Category Archives: Politics

Miguel Mejia on CRIPDES’ raid

(La versión en español aquí)   Last year, on October 2nd, I sat down with Miguel Mejia from SALVAIDE. Then, we talked about april 19th, 1989, the day military forces raided the CRIPDES’ offices and captured him, then-president Isabel Hernandez and others. Our talk has been condensed for clarity.   We were in the middle […]

A letter to senators – Trump’s new ambassador

On april 3rd, Ronald Douglas Johnson got closer to be appointed as U.S. Ambassador in El Salvador. Our friend Joan Laurion, from the Madison-Arcatao Sister City Project (MASCP) shares a letter she sent to her congressman urging him to vote against it. You might also use it to reach out to your representative(s).   Dear […]

No to water privatization / No a la privatización del agua

(En Español abajo)   As done in the past, CRIPDES and the staff of Sister Cities joined the rally against water privatization initiatives outside the National Association of Private Companies (ANEP, in Spanish), who is trying to integrate a management body making decisions on water distribution and how much they would charge for it. ANEP’s […]

Sister Cities Invited to Talk About Family Separation

(Written by Rachel Dunlap) On June 20th, 2018, Sister Cities was invited to speak at a rally on family separation by our kind neighbors, NPR-12, after their guest speaker unexpectedly cancelled. Mario and I obliged. It was my first day in the office, and being notoriously bad at public speaking AND Spanish, I was nervous. […]

Dennis Chinoy

Bangor Committee Faces Local Mining Threat

Testimony to the Bureau of Environmental Protection re chapter 200 mining regulations 2016 Consider the prospect of an unremitting man-made catastrophe whose damaging effects persist longer than human life spans, or the life of a corporation, longer than the tenure of government administrations, but last for centuries.  Though man-made, the damage plays out in geologic […]

Legislative Candidates Speak Up on Environmental Platform

This morning the Environmental Alliance – made up of 5 environmental coalitions in El Salvador – invited Salvadorans to hear the environmental platforms of candidates to the Legislative Assembly from various political parties. Of the seven who were invited, only three showed up, a silence that spoke clearly to those present and to the thousands […]

The Desperate Choices Behind Child Migration

By Alexandra Early, originally published on www.counterpunch.org As someone who just returned from living and working in El Salvador, I’m still having a hard time adjusting to our mainstream media’s never-ending wave of know-nothing commentary on the subject of immigration.   A case in point is the column penned by New York Timescolumnist Ross Douthat on […]

MCC: El Salvador Does Not Meet Requirements

By Yolanda Magaña originally published April 9, 2014 in Spanish.   Unofficial translation   Representatives of the U.S. government reaffirmed yesterday that El Salvador does not meet three conditions to access Millennium Challenge Corporation Funds (MCC), the program known as Fomilenio II, which have to do with fighting money laundering, free trade and the investment […]

The 34th Anniversary Celebration March, Thursday March 6th.

34 Years of Agrarian Reform: A New Path Forward

On Thursday, May 6th, the MPR-12 member organization The Confederation of Federations of the Salvadoran Agrarian Reform (CONFRAS), celebrated 34 years since the first agrarian reform was approved and implemented in El Salvador. The following is a press release breifly detailing the history of the agrarian reform, the challenges that the Salvadoran agricultural cooperatives have […]

UN Press Release Concerning March 9th Elections

COBERTURA EN ESPAÑOL   (Unofficial Translation) The United Nations System in El Salvador, at the conclusion of the second round of presidential elections on Sunday, March 9, 2014 : 1)    Congratulates the Salvadoran population that exercised in mass their civic right to elect their highest authorities. This overwhelming support, which exceeded 60 % of the electoral […]