In other news

An assortment of other news related to El Salvador this week:

• Democrats on the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee issued a report disclosing that when the Trump administration cancelled TPS for El Salvador and other countries, career diplomats recommended a 36 month transition period following cancellation before any deportations would start.  But some in the administration worried that date would fall just before the 2020 presidential elections, so the administration decided to grant only an 18 month period.   (Now that period is of indeterminate length because of an injunction delaying the termination of TPS in a case called Ramos v Nielsen).

• Speaking of Ramos v. Nielsen, El Salvador's Legislative Assembly agreed to award Crisitina Ramos, the lead plaintiff in that case, the "Order of Merit, 5th of November 1811, Hereoes of the Country's Independence."   The recognition of Ramos for her part in the lawsuit which obtained an injunction halting the termination of TPS for El Salvador and three other countries was a not so subtle swipe at president Nayib Bukele who has congratulated himself for obtaining a promise of a minimum transition period of one year if the injunction in the Ramos case is terminated.

• The judges in the case of the magistrate accused of sexual abuse of a 10 year old girl issued a written ruling to justify their decision, but it satisfied no one.  The judges said that because the magistrate "only" touched the girl through her clothing, for a moment, in a public space with other people around then he had only committed an offense against public decorum punishable with a fine and not prison.   Next step is an appeal by the prosecutors.

• The CICIES anti-corruption commission in El Salvador has a headquarters now and, of course, has a new Twitter account.   The CICIES has so far tweeted only once, but already has 11 thousand followers.

• Rhina Guidos at Catholic News Service has a profile of Massachusetts Congressman James McGovern reflecting on the impact on him of the Jesuits in El Salvador.  McGovern will be in El Salvador for the 30th anniversary of the massacre of six Jesuit priests, a domestic worker and her daughter on November 16.

• New exhumations in the zone around El Mozote uncovered more remains of victims this week. From AFP:  "The forensic team believes the find includes the remains of five children, one of them a three day-old infant, killed when soldiers tossed a hand grenade inside a nearby cave where people were hiding."

• El Salvador expelled diplomats of Nicolas Maduro's regime in Venezuela, and Maduro responded by expelling the Salvadoran diplomatic corps from Venezuela.   The FMLN, which has always marched uncritically in solidarity with first Hugo Chavez and now Maduro, criticized the move by Nayib Bukele, but Bukele got the praise he was seeking from Washington.