El Salvador Perspectives

Cane cutters take a break in El Salvador A photo essay by Ed Kashi in the Guardian shows the hard lives of sugar cane workers in El Salvador and Nicaragua and describes the problems of chronic kidney disease and some of the measures to combat the illness.

El Salvador's Human Rights Ombudsman David Morales went to El Salvador's Supreme Court on Monday, November 16, the 26th anniversary of the murder of 6 Jesuit priests, their housekeeper and her daughter.   Morales was there to file a petition asking the Court to rescind its prior order on extradition of 13 military officers to Spain.   A Spanish court has issued an arrest warrant to require those officers to face justice for the Jesuit massacre, but in 2012, El Salvador's Supreme Court refused the Spanish extradition request. Morales petition probably has no more than symbolic significance.  The Supreme Court has not changed its composition and is highly unlikely to reverse itself.   Also pending in front of the Supreme Court is a challenge to the 1993 amnesty law which has so far prevented the military command from being prosecuted in El Salvador.   That challenge has been pending for years with no sign that a decision is due soon. The crimes of El Salvado...

The question I receive from readers more than any other is whether it is safe to travel to El Salvador.   This question has come with more frequency this year as headlines have proclaimed El Salvador as the murder capital of the world.   My answer to this question is always  “Yes, if you are smart about it.” It’s worth starting with the language of the most recent Travel Warning from the US State Department: Tens of thousands of U.S. citizens safely visit El Salvador each year for study, tourism, cruise ship visits, business, and volunteer work. There is no information to suggest that U.S. citizens are specifically targeted by criminals; however, crime and violence are serious problems throughout the country. US State Department Travel Warning , June 22, 2015.  In the next sentence the Travel Warning goes on to state: Since January 2010, 34 U.S. citizens have been murdered in El Salvador including a nine-year-old child in December 2013. What is...

As El Salvador approaches the 26th anniversary of the massacre of the six Jesuit priests at the University of Central America on November 16, 1989, one of the country's award winning authors has just fled the country and sought asylum in Spain after receiving death threats.  Jorge Galán had just published " Noviembre " in October, which narrates the story of the massacre of the Jesuits, their housekeeper and her daughter and those figures in the military who were behind the crime.     On November 1, Galán was attacked by armed men who threatened and insulted him.   He is now seeking protection in Spain. Spain is the country where court proceedings are currently pending against twenty military officers of their involvement in the crime.   El Salvador is the country where those accused of the crime continue to walk free, safe from extradition and protected by an amnesty law and impunity from ever having to face justice.

Looking for any glimmer of improvement in the wave of murders which has hit El Salvador this year, Salvadorans heard from the PNC yesterday that "only" 139 people were murdered in the first ten days of November, for an average of 13.9 per day.   This compared to an average of 22.7 per day during October. While acknowledging this was a reduction, Howard Cotto of the PNC cautioned that it was too early to be labelled a trend.   While refusing to disclose particular police strategies, Cotto believes that actions by security forces are having a positive effect. At the same time, Cotto dismissed the idea that the reduction in homicides represented a response by the gangs to the call of the IPAZ churches for the gangs to cease their violent actions.  The churches, for their part, see the reduction in homicides as a response to their call for peacemaking. Cotto repeated the claim of the government that most of the victims and most of the killers were gang members.  ...

Former US president Bill Clinton was in El Salvador today.   He was there to visit initiatives supported by the Clinton Foundation and the Clinton Global Initiative.  The program in El Salvador trains small farmers in techniques they can use to grow produce sold at a living wage to supermarkets and elsewhere: Acceso Oferta Local – Productos de El Salvador has worked with 300 smallholder farmers and sources 42 different varieties of fruits and vegetables.  In November 2013, CGEP began working in El Salvador and replicated their successful supply chain enterprise model by creating Acceso Oferta Local – Productos de El Salvador. CGEP and Fundación Carlos Slim facilitated a total investment of $1.05 million to the enterprise, which currently operates in the highlands and in San Salvador, El Salvador. CGEP’s supply chain enterprise in El Salvador trains smallholder farmers and sources over 42 different varieties of fruits and vegetables for sale to Super Selectos, the la...

View image | gettyimages.com Salvadorans saw a historic event this week as ex-president Francisco Flores sat in a courtroom in San Salvador for a preliminary hearing on corruption charges.   Flores was president from 1999-2004. The hearing lasted two days and was covered by swarms of media. The prosecutor outlined his case.   In 2003, $15 million was received in checks made out to Flores form the Taiwan embassy,   The checks were taken to Costa Rica, where they were deposited in a newly created account for a supposed institute for political studies.   Of the $15 million, $10 was later distributed to Flores' political party, ARENA.    The other $5 million went into Flores own pockets.  The investigative reporters at El Faro published an exhaustive studying tracing the path of all the funds in October 2014 which you can read here . One of the checks from the Embassy of Taiwan to ex-President Francisco Flores One aspect of the he...