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 […]
February 4th, 2012 The National Roundtable Against Metallic Mining in El Salvador (La Mesa) reiterated in a press conference this morning its petition for the Salvadoran Government to introduce legislation to place a definite ban to metallic mining in the country. The call was made as a response to a recent report released by the […]
Thanks to the efforts of the Honduras Solidarity Network, 58 members of Congress signed the letter sponsored by Rep. Hank Johnson (D-GA) to Secretary of State Kerry and Attorney General Holder addressing concerns about human rights violations and the impact of U.S. counter-narcotics efforts on Afro-descendant and indigenous communities in Honduras. Below is the press […]
January 29th, 2013 On January 28th, 60 members of the Movement of Popular Resistance (MPR-12), international solidarity organizations and residents of the urban communities Santa Cecilia and El Progreso 3 gathered in front of the Specialized Chamber of Organized Crime more than month after the raid on Santa Ceclia and El Progreso 3 that resulted […]
On Sunday January 13th, 2013, Erik Vidal Martinez, a well know human rights defender and gay rights activist was assaulted and arrested by police while defending while defending patrons from police harassment at an LGBT bar in Tegucigalpa. Erick was released but his safety could be in danger because Honduran police are known for retaliation and […]
Contact the Foreign Policy Staffer in the Washington DC Office of Your Representative to Sign on to the Hank Johnson Dear Colleague Letter Today! On Monday, January 07, 2013, U.S. Rep. Hank Johnson (D-GA) circulated a House sign-on “Dear Colleague” letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Attorney General Holder addressing ongoing human […]