Spanish paper -- US knew of attack on Jesuits in advance

As readers of this blog know, legal proceedings are currently advancing in Spain against participants in the 1989 murders of the six Jesuits. In that proceeding, documents from the US government files, some of which were previously classified, are being submitted to the Spanish court. The Spanish newspaper El Mundo has examined those documents, and reports that the documents have proof that the US government knew in advance what the Salvadoran military was planning:

EL MUNDO has learned that among the papers that will be submitted to the Audiencia Nacional there is information which documents, in a direct manner, that the military chief at the U.S. Embassy in El Salvador, Col. Milton Menjivar, and a senior U.S. State Department official knew what the Salvadoran military high command was planning against the rector of the UCA.

I have not seen the documents, nor has any other news source reported on their contents. Assuming the paper's report is right, this is a major new revelation, suggesting at best that the US had little influence over the actions of the Salvadoran military and, perhaps, that the US government was complicit in the murders by its willful inaction.

Without seeing the documents, and since the El Mundo article is quite silent about the actual language of the documents, I think we have to wait and see if there is verification of this charge.

One new document which El Mundo and ContraPunto did publish is a handwritten memo of a meeting of the Armed Forces General Staff, on November 15, 1989, the day before the murder of the Jesuits:


The memo shows General René Emilio Ponce gave the order to proceed to the "elimination" of Ignacio Elacuria, "without witnesses."

Documents from the US government files were collected by the National Security Archive, and have been utilized in the Spanish court proceeding:

MADRID – Declassified CIA documents show that the 1989 massacre of six Jesuit priests in El Salvador followed three days of planning by senior Salvadoran military officers, an expert witness said on Tuesday before Spain’s National Court, which is hearing a case brought on behalf of the slain clerics.

The documents were introduced by Terry Karl, professor of Latin American studies at California’s Stanford University, who said the probe of the Jesuits’ murder must be pursued “to shatter the impunity that still exists in El Salvador.”...

Plaintiffs’ attorneys said the documents submitted to the court on Tuesday show that Salvadoran senior officers began planning the assassination of Ellacuria and his comrades on Nov. 13, 1989.

They said the package includes the record of a meeting between Cristiani and the then-defense minister, Gen. Rafael Humnero Larios, at general staff headquarters – “just 500 meters (yards)” from the UCA administration building – the night before the massacre.

Funes and Obama -- the parallels

In 2009, both Mauricio Funes and Barack Obama assumed power following presidential campaigns featuring themes of hope and change. Now the two presidents face similar challenges, challenges which make it difficult to meet the high expectations their campaigns created.

Both Funes and Obama are waging wars which they inherited from previous administrations. Obama has the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, where he is currently deciding how many thousands of additional US troops to send into the area. Funes has the war against criminal violence and murders, where he has recently made the decision to send thousands more troops into the streets in high crime areas.

Both Funes and Obama lead countries strongly hit by the world financial crisis. Poverty and unemployment have increased in both their countries, and they have electorates who want their presidents to do something to correct the situation. Yet both presidents face economic forces which are greater than their governments' ability to correct.

Both Funes and Obama took over the presidency from prior conservative administrations. Both presidents have constituencies in their parties which are farther to the left on the political spectrum than their president. The left wing of the Democratic Party and the hard liners of the FMLN may feel disappointment that their candidate has been more moderate than their dreams.

Both Funes and Obama enjoyed high initial approval ratings within their countries. But Obama's are slipping as he finds that promising change and accomplishing change are two different things. Funes still enjoys high approval ratings, but they will start to fall if the problems of the economy and crime do not begin to improve.

For both Funes and Obama, we will probably measure their success by the next presidential election. Can Obama earn a second term? Can Mauricio Funes (who is limited to a single term as president) promote the FMLN to successive terms in power? Despite their best efforts, events and forces outside of their control may determine the answers.

The San Vicente landslides seen from space

Dave's Landslide Blog has shown where you can now see satellite images showing the paths of landslides and flooding on the slopes of the San Vicente volcano. The images show the paths of landslides by showing where vegetative cover was ripped away by the cascade of mud down the slopes.

The best images probably come from the satellite resources coordinated at disastercharter.org:




More images are here.

Mary O'Grady continues her right wing nonsense

In the midst of important stories coming out of El Salvador, like the flooding and the deployment of troops on the streets, I postponed commenting about an editorial by Mary Anastasio O'Grady in the Noveber 8, 2009 Wall Street Journal. Her editorial, titled Chavez's Next Target: El Salvador continues her history of right-wing diatribes involving the country. After praising the de facto government in Honduras which deposed democratically elected president Manuel Zelaya, she goes on to write:

Speculation about such political machinations increased last month when 12 Arena congressmen announced a break from their party. Calling themselves "independents," they proceeded to vote with the FMLN against an investigation Arena wanted into abuses of agricultural subsidies.

