March, 2025: News updates from El Salvador. (Español Abajo) To read last month’s news update, click here. Capture of Human Rights Defender, Fidel Zavala: On February 26th, human rights defender Fidel Zavala, alongside 20 other community leaders and organizers, was arrested in La Floresta. Zavala, spokesperson for the Unidad de Defensa de Derechos Humanos y […]
(Español Abajo) In 2017, El Salvador approved a law banning metallic mining after a long struggle alongside various communities, environmental organizations, social organizations, and international solidarity. Ultimately, history was made as El Salvador became the first country to prohibit the practice of mining. More information can be found in The Guardian. US-El Salvador Sister Cities, […]
(Español abajo) As we enter a period of immense political difficulty in both the US and El Salvador, USESSC strives to keep our network informed on current events that impact our solidarity work. We will be establishing regular news summaries to update you on current events happening in both countries, as well as explain to […]
On November 27th, 2024, Bukele took to twitter to announce his support for a return to gold mining, stating that “God placed a gigantic treasure under our feet.” For El Salvador, the first country to ban metallic mining, this represents a significant and concerning policy shift. The lifting of the mining ban is widely opposed […]
Español abajo. As we welcome 2025, we want to take a moment to celebrate our successes in 2024. It was a big year here at US-El Salvador Sister Cities. We strengthened our network, hosted events, built international solidarity, and opposed injustices in both the US and El Salvador. Here are some of the highlights. We […]
(Español abajo) Check out this excerpt from El Sombrero Azul, the annual newsletter of the Binghamton-El Charcón Sister City Project. To read the entire newsletter, click here. Photo: Members of the Junta Directiva who replied to our questions: From left to right, Celia Quintanilla Valencia (Treasurer), María Concepción Barrera, and Claudia Guardado (President). The Faces […]
(Español Abajo) This fall, Sister Cities organized the 2024 Speaking Tour across the Midwest from October 6th to 27th. The topic for the 2024 tour was “Our Shared Struggle: Shaping a more just future through grassroots solidarity organizing in El Salvador and the US.” During our tour, we visited 7 cities: Austin TX, Lawrence KS, […]
(Español abajo) On November 5th, former President Donald Trump defeated Vice President Kamala Harris in the US presidential election. With 50.2% of the popular vote compared to Harris’ 48.2%, Trump’s win was a decisive comeback from his loss in 2020 (Associated Press). We know that a second Trump presidency will be felt across the country, […]
Read, Remember, Resist! Prior to traveling to El Salvador this past summer with a compañera from Philadelphia and a team from Madison, Wisconsin, I read Jonathan Blitzer’s Everyone Who is Gone is Here: The United States, Central America, and the Making of a Crisis. Six years had lapsed since my last delegation and I felt […]
(Español abajo) Photo above: a popular education workshop with USESSC in 2018. US-El Salvador Sister Cities is pleased to announce our 2024 Speaking Tour, which will take place in the midwest from October 6-27. The tour will be accompanied by Lorena Araujo, the current president of the Association for Development of El Salvador (CRIPDES), […]