El Salvador Perspectives

Al-Jazeera English has a good article  looking at the 1993 Amnesty Law which has prevented the prosecution of war criminals from the Salvadoran civil war.   The article talks about a "Yellow Book" illustrating the involvement of the Salvadoran armed forces in death squad activity: The new drive for justice has been fueled by the discovery of a military document called the Libro Amarillo, the 'Yellow Book' - a 254-page book produced by the Intelligence Department of the Estado Mayor Conjunto, El Salvador's military high command during the civil war. It is the first list of human targets assembled by the military high command during the war to ever be publicly revealed.  Since it was discovered in 2010, researchers have been carefully confirming the Yellow Book's authenticity and visiting the families of those in it, so the book is only now being revealed.  Assembled between 1978 and 1987, the book contains photographs of nearly 2,000 civilians that it id...

It is a sentence for violating US immigration laws, not for committing human rights abuses in El Salvador, but there is no doubt that this is the first prison term for a high ranking Salvadoran military officer related to human rights abuses during El Salvador's civil war. Colonel Inocente Orlando Montano was sentenced today for immigration violations in the US, and will face potential extradition to Spain to face trial for the murder of the Jesuits in 1989.   From the AP :  Human rights advocates called it a step toward justice Tuesday when a federal judge in Boston sentenced a Salvadoran ex-colonel to prison on separate charges as Spain attempts to prosecute him for war crimes during his country's civil conflict.  Inocente Orlando Montano will serve 21 months in a federal prison for immigration crimes, followed by a year of supervised release if U.S. government officials don't extradite him to Spain before then to stand trial for his alleged role in priest slaying...

I have updated my tracking chart of public opinion polls asking Salvadorans about their choices in the 2014 presidential election with recently released polls from Inmore Research , ARENA and Data Research . My rolling average of the last four polls released currently stands at: Sanchez Ceren -- 32.7% Norman Quijano -- 31.9% Tony Saca -- 20.7% As the tracking chart shows, poll results are varying quite a bit.  The variation is caused mostly by differences in who is doing the polling and how they do it, rather than changing preferences of the voters over time. As the dean of Salvadoran bloggers, Ernesto Rivas recently posted : So many discrepancies can only lead one to a conclusion. All surveys are false and that is regrettable, because they rob citizens of an important tool to decide how to vote and, what is worse, are deceiving them, to accomplish some goal. UPDATE -- UTEC-CIOPS published a new poll this morning which I have added to the tracking chart.

Twenty-two players from El Salvador's national football (soccer) team have been suspended for suspicion of involvement with fixing international matches.   From an AP report : El Salvador authorities raided the homes of 11 players on Thursday after the country's football federation suspended 22 players in an investigation into alleged match-fixing in games by the national team, including against the United States and Mexico.  Public prosecutors said the raids took place in six cities. Federal prosecutor Luis Martinez told Radio Nacional de El Salvador that computers, electronic tablet devices and cellphones were among the items seized during the raids. He said authorities will also try to gain access to the bank accounts of those involved, both locally and abroad.... El Salvador games under scrutiny include: a 5-0 Gold Cup loss to Mexico on July 5, 2011; a 2-1 loss to the United States on Feb. 24, 2010; a 4-1 loss to Paraguay on Feb. 6, 2012; and a 1-0 loss to D.C. Unite...

Today activists took to the streets of El Salvador yet again to demand that the National Assembly approve a proposed national water law designed to protect El Salvador's endangered water resources.  Want to know how long this struggle has been going on?   Check out my 20+  prior posts labeled with the tag "water."    One of the central organizations is the Foro del Agua, with a website at this link .

The InterAmerican Development Bank (IADB) announced this week a loan to El Salvador to use for tourism development along the country's Pacific coast.   From the IADB press release :   El Salvador’s Ministry of Tourism will receive a $25 million loan by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) to finance the development of tourism attractions in the La Libertad and Usulután coastal regions.   Tourism is a young but dynamic sector in El Salvador, as the number of hotels and restaurants grew by 30 percent over the past seven years, and the number of international tourist arrivals climbed to 1.25 million in 2012. Domestic tourism accounts for over 4 million trips a year.   However, most of the country’s beaches and other coastal attractions lack the infrastructure required to increase the number of overnight visitors or to treat wastewater generated by such activities. The national development plan has made tourism a priority to improve job opportunities....

One of El Salvador's top military leaders during the Salvadoran civil war faces sentencing for immigration violations in the US, and potential extradition to Spain to face trial for the murder of the Jesuits in 1989. The BBC has a lengthy article on the charges facing former Colonel Inocente Orlando Montano: The commander of one of El Salvador's notorious death squads, active during the 1980-92 civil war, could soon become the first top-ranking Salvadoran officer to face trial for murder. But if so, he will be tried in Spain, not his own country, where an amnesty protects even those guilty of atrocities against civilians. Inocente Orlando Montano was quietly working in a sweet factory in Massachusetts in May 2011, when he and 19 others were indicted by a Spanish court for their alleged role in the 1989 murder of six Jesuit priests, along with their housekeeper and her teenage daughter. Five of the priests - outspoken critics of El Salvador's military regime - were ...