What prompted the defection? [Former president Alfredo] Cristiani told me that a high-ranking member of the Christian Democratic Party (PDC) has told him that at least one PDC congressman has been offered $700,000 to vote with the FMLN. Separately, the secretary general of the PDC, Rodolfo Parker, has publicly warned of multiple offers from a middleman of between $300,000 and $500,000.

Mr. Saca denies any involvement in the vote-buying scheme, and surely Mr. Merino has enough motivations to act on his own. But rumors are swirling in the Salvadoran press about links between individuals close to Mr. Saca and alleged middlemen acting on behalf of Mr. Merino.

The Arena defection is no ordinary betrayal of the electorate. In Salvador voters choose a party ticket. Congressmen are named according to how many votes the party gets. These congressmen were not elected as individuals but rather as representatives of the elected party. With their votes the FMLN is now only one or two votes short of a two-thirds majority. If it gets that majority, the party can tell the moderate Mr. Funes what to do. Then Chávez acolytes will be well on their way to winning what their bedfellows could not in Honduras.

You might have thought that this fear-mongering about El Salvador becoming a puppet state of Venezuela would have ended with the shut down of ARENA's propaganda machine after the March elections, but not so for O'Grady. She consciously decides not to mention Funes 84% approval rating, the decidedly moderate measures taken by the government in the past 5 months, and the repeated statements by the FMLN leadership that they support Funes and have no difference in opinion with him. Sometimes when I see someone spouting such nonsense, I can't resist responding.

Pacific Rim's fight against El Salvador

The Canadian gold-mining company Pacific Rim sent out a press release this week stating that the lawsuit it has brought against El Salvador is moving forward now that three arbitrators have been selected.:

An arbitration case brought by Pacific Rim Mining against the government of El Salvador will move ahead, as the arbitration tribunal has now been constituted, the company reported on Thursday.

Pacific Rim embarked on arbitration proceedings because of the government's failure to issue permits for the company's El Dorado project, three years after Pacific Rim submitted a mine design to authorities.

The company claims the government has breached international and Salvadoran law in its “improper failure to finalize the permitting process as it is required to do and to respect the company's and the enterprises' legal rights to develop mining activities in El Salvador”.

The company hopes it will face better success in an international business arbitration under DR-CAFTA than it has had in fighting the grass roots movement against mining in El Salvador. Recently members of the Roundtable Against Mining (la "Mesa"), were in Washington, D.C., to receive a human rights award for their efforts. You can watch a video report from the Real News Network which describes the award and the background of the dispute between Pacific Rim and El Salvador:


Video

Troops take to the streets

An additional 2500 troops are out on the streets in high crime areas of El Salvador. But will they reduce violent crime? IPS looks at the issue:

So far this year, there have been 3,673 murders in this country of 5.8 million people - 494 more than in the same period in 2008, according to police statistics.

The novel aspect of the measure is that soldiers will now be allowed to carry out searches and arrest people, and to set up checkpoints on the roads - something that hadn't been seen since the 1980-1992 civil war, in which 80,000 people - most of them civilians - were killed, mainly by government troops and far-right paramilitaries.

"The armed forces will be able to search houses, frisk people, set up checkpoints, and arrest people caught red-handed," said Funes.

"Of course they will not hold onto the suspects, who will be handed over to the National Civil Police, and the armed forces will have to document each arrest, so that they do not break any laws," he added....

[M]ost people in San Salvador would appear to support the measure, to judge by reactions gathered by the media, as well as opinion polls.

According to a survey by the El Diario de Hoy newspaper, published Nov. 3, 93 percent of respondents backed the decision to put troops on the streets to fight crime. (more).

Five years of blogging

Today is the 5th anniversary of the start of Tim's El Salvador Blog.

I'm in El Salvador as I write this post, having just participated in the commemorations of the murder of the Jesuits and the subversive cross. I'm also here to understand more of the country's needs following the floods of a week ago.

This trip captures many of the themes which have been part of the blog over the years -- the legacy of the civil war, how justice can prevail over impunity, and El Salvador's vulnerability to natural disasters from hurricanes to earthquakes and volcanoes. As our group chooses when and where to travel, I am mindful of El Salvador's surging crime problem, while at the same time appreciating the beauty of the countryside which made El Salvador one of Lonely Planet's top 10 countries to visit. The elections of 2009 probably used up more of the 1400 posts I have written than any other topics, elections which resulted in the historic peaceful transfer of power to the country's first left-wing president.

