Quick news items of the week

  • Another Salvadoran soldier dies in Iraq. A Salvadoran soldier who was guarding a convoy of trucks of the US contractor Haliburton, was killed in an insurgent attack. Sub-sergeant Donald Alberto Ramirez is the fourth member of the Salvadoran armed forces to be killed in Iraq since El Salvador deployed troops there in 2003, and the second in nine days. El Salvador has about 380 soldiers in Iraq. The recent deaths are leading to renewed calls to recall the troops.

  • The murder rate in El Salvador continues to climb. According to official statistics, there were 1873 murders in the first six months of 2006, an increase of 130 over the same period in 2005. Eighty percent of the murders were committed with firearms.

  • Heavy rains cause flooding in the capital. El Diario de Hoy has a photo gallery of images of flooding in San Salvador earlier this week. The images recall the flooding from Hurricane Stan last October and illustrate that the government has not yet been able to make all the improvements necessary to handle storm waters.

Comments

Hodad said…
yes, flooding here is pretty bad but
4hours tropical downpour yesterday but..
what a lovely weekend for myself and my 'gringa ' girlfriend, here for the first time from Hickory, NC
we visited
Cerro Verde Park [great place, short and longer hikes, well informed guides],
a beautiful place called NAMTAL on the rim of Lago Coatepeque...
exquisite lodging and the owner, a London educated Chef, Veronica Navarro,
and then down to the lake
then we went by a lovely very first grade arqueological area with Mayan Ruins plus a museum-exibits area called San Andres,
well done and highly recommended as 40 minutes from the city and very tastefully laid out, even a small amphitheater
yes, lots of rain and some flooding, but still quite lovely here and less hot than the USA especially at 3500 ft.
Peace
SenorPescado
Anonymous said…
This is a blasphemy! How dare the government say that our troops are performing "humanitarian" work when one of our soldiers is dead providing protection to one of the biggest devils in the world!? So our troops are nothing more than bodyguards to the rapacious corportations that have the intentions on defiling Irak for their own twisted purposes. I spit on our stupid government, nothing more than pimps and whores doing anything for money!
Basta de Casaca said…
The Bush administration is the pimp, and the puppet government of Toño Saca is the whore.
Shame on them! I shit on them - they deserve no respect.
Anonymous said…
If we didn’t want to participate in the difficult job of nation building, we should have thought about that before we attacked Iraq. El Salvador helped invade Iraq and is now required by international law and basic common decency to help rebuild the country.

Halliburton is contracted by the U.S. government to provide humanitarian aid. Whether or not Halliburton is being overpaid for this service is between the U.S. and Halliburton. Whatever you think of the initial war, the fact remains that El Salvador and the U.S. overthrough the government of Iraq. They cannot now leave the country in chaos. International law requires these countries to govern the country they attacked until a stable handover is possible. The country is still clearly not governable. For El Salvador to leave Iraq now would be a moral and legal outrage.