The opening hearing in the arbitration filed by Pacific Rim against El Salvador commenced today, Monday, May 31, and can be watched live at this link. The hearing is scheduled for today and tomorrow. The government of El Salvador is attempting to get the case dismissed at the outset. A decision on these preliminary motions is unlikely for a number of months.
The rains of tropical storm Agatha produced flooding and landslides in El Salvador which left nine people dead according to El Diario de Hoy. That newspaper has a special section devoted to the damages located here. More than eight thousand people were forced from their homes by the water.
One of the worst hit towns was Juayua, where 425 millimeters (16.7 inches) of rain fell between Saturday and Sunday. A family of three died there when a landslide buried their home.
The brunt of Agatha's force was borne by Guatemala where more than 80 died in flooding and mudslides. Death were also reported in Honduras.
Schools are closed today in El Salvador due to the state of emergency, as the past week of rains has left many areas at risk.
Get a current El Salvador weather forecast at this link.
The rainy season has arrived in El Salvador, and heavy rains related to the first Pacific tropical storm of the season, Agatha, have produced flooding in El Salvador. The government has raised the country's alert level to orange, as the rains threaten to push rivers out of their banks. There have been evacuations in areas at risk for landslides and flooding. At least one person has died. Events on Sunday to commemorate the first anniversary of Mauricio Funes in office have been cancelled.
There is a photo gallery from La Prensa Grafica here showing images from the flooding.
El Salvador has not been as heavily impacted as its neighbor Guatemala where a dozen have died from Agatha's downpours, and that country is also dealing with the impact of the eruption of the Pacaya volcano. In both countries, poor communities built on hillsides and along waterways suffer most from natural disasters.
As Salvadoran president Mauricio Funes approaches the anniversary of his first year in office, there are plenty of signs of growing discontent on the left end of the political spectrum.
This set of photos from El Faro from May 1 labor day celebrations show many protesters mocking Funes. Recently demonstrators against the Chaparral Dam project marched many kilometers from the countryside to stage a protest at the presidential offices. The marchers expressed their disillusionment with Funes after giving him their votes a year ago.
Another set of marchers came protesting from the north of El Salvador. They want to stop the Chaparral dam, but have not found an ally in Funes. This photo gallery shows their march which ended at the Presidential House in the capital.
Funes recently let go his Minister of Agriculture from the FMLN, and the resulting spat has included accusations that the president has directed that agricultural supplies destined for poor farmers be given to areas supporting the PCN political party, and GANA -- the new faction which broke off from ARENA.
The population has noticed the split between Funes and the left wing FMLN under whose banner Funes ran for office. In poll results published in El Diario del Hoy, Salvadorans were asked how they would describe the relationship between Funes and the FMLN. 63% answered that it is "a relationship of confrontation," and 29% said it was a relationship of "understanding." In the same poll, respondents were asked if they agreed with Funes taking positions contrary to those of the FMLN, and 62% said yes, while 36% answered in the negative.
As he completes one year in office, Funes is learning how difficult it is to govern from the center in El Salvador.
The number of Salvadorans living in urban areas has increased significantly over the past 40 years. In 1970, 39% of Salvadorans lived in urban areas, and today 70% of them do. This has produced a variety of impacts from urban sprawl, to resource demands, to a reduction of land devoted to farming. El Faro has a photo gallery here which illustrates some of the impact when city meets countryside.
The website Epicurious.com featured the Salvadoran national dish, the pupusa, in its series Around the World in 80 Dishes. There is a recipe for pupusas there, as well as a video for making the pupusas. The recipe is pretty traditional, but the video shows a "pupusa" pressed in a tortilla press and fried in oil which is unlike any pupusa I have ever seen a Salvadoran make.
When I think of making pupusas, this is the kind of image I see:
I'm not quite sure what to make of this story which aired on a Green Bay, Wisconsin, television station about a woman who gave birth in El Salvador and claims she was detained for weeks in the hospital until her family came up with the cash:
It was supposed to be a two week trip to El Salvador for a Green Bay family to visit relatives. Carly Clavel, seven months pregnant, got the okay from her doctor to travel. But while in El Salvador, Carly felt sick and went to the hospital where she says she was forced to have a C-section.
"None of my records at the hospital showed I needed a C-section I think they just did it because they saw America and they saw dollars," said Clavel.
At less than four pounds little Sebastian and his mom stayed at the hospital under what she calls deplorable conditions.
"The conditions in the hospital were horrible. Rats were crawling on my bed when we were in the hospital. They were not taking care of my son properly," she said.
Carly says her baby wasn't being given enough formula and was getting smaller. She wanted to get her son back to the U.S. to get better care, but she says the hospital would not let her leave until they paid $12,000.
Carly, her baby and husband, have been in El Salvador for almost a month now.
I count myself fortunate to know Father Dean Brackley,S.J. who teaches at the University of Central America. I commend to readers of this blog Father Brackley's article written in the National Catholic Reporter titled Migrants: illegals or God's ambassadors?. His article provides an important contribution to the discussion of immigration reform by bringing together the perspective of Christian compassion and a viewpoint influenced by the experiences of many of those living and struggling south of the US border.