Thanks to everyone who has participated by commenting on the blog, by sending me a suggestion, or recommending the blog to a friend. The next 5 years of the blog starts today.

One cross, two stories

ONE CROSS, TWO STORIES



This is a story about two crosses

in San Salvador. One is a cross made from

houses destroyed in the earthquake,

el terremoto. The other is the cross



that hangs by the musicians

in the Lutheran Church of the Resurrection.

This cross is the subversive cross,

La cruz subversiva. Both crosses



Come from Medardo Gómez,

the Bishop who pastors the church.

The Bishop calls the cross made

from ruins, the Cross of Life—



No es la cruz de la muerte, he says.

It’s not the cross of death.

The Subversive Cross is the cross

that went to prison. The Cross of Life



is for the Church, maybe for the library.

The Subversive Cross is for the heart,

it has other work to do. Bishop Gómez

ministers to refugees from the war,



He says he’s a refugee himself.

He says we’re all beggars.

Medardo es El Obispo de la Paz,

The Bishop of Peace, he calls his Church



a prophetic Church. Now, during the time

of this telling, a guard has been killed

at the Lutheran University. Medardo says

it wasn’t just murder, it was Death Squads, again.



Los escuadrones de la muerte, that operated

more openly during the time of the war.

The Death Squad murder of the guard

triggers the Bishop’s memory



of the Cruz Subversiva, the cross in prison.

It was November 16, 1989. Six Jesuits killed,

two co-workers dead and burned typewriters.

Then they came to get me.

·

There were pastors

from Europe and North America

acting as my shields. I went into exile

in Guatemala. They bombed my church

two times. When they couldn’t find me

they took the people in the church. 15 of them.

They took them captive. 12 foreigners,

and three people from my church.

They took my cross to prison, too.



This cross is subversive.

The cross, together with the 15,

were taken by the police.

They committed a great error here,

carrying this cross and those people to jail.

This abuse of power manifested itself

on the cross. The nation’s sins were written

on the cross to teach us and to make us

a prophetic church of liberation.

The error of imprisoning the cross

teaches us of the crimes committed

against the pueblo by the leaders.

The cross only looks passive.



Two months passed with me in exile.

Other pastors from other countries came

and accompanied me to the police.

The North American ambassador came to see me.

I saw this as an opportunity to liberate the cross.

The ambassador talked to the president

who had it delivered to the Presidential Palace.

The President then brought it to me at the Church.

I’ve got a photo of him giving it to me

pinned to the cross itself. See for yourself.

The pilgrim cross made the journey

from the carcel to the Presidential Palace

before coming home. Por eso le decimos ahora

la cruz subversiva.This is why

we call it the subversive cross.



·



Outside the Church where the Jesuits

Were slain, are these words cast in bronze

In letters 12-inches high:

Con este pueblo

No cuesta ser

Buen pastor.

With our people

There is no cost

To being a good pastor.



Giving us the cross and the stories

in the cross, Medardo sings Tantas cosas,

So many things.

There is only one cross and it’s a cross of life.

The refugees and those in the margins

have been forgotten.

Nuestro pan de cada día, our daily bread,

Crosses only look passive, Medardo says.

This cross is an invitation to walk with the poor,

he says, the job remains the same,

liberate all crosses.





Jim Bodeen

San Salvador—Yakima

February-March, 2005

The Subversive Cross

On November 16, 1989, that same fateful day in El Salvador when the Jesuits were murdered, Lutheran Bishop Medardo Gomez was also targeted by the military. For Bishop Gomez and his Lutheran church were also voices who denounced the injustice they saw in Salvadoran society. They were deemed to be subversives by the government for siding with the poor and doing such radical things as operating a refugee camp for families fleeing the armed conflict, or for teaching the poor that they were entitled to equal human rights with the rich and powerful.

You know the government's view of your church when it sets up a machine gun post directly across the street from your church, your church named Resurrection Church – the church of Easter, and the machine gun is always aimed at the front door of the church.

A few weeks before November 16, 1989, in a special service of reconciliation, the congregation of Resurrection Lutheran Church in San Salvador was asked to lay the sins of their country upon a symbolic cross. A simple wooden cross, painted white, was placed at the front of the church. In ones and twos, congregation members came up to the cross, took a black marker, and wrote the sins on the cross, such as persecution of the church, hunger, discrimination against women, ambition for power, murder and violence. As they identified the sins of their country and their people, they also committed themselves to work toward forgiveness, and to be strengthened for liberation. The cross also carries messages of hope and love, as a testimony to the transforming power of God. After the reconciliation service, the cross remained as a symbol within the church.

