El Salvador Perspectives

The online newspaper El Faro has reported that there is a split in the executive board which oversees the projects funded by dollars from the US Millennium Challenge Account. The division arises from the concern of certain members of the council that president Tony Saca is using announcement of various projects of the Millennium fund for propaganda purposes. These dissenting members are the representatives of the NGOs and the private sector who sit on the board. The governmental members who are on the board continue to support Saca. Two comments: 1. No one should be surprised. 2. The Salvadoran people have seen such self-promotion by the current government often enough that they recognize it for what it is.

The National Labor Committee describes its mission as helping "defend the human rights of workers in the global economy. The NLC investigates and exposes human and labor rights abuses committed by U.S. companies producing goods in the developing world. [The NLC] undertakes public education, research and popular campaigns that empower U.S. citizens to support the efforts of workers to learn and defend their rights." As part of that mission, the NLC recently published on its website a denunciation of the treatment of workers at a maquila garment factory in El Salvador owned by Youngone S.A. , where expensive jackets under the North Face brand are sewn. Youngone is a South Korean company listed on the Korea stock exchange which operates garment factories in Bangladesh, El Salvador and elsewhere. Here is the report summary: Women in El Salvador sewing $165 jackets for North Face and $54 shirts for Eddie Bauer cannot afford milk and other basic necessities for their children...

The most recent public opinion poll from the Institute for Public Opinion at the University of Central America shows the FMLN leading voters' preferences for president, legislators and mayors in the elections which are still 7 to 9 months away. The lead is greatest in the presidential race where the FMLN ticket headed by Mauricio Funes leads Rodrigo Avila, the ARENA candidate, by 42.1% to 26.1%: The opinion poll shows that voters are ready for a change. When asked whether ARENA should continue governing the country, 62.7% answered "no.": The IUDOP report describes the survey results on a wide variety of other topics showing the view of El Salvador's citizens on the economy, security, the government, and their own sense of well-being. The predominant message of the poll is that Salvadorans believe that their lot in life is getting worse and the government is doing nothing to help them.

Students from the School of Business at UC Berkely are in El Salvador to learn and provide assistance working with SalvaNatura , a Salvadoran NGO whose mission is to conserve and protect the ecosystems in El Salvador's (few) protected natural areas. Their blog describes how they will be working in the area of "sustainable certifications": In addition, we have come to understand how sustainable certifications such as Rainforest Alliance complement SalvaNATURA’s other services, which include managing national parks, conducting environmental research, and providing environmental education programs. For our client, the challenges are immense. The organization is dedicated to the preservation of the environment and natural areas of El Salvador, a country with 98% deforestation. Yet the opportunities are immense as well, especially given the growing demand for certified products like coffee from consumers, farmers, as well as international companies such as Kraft , McDonal...

A computer file purportedly discovered on a laptop computer at a guerrilla camp in Ecuador, has bloggers in El Salvador wondering what impact it will have and what impact it should have on the upcoming elections in their country scheduled for March 2009. The laptop computer was taken in the Colombian army's raid on the camp of FARC guerrillas in Ecuador . In that raid the number two man of the FARC, Raul Reyes, was killed, and his computer seized. The furor in El Salvador started when the Spanish newspaper El Pais disclosed [es] that one document on the computer referred to a Salvadoran making an introduction in 2007 from the FARC to Australian arms dealers. The Salvadoran named was Luis Merino, a senior official of the left-wing Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN) and member of the Central American parliament. The conservative press in El Salvador played up the story with prominent pictures showing Merino beside the FMLN's presidential candidate Mauricio Fu...

As soaring food prices lead to hunger, the UN World Food Program sponsored a march against hunger and malnutrition in the streets of San Salvador on Sunday. Participants of the march included leaders of social organizations, diplomats, professors, students and workers, said reports . Carlos Scaramella, a WFP representative in El Salvador, said the march was designed "to create a movement of global solidarity for the fight against hunger and malnutrition." "It's very important to join this movement due to the threat ... of rising food prices in the world," he said. La Prensa Grafica has a photogallery of the march at this link . Remember -- the problem of food and hunger in the world is not that there is not enough food to feed everyone. The problem is distribution and the ability to pay for that food. For continuing coverage of the global food crisis, go to the special coverage at Global Voices .

The crisis in world food prices is having a real impact on El Salvador's poor, especially those poor families in rural areas. The rise in prices of basic food stuffs was recently documented in a report issued by the Center for Defense of the Consumer . That report found: Among Guatemala, Nicaragua, Honduras and El Salvador, El Salvador had the highest price for corn, a price which has gone up 39% in the past year. In Guatemala and Nicaragua, the price of corn actually decreased over that time period. Although El Salvador had a record harvest of beans in the last season, the price of beans went up 60% in the past 12 months. The price of rice went up 66% in the past 12 months. El Salvador had the highest price among those 4 countries. The cost of a basic family's market basket of goods has gone up 21% in rural areas and 14% in urban areas during that time. The result is hunger. An article by Raul Guttierez on the IPS news service expands on the problem: World Food Programm...