Anniversaries of Salvadoran poet Roque Dalton's birth and execution have been the occasion in the last week for calls for his killers to face justice. This article from IPS describes the issue:
As well as being one of El Salvador’s most celebrated poets, Roque Dalton was also a committed political activist and a member of the People’s Revolutionary Army (ERP), a leftist guerrilla organisation, in the 1970s.Friday, May 14, was the 75th anniversary of the birth of El Salvador's revolutionary poet. His two sons chose that day to file a complaint with El Salvador's attorney general against two of the men they accuse of participating in their father's killing in 1975. The complaint accuses Joaquin Villalobos and Jorge Meléndez with the murder of Dalton. Both men were leaders in the ERP guerilla movement which condemned Roque Dalton to death. Meléndez is the current director of Civil Protection in the Ministry of the Interior under the Funes government. Villalobos has lived outside of El Salvador in Oxford, England and has publicly split with the FMLN in recent years.
On May 10, 1975, Dalton was gunned down by his own ERP comrades-in-arms, four days before his 40th birthday. His execution was ordered by the ERP leadership, which accused him of insubordination and of working for the United States’ Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).
It was subsequently determined that the accusation that he was a CIA collaborator was false.
The whereabouts of his remains are still unknown.
As mentioned before, certain Republicans are blocking Obama's nominee to be the new ambassador to El Salvador. Last December, Obama nominated Washington, D.C. lawyer Mari Del Carmen Aponte to the position. She was questioned in testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in March about allegations from the mid 1990's about her relationship with a Cuban diplomat allegedly tied to that nation's intelligence services.
According to the Miami Herald:
Her Obama administration nomination to the El Salvador job was approved by the Senate Foreign Relations committee April 27, with 10 Democrats endorsing her -- including Cuban-American Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey -- and eight Republicans voting no.
But the Republicans will put a hold on her nomination when it comes up in the full Senate, meaning it will need 60 votes for confirmation unless they lift the hold, said congressional staffers who asked for anonymity because they were not authorized to speak on the topic.
Football (soccer) is the favorite sport in El Salvador. This week comes word that Fifa, the governing body of word football has suspended El Salvador from internaitonal competition, as reported in this BBC story:
Fifa accused the Salvadoran government of interfering in the game by refusing to recognize local football officials [Fifa] had appointed....
Last year Fifa assigned a special commission to reform the finances of El Salvador's football federation, Fesfut, after the resignation of its head, Rodrigo Calvo.
But the new left-wing government of President Mauricio Funes has refused to recognise the commission.
Fifa says it considers this to be political interference in the game.
James Dunlap is an American living in El Salvador. In an essay titled Expatriate to El Salvador? , Dunlap praises the industriousness of Salvadoran capitalism at all levels in the society. Here are some excerpts:
Salvadorans are hard working and friendly people and here individuals from all walks of life are busy trying to get ahead. Most seem weary of politics and wish to move beyond the troubled past. El Salvador really has two economies, especially in the capital, San Salvador. One economy features upscale shopping malls and exclusive beach hotels. The other exists on the streets of the city. Despite the pressures of a worldwide economic downturn, people in both sectors are making heroic efforts in the pursuit of free enterprise...
San Salvador has a dynamic business community. One trip down the street that bisects the city’s central shopping district, known locally as El Paseo, is proof of this phenomenon. The street is lined with restaurants, nightclubs, shopping centers, home stores, supermarkets, and shops of every description. The cornerstone of El Paseo is the Gallerias Mall, a rectangular three-story shopping center actually constructed around a historic house. The Gallerias food court is an international dining experience. One can feast on sushi or McDonalds, tacos or Pizza Hut. The shopping center caters to an endless stream of customers seeking luxury goods and the best coffee in the world....
The "informal" economy is equally dynamic. Vendors are endlessly on the make in San Salvador. Talk about human action! The city center is literally jammed with "informales" selling all manner of goods, giving the historic part of a town a jostling, casbah-like feel. Men and women sell flowers, cigarettes, fruit, pirated DVDs, lottery tickets, newspapers, car parts, flags and maps of El Salvador, clothing, even furniture and household appliances. Services include shoe repairs, barber shops, nail salons, and sidewalk clothing alterations. In the "centro," dealers offer a wide array of inexpensive goods and services in an area near major bus terminals. These vendors are convenient for a multitude of people streaming into the capital city from all parts of El Salvador.
A Russian internet site recently posted the photo above, and also a gallery of other pictures of migratory birds at Lake Suchitlan in north central El Salvador. The photos are a reminder of the ecological paradox which this lake represents. While it is home to many species of birds, both native and migratory, it is also a cesspool of contamination from El Salvador's sewers and factories.
Lake Suchitaln, also known as Embalse Cerron Grande, was formed in 1974 with the construction of the Cerron Grande dam. It represents the largest freshwater body in the country of El Salvador. There is this description of the lake in the Ramsar wetlands database::
Artificial water reservoir that constitutes the largest freshwater body in the country. The reservoir provides relevant environmental products and services such as fisheries production and hydropower generation, water filtration and flood control. The site serves as a place of refuge, breeding and resting ground for several thousand waterbirds, both resident and migratory, and hosts the largest duck populations in the country. Apart from having the largest freshwater fish diversity in El Salvador, it hosts 12 of the 14 native fish species known in the country. Other threatened species in the site include paca (Agouti paca), cougar (Puma concolor), ocelot (Leopardus pardalis) and the Red Brocket Deer (Mazama americana). Water pollution and eutrophication, deforestation, erosion, and the presence of water hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes) constitute the greatest threats to the wetland.
Sources of increased nutrient load usually are untreated waste waters discharging the nutrient rich feces and urine into surface waters. It is estimated that the reservoir Cérron Grande receives a monthly load of more than 8.5 millions pounds (4 million kilograms) of feces deriving from 1.5 million households of the capital San Salvador. Increased nutrient load not only benefits the growth of algae and cyanobacteria but also causes eutrophication of standing