On the same day when the six Jesuit priests were murdered by elite Salvadoran troops, soldiers arrived at Resurrection Church looking for Bishop Gomez. Their search did not find Bishop Gomez, but they did find that simple white cross. Bishop Gomez had managed to flee and get to safety in the German embassy and subsequently found refuge in Milwaukee. Rather than capturing the bishop, the troops arrested 15 people, and took possession of the cross and took it away to the army compound. Presumably the soldiers thought this cross was evidence of the subversive activity going on in the Lutheran church.


And as the Salvadoran Lutheran Church tells the story, the cross, with its powerful words, bore witness to those army troops as it stood in their barracks. It spoke to their hearts about the sins committed by the army during the civil war.

Following his return to El Salvador, Bishop Gomez and international partners petitioned the government for the return of the cross. And with some assistance from the US Ambassador, the cross made another journey – this time from the army quarters to the presidential residence, El Salvador's White House. And the cross continued to bear silent witness regarding to the evil and the need for reconciliation in El Salvador – this time in the seat of power of the country.

Finally the call came, the president of El Salvador, Alfredo Cristiani, a man from the political party which sponsored the death squads, wanted to return the cross. And Bishop Gomez received the cross back to Resurrection Church, where a picture of Cristiani with the bishop hangs by the cross.

Today that cross, the "Subversive Cross," continues to have a powerful significance. Many, many people who have traveled to El Salvador and visited Resurrection Church have learned the story and have been inspired by this simple white cross and all it symbolizes. On the twentieth anniversary of the soldiers taking the cross into captivity, the Salvadoran Lutheran church turns once again to the Subversive Cross to inspire and guide its work struggling for justice for the poor and dispossessed in Salvadoran society.

Resources for learning about the Jesuit murders

In commemoration of the 20th anniversary of the murder of the Jesuits on November 16, here is a list of resources

• UN Truth Commission Report -- section on Jesuit murders
  
  
• Interim Report of the Speaker's Task Force on El Salvador (the "Moakley Report"), April 30, 1990
  
  
• Final Statement of the Speaker's Task Force, November 18, 1991
  
  
• Lawyer's Committee on Human Rights Report: The Jesuit Case, September 1991.
  
  
• Website -- Center for Justice and Accountability -- currently prosecuting Jesuit case in court in Spain.
  
  
• Website -- Enemies of War, a PBS documentary about the Jesuit murders and their aftermath.
  
  
• Book -- Paying the Price, Ignacio Ellacuria and the Murdered Jesuits of El Salvador, Teresa Whitfield 1994



• Article -- "Leave No Witnesses!" ... on the murders in El Salvador, the trial, and the hope for justice

Not so natural disasters

The tragedy of this week's floods and landslides is not just a natural disaster. It's a man-made disaster as poverty and marginalization lead people to build homes in at-risk areas and the government has failed for years to invest in risk mitigation projects. A recent article from IPS makes the point:

In a nationally broadcast address Sunday night, Funes said "the drama we are experiencing is the product of the precarious conditions in large swathes of the country due to the lack of buffer zones and risk prevention efforts, which have been demanded for years but were never made," said Funes, referring to 20 years of government by the right-wing Nationalist Republican Alliance (ARENA).

Funes, who took office in June, is the first leftist president in the history of El Salvador.

"This is a story that repeats itself every winter. But there has to be an end to this, once and for all," said the president, who declared a national emergency to mobilise state resources to assist the victims of the flooding and landslides and begin reconstruction work.

Environmentalist Ángel Ibarra, president of the Unidad Ecológica Salvadoreña (Salvadoran Ecological Unit, or UNES), cited a World Bank study which estimates that 90 percent of the population lives in areas at high relative risk of death from two or more natural hazards.

But Ibarra said the problem of natural disasters is magnified in the country because of the serious environmental deterioration on one hand, and the lack of policies to pull people out of poverty and social exclusion on the other.

Most of the victims of catastrophes like flooding and mudslides are poor people who live in shacks in dangerous areas along riverbanks or hillsides.

He also told IPS that El Salvador lacks adequate disaster prevention and preparedness policies. "When these problems happen, it's always as if it were the first time. We have a 'picking up the dead' policy. We only react after something happens."

So although El Salvador, located on the earthquake-prone Ring of Fire and in the path of hurricanes, frequently suffers natural disasters, followed up by reports calling for an improved early warning system and other prevention measures, the system rarely functions when it is needed.

