived here in El Salvador on January 5th to start my six month volunteering adventure with […]