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On Wednesday, March 26th at 8:30pm CST US-El Salvador Sister Cities with Witness for Peace Southwest will host a live video webinar to report from El Salvador on the March Presidential elections, with participation from Sister Cities staff and key leaders of the MPR-12 (Popular Resistance Movement). Marcos, Antonia, and Abel of the MPR-12 will report about the hopes for the future administration of the FMLN and about the threats posed by the right wing to oppose the election results.
Click this link to register for the webinar and for more information.
On March 9th, Salvadorans went to the polls for El Salvador’s second round of Presidential elections. The FMLN’s candidate, Salvador Sanchez Ceren, had a 10 point lead over the runner-up, but because he was one percentage point under the required 50%, a second round of voting was held on March 9th. The second round was too close to call at first, but with 100% of voting centers reporting, the FMLN candidate won by a margin of over 6,000 votes. Already the right wing ARENA party is refusing to recognize the results and calling for a Venezuela style opposition force to take to the streets. Hear from Salvadorans about this historic election and how we in the US can sow solidarity with the Salvadoran democratic proccess and learn about the exemplary ways that El Salvador is challenging issues like extractive mining, water privitization, free trade and the drug war.
This webinar will also report on how you can join a delegation to El Salvador this September ot learn how Salvadoran communities have resisted mining on a nationwide scale and how the FMLN government has pursued efforts toprotect El Salvador’s natural resources. The anti-mining delegation will take place September 15-22, 2014. For more information email sistercities.elsalvador@gmail.com.
The Popular Movement of Resistance of October 12 (MPR-12) alliance was formed on October 12th, 2002, in the heat of the protests against CAFTA and the the privatization of social services. It unites the Association for the Development of El Salvador (CRIPDES), the Foundation for Cooperation and Community Development of El Salvador (CORDES), the Association for Human Aid (PROVIDA), the Coordinating Association for Community Development (CCM), the Salvadoran Federation for Agrarian Reform (CONFRAS), unions and youth alliances.
The MPR-12 continues their united work on common struggles that threaten the sovereignty and integrity of the Salvadoran people. They work together to pass a Water Law, a Law that ban Metallic Mining in El Salvador, Tax Reform Law and a Food Sovereignty Law. They reject the privatization of public services, including the P3 Law approved in 2013 by the Salvadoran Congress as result of the pressure of the U.S. Government in order to approve the Millennium fund to El Salvador.
Marcos Galvez – President of CRIPDES – the Association for Communal Development of El Salvador:
CRIPDES is a nationally and internationally recognized grassroots organization with a base of approximately 300 rural communities in El Salvador, formed in 1984 in the midst of the armed conflict in El Salvador to assist refugees, displaced, and other war victims from the countryside suffering human rights abuses. A relationship with Sister Cities was formed and we, along with thousands of people in the United States, have tirelessly accompanied CRIPDES since then.
CRIPDES’ main objective is community, regional and national organization for policies, practices, and resources which promote increased access to development, basic services, employment, and improved living conditions for inhabitants of El Salvador’s countryside.
Abel Lara – President of CONFRAS – Confederation of Federations of the Agrarian Reform in El Salvador:
CONFRAS was founded in the 1980s. It was born out of the need to further land reform efforts following the Salvadoran civil war which began in 1979.
The organization focuses on five main areas: defending agricultural reform, promoting sustainable agricultural development based on a model of food sovereignty and gender equality, providing services to affiliates focused on social development and productive economics, influencing public policy to improve agricultural and rural development, and strengthening CONFRAS’s member organizations.
CONFRAS represents 107 cooperatives with a total membership of approximately 4,000 farmers. Those cooperatives in turn are organized into seven federations.
Antonia Viches – Board member of CCM – the Coordinating Association for Community Development:
CCM was founded 28 years ago during the Salvadoran civil war to assist internal displaced people of El Salvador to have access to land and housing. Since then, CCM have been working with communities, mostly in the urban marginalized areas from the San Salvador department. At the same time, Antonia is coordinating the Educational area of the MPR-12 to strengthen the generation of new leadership and political consciousness in the different organizations that conformed the MPR-12.