"We also suffer from socio-environmental and institutional vulnerability," added Ibarra, pointing to the dearth of coordination between the different state agencies. (more)

Remembering the names of the martyrs

Too often when we write about the murders which happened 20 years ago on November 16, 1989, we just refer to the "6 Jesuits, their housekeeper and her daughter." As people around the world commemorate them this weekend, let us remember these martyrs of El Salvador's civil war by name:

• Father Ignacio Ellacuría, 59, was since 1979 rector of the UCA, and an internationally-respected intellectual and advocate for human rights and a negotiated solution to the Salvadoran civil conflict;
  
  
• Father Ignacio Martin-Baro´, 44, was the vice rector of the UCA, a leading analyst of national and regional affairs, the founder and director of the respected polling organization, the Public Opinion Institute, former Dean of Students, Dean of the Psychology Department, an internationally renowned pioneer in the field of social psychology and pastor of the rural community of Jayaque;
  
  
• Father Segundo Montes, 56, was Dean of the Department of Social Sciences and a sociology professor at the UCA, and the founder and director of the Human Rights Institute at the UCA (IDHUCA), who did extensive work on Salvadoran refugees in the United States during the period of the Salvadoran conflict, including providing documentation and advice to United States Members of Congress on refugee issues;
  
  
• Father Amando López, 53, was a philosophy and theology professor at the UCA, former director of the Jesuit seminary in San Salvador, and served as pastor of the Tierra Virgen community in Soyapango, a poor neighborhood in the periphery of San Salvador;
  
  
• Farther Juan Ramón Moreno, 56, was a professor of theology at the UCA, former novice-master for the Jesuits, and a tireless pastoral worker and spiritual guide;
  
  
• Father Joaquín López y López, 71, was one of the creators of the UCA and the founder, organizer, and director of Fe y Alegrı´a (Faith and Joy) to address the lack of education in El Salvador, which opened 30 educational centers in marginalized communities throughout the country where 48,000 people received vocational training and education;
  
  
• Julia Elba Ramos, 42, was the cook and housekeeper for the Jesuit seminarians at the UCA and wife of Obdulio Lozano, the UCA gardener and groundskeeper;
  
  
• Celina Mariset, 16, had finished her first year of high school at the Jose´ Damian Villacorta Institute in Santa Tecla, El Salvador, and was staying with her mother the night of November 15, 1989.

Despues de las tormentas - after the storms

This video from El Faro makes a statement more powerful than words of the sorrow, two days after devastating floods and mudslides hit the central and south central regions of El Salvador.

One impact of the floods and landslides will be food scarcity according to the World Food Program:

At least 10,000 Salvadorans are in urgent need of food aid after floods and mudslides destroyed huge swaths of crops during harvest season, the U.N. World Food Program said Tuesday.

President Mauricio Funes told reporters the death toll had risen to at least 160, but lowered the number of homeless to 12,930. Dozens of people remained missing....

The WFP is helping feed 500 people in shelters in San Vicente, one of the worst-hit provinces, the U.N. agency said in a statement. But it said thousands more would need help in the coming days.

"Severe flooding washed away entire harvests, homes and livelihoods," said Dorte Ellehammer, WFP representative in El Salvador. "This disaster has compromised the food security of thousands of people."

The WFP said 90 tons of high-energy biscuits will be ready for distribution in two days, a supply that can feed 70,000 people for four days. Another 1,000 tons of food is also available in the country.

In Verapaz, a farming town on the slopes of the Chichontepec volcano, many residents lost their sugar and coffee crops. Cornelio Lobato said his family returned to their ruined home to find that only their rooster, Pipo, had survived by flying up a mango tree.

"We have nothing, no money, nothing. But we're not going to eat Pipo. He is the only thing we have left, and we are going to take care of him until he dies," he said.

The Salvadoran government is still evaluating the extent of damage to beans, corn and other crops. The WFP said it was difficult to assess the situation because road and bridge collapses left many communities reachable only by helicopter.(from AP)

Juan Jose Dalton provided a first hand description yesterday of the chaos from the flooding:

San Salvador - The sky above Salvadoran capital El Salvador appeared clear Monday: a radiant sun shone to dry the remnants of a weekend of weather chaos that changed whole landscapes.

Police chief Carlos Ascensio confirmed the deaths of 130 people as heavy rains - which came amid a cold front and the remainders of Hurricane Ida - set off mudslides and sent rivers over their banks.

The number of dead could continue to rise. Civil protection officials were busy looking for survivors, and 40 people were still officially regarded as missing.

