News updates

Here are some updates to previous posts in this blog:


Environmentalists robbed again.    Members of CEICOM, which has taken an active role against mining activities in El Salvador have been robbed again as they were on their way to an environmental action.   As in two previous robberies, the activists and journalists who accompanied them were robbed of laptop computers, video equipment and more.  They have issued a renewed call for investigation.

Schools open without teacher strike.   Despite talk of a teacher strike, public schools opened on schedule throughout El Salvador today.

World union leaders renew call for Soto murder investigation.  One of the first stories covered in depth on this blog was the 2004 murder of Gilberto Soto.   Soto was a prominent figure involved in organizing port drivers in the United States. He was visiting El Salvador on behalf of the Teamsters to meet with Central American trade union leaders and port drivers when he was shot and killed. The case was reopened in 2009 by Mauricio Funes.  Eighteen months later, no progress appears to have been made, prompting the International Transport Workers Federation issued statements calling on "Attorney General Romeo Barahona to appoint an official who is willing and able to effectively investigate the murder of Jose Gilberto Soto, as well as other killings by death squads.”

Court system strike.   Unions in El Salvador's court system continued to strike, but police dislodged them from the offices of the forensic medical examiner over the weekend, where cadavers had been stacking up without autopsies.   The strikers seem to have little backing in the country, and the FMLN came out publicly opposed to the strike.

UNHCR on kidnappings of migrants.   The United Nations Commission on Human Rights issued a statement expressing concern and calling for a vigorous search to find migrants from El Salvador and other parts of Central America kidnapped off a train in southern Mexico.   Between 40 and 50 migrants were kidnapped when a freight train they were riding was stopped by armed persons believed to be part of Mexican drug gangs.

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