'Whole hamlets have been wiped off the map in the province of San Vicente,' Medardo Hernandez, the mayor of the town of San Vicente, told the German Press Agency dpa.

The outskirts of the town suffered heavy damage, as did the provinces of La Libertad, San Salvador, Cuscatlan, La Paz and Usulutan, in central El Salvador.

There was no immediate evaluation of the damage, pending an evaluating mission from the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean
(ECLAC).

However, it was already quite clear that much of El Salvador was a disaster area. The Panamericana road - the small Central American country's main road, crossing from east to west - looked like the site of bombing.

More mudslides were threatening.

'It is a very major risk to drive on these roads, but people have to go to work and go to places, it's inevitable,' said the driver of a medium-distance bus.

Employees of the Ministry of Public Works were chopping fallen trees and removing collapsed posts. Locals were cooperating too, although in many areas it was impossible to remove the huge debris without the help of mechanical shovels.

The damage was evident: television footage from the air showed the magnitude of the disaster. Mountains and volcanoes showed huge rifts that resulted from the mudslides, and new rivers were forged by the very heavy rain.

In the town of Verapaz, in San Vicente, mudslides from the Chinchontepec volcano wiped whole outlying hamlets off the map. The town centre was full of mud and rocks.

According to the authorities, 1,570 homes suffered serious damage and 209 others were completely destroyed. Hundreds of trees were pulled out, as well as scores of powerline posts.

As many as 108 mudslides swept through mountain areas, and 87 shelters were set up to hold about 9,000 people, officials said.

There is a disaster relief clearinghouse site at ReliefWeb, many NGOs which will be providing relief in El Salvador are posting their information here. ReliefWeb is probably the most comprehensive source for learning about organizations which you can contact if you want to provide assistance. In addition to organizations listed on ReliefWeb, other solidarity organizations with a long history of work in the country are soliciting assistance:

• Voices on the Border
• CIS El Salvador
• US-El Salvador Sister Cities
• SHARE Foundation

Video of the damage and sorrow in Verapaz

Death toll rises in El Salvador flooding

The following graphic from La Prensa Grafica provides a map showing the locations in the country impacted by the flooding and landslides (click on graphic for full screen version):

(Alternate version)

The death toll from yesterday's floods and mudslides rose to more than 130 as more bodies were found and more inaccessible areas were reached by authorities, and more than 90 are still missing. At least 1500 houses were destroyed and some 10,000 forced from their homes. President Funes has declared a national state of emergency and declared that the damages in El Salvador are incalculable. He has called for help from neighboring countries and is seeking to use some funds designated for dealing with the economic crisis to be used for the present crisis.

From the BBC Coverage:

A torrent of mud and boulders from the Chichontepec volcano hit the town [of Verapaz] near the capital, San Salvador, on Sunday, wrecking 300 homes and burying cars. Bodies covered in mud-caked sheets are being collected at a local chapel. Officially the death toll across El Salvador after days of heavy rainstorms stands at at least 130 people.

President Mauricio Funes declared a national emergency, describing the damage as "incalculable". "Today is a very sad day for the country and its government, in fact it is one of the most tragic days in memory," he said in a televised address to the nation on Sunday.

The BBC's weather centre says the disastrous rains were mainly caused by a low pressure system in the Pacific, which was linked indirectly to Hurricane Ida. Ida, which passed the country three days ago, was downgraded to a tropical storm as it crossed the Gulf of Mexico on Monday.

Verapaz, one of the most seriously affected communities on the slopes of the San Vicente volcano was also a victim of the 2001 earthquakes. This photo from EDH shows the damages in 2001 and today.

Organizations gearing up to provide humanitarian relief include:

• Lutheran World Relief
• Caritas
• World Vision.

More information and multimedia:

• Get current English news headlines on the flooding here.
• Interactive Google map with damage locations.
• Citizen reporter site of LPG
• Citizen reporter site of EDH.
• Powerful images from effects of river flooding in Aguilares.
• Collection of photos on Flickr of landslide in Verapaz.
• Collection of photos on Flickr of flooding damages in San Vicente.
• Dave's Landslide blog.
• Video news report

More on November 2009 flooding and mudslides

Five departments most affected by rains and flooding, put on orange alert by Salvadoran authorities.

The death toll has risen to at least 100 according to EDH. That would make this the worst natural disaster in El Salvador since Hurricane Stan in 2005.

Landslide near San Vicente

Some of the worst mudslides are reported in the town of Verapaz located in the folds of the San Vicente Volcano, also known as Chichontepec volcano. As 14 inches of rain fell on the area, water and mud came pouring down the sides of the volcano. According to El Diario de Hoy, there has been an 8 kilometer long landslide and entire neighborhoods are under the earth. Also in that vicinty, the river Acahualpa swept away some 30 houses from the communities Dos Puentes and La Caridad (also known as El Zope). In the department of San Vicente as of 1:00 pm Sunday, November 8, there were reported 25 deaths and 40 missing.

View Larger Map

More photo galleries of the damage:

• Flooding of the River Chilama in La Libertad.
• Images from San Vicente

Link to website of El Salvador's Civil Protection Agency

Flooding and mudslides kill more than 90 in El Salvador

Three days of torrential rains produced destructive flooding and mudslides in El Salvador killing dozens with many more missing. From the Los Angeles Times:

Torrential rains in El Salvador triggered flooding and mudslides that left at least 91 people dead across the Central American nation, officials said today.

At least 60 people were reported missing, and authorities warned that the toll could rise as rescuers reached hard-hit zones that remained cut off by floodwaters and landslides. About 7,000 people were evacuated and scores were plucked from flood zones by helicopter, Interior Minister Humberto Centeno said.

The impoverished nation of 5 million was pelted by three days of rain attributed to "a disturbed weather area" off the Pacific coast of El Salvador, according to the Miami-based National Hurricane Center. Meteorologist Dennis Feltgen said the heavy rains were unrelated to Hurricane Ida, which earlier sideswiped the region as a tropical storm over the western Caribbean.

Salvadoran authorities reported flooding in the capital, San Salvador, and rural areas to the east. Some of the worst damage was reported in the eastern province of San Vicente, a farming region where authorities said many residents remained cut off from communication.

A radio journalist who reached Verapaz, a town of 6,000 in that region, reported seeing dozens of people desperately searching for relatives missing amid homes buried by landslides after a river spilled over its banks. Carlos Lopez, a Red Cross spokesman, said 300 homes in Verapaz were "semi-destroyed."

Lopez said hundreds more rural dwellers were cut off in the southern province of Usulutan. Many took refuge on the rooftops of their shanties. Rescue workers were having a hard time reaching the area because of landslides that blocked highways.

According to El Faro, this is the most intense rain El Salvador has received in more than a decade. In San Vicente, 355 millimeters of rain fell in 24 hours from Saturday to Sunday (14 inches), while during the destructive Hurricane Mitch in 1998, there was 600 millimeters of rain spread out over three days.

Images of the devastation:

• Photogallery of images of damage in San Vicente and Verapaz
• Aerial images of flooding.
• Images from San Salvador.
• BBC Photogallery of flooding

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El Salvador to investigate the assassination of Oscar Romero

Yesterday I described the determination of El Salvador's president Mauricio Funes to make an act of public atonement on the 20th anniversary of the murder of the six Jesuits in 1989. Today, in an equally significant departure from the policies of the past ARENA governments, El Salvador announced that it would investigate the 1980 assassination of archbishop Oscar Romero, determine culpability, and make reparations.

The announcement came at a hearing of the Interamerican Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) in Washington, D.C. In 2000, the IACHR had ruled that El Salvador had violated basic human rights for its role in the assassination of Romero and the subsequent lack of any judicial inquiry or punishment. The ruling required that El Salvador:

1. Undertake expeditiously a complete, impartial, and effective judicial investigation to identify, try and punish all the direct perpetrators and planners of the violations established in this report, notwithstanding the amnesty that has been decreed.

2. Make reparations for all the consequences of the violations set forth, including the payment of just compensation.

3. Adapt its internal legislation to the American Convention with a view to nullifying the General Amnesty Law.

For the next eight years, the government controlled by the right-wing ARENA party did nothing to comply with this directive.

Today's hearing was a report to the IACHR on how the new government in El Salvador does plan to comply with the IACHR mandate. David Morales, the new government's human rights lawyer, told the commission that the current government is committed to comply. A commission will be established to investigate the crime, a statue is being erected to the memory of Romero, and a video produced dedicated to his memory. The Funes administration is studying the issue of reparations according to Morales, but he stopped short of committing to a repeal of El Salvador's amnesty law -- noting that such a repeal was not solely within the power of the executive branch.

Of course, there have been investigations of archbishop Romero's killing before. The UN Truth Commission dealt with the murder, as did the IACHR, and a court trial in the US granted a judgment against one Salvadoran, Alvaro Saravia, involved in the killing. However this will be the first time that an institution of the Salvadoran government will act on the assassination of the beloved Catholic pastor. It is a first blow against impunity in El Salvador. One can only wonder where this process will take El Salvador, if the investigating commission looks at the role of Roberto D'Aubuisson, founder of ARENA and sponsor of death squads, as the intellectual author of the assassination.

One thing struck me about today's hearing before the IACHR, and it pointed out the 180 degree turn of the Salvadoran government. David Morales, representing the official government position, last appeared before the IACHR as the lawyer for Tutela Legal, the human rights office of the archdiocese of San Salvador. Last time he was there as the lawyer representing the parties demanding justice for Romero from the government -- today he appeared as the lawyer for the government.

March 24, 2010 will by the 30th anniversary of Romero's killing while he said mass at the chapel of the Divina Providencia cancer hospital in San Salvador.

A first in El Salvador -- government atonement

November 16, 2009 will mark the 20th anniversary of the assassinations of the six Jesuit priests, their housekeeper and her daughter, by Salvadoran armed forces during the civil war. And with the change to a left-wing government comes the first acknowledgment of the country's crime. From the AP:

SAN SALVADOR — El Salvador's president says the country will award its highest honor to six Jesuit priests murdered by the army in 1989.

President Mauricio Funes says the National Order of Jose Matias Delgado awards are a "public act of atonement" for mistakes by past governments.

They will be presented on Nov. 16 to mark the date 20 years ago when soldiers killed Spanish-born university rector Ignacio Ellacuria, five other Jesuits, a housekeeper and her daughter.

The killings sparked international outrage and tarnished the image of U.S. anti-communism efforts after it was found that some of the soldiers involved received training at Fort Benning, Georgia.

Funes made the announcement on Tuesday.

In September, the US House of Representatives also passed a resolution marking the 20th anniversary of one of the most infamous human rights cases of the Salvadoran conflict during the 1980s.

Funes deploys military to combat violence

The bloody statistics show the reasons for this week's action by Mauricio Funes:

Murders Up 40% in El Salvador

SAN SALVADOR – The number of murders in El Salvador between January 1 and November 1 stands at 3,673, more than in all of 2008 and 40 percent more than during the same period last year, the press reported Tuesday, citing official statistics.

La Prensa Grafica newspaper based the figure on data from the National Police, the Attorney General’s Office and the medical examiner’s office.

The number of murders, which average 13.9 per day, is 40.2 percent higher than the 2,620 homicides that were tallied during the same period in 2008.

The National Police added that during last month alone there were 431 murders, 158 more than in October 2008.

Authorities warn that nearly two-thirds of the 3,184 men killed this year were between the ages of 18 and 30.

The San Salvador metropolitan area, which contains 14 municipalities, has had 419 more murders this year than during the same period last year.

Seventy-six percent of the killings were carried out with firearms.

In the face of the increase in violence, 94 percent of the residents of Greater San Salvador supported the possibility of increasing the use of army troops for security tasks, according to a survey by the firm JBS Opinion released Tuesday by the Diario de Hoy newspaper.

On Tuesday, president Mauricio Funes announced a plan to increase significantly the use of the Armed Forces to provide support to the National Civilian Police (PNC) in the fight against crime. Currently, some 1300 soldiers make joint patrols with the PNC. Under Funes' plan thousands more troops (he did not specify the exact number) will go on patrol, search for wanted individuals, provide perimeter security at prisons and reinforce El Salvador's borders. The additional troops, which Funes called an "exceptional measure" will work in the departments of San Salvador, San Miguel, Santa Ana, La Libertad and Sonsonate where the level of crime is the highest. After 180 days, the measure will be re-evaluated to determine whether to continue the military's role.

The deployment of additional troops marks the first significant step of the Funes administration on public security since he took office on June 1. Funes defended the measures declaring that "I approved the increase of support of the Armed Forces of El Salvador to the National Civilian Police as a method of guaranteeing order, internal peace and citizen security."

El Salvador -- One of the top 10 places to visit in 2010

Lonely Planet, the travel guide publisher, has released the 2010 edition of its Best in Travel report. This year, incredible as it might seem, El Salvador was listed as one of the top 10 countries in the world to visit. From the report:

El Salvador sneaks up on you: in lefty lounge bars in San Salvador, at sobering war memorials and musums, and along lush cloud-forest trails; it's a place of remarkable warmth and intelligence, made all the more appealing for being so unexpected....Ane when it comes to cities, none in Central America is smarter or cooler than San Salvador, with first-rate universities, museums and galleries, a vibrant bar and live-music scene, and an array of progressive NGOs, both local and international.

The number one country in the list was New Zealand. The other countries named in Lonely Planet's top 10 were Germany, Greece, Malaysia, Morocco, Nepal, Portugal, Suriname, and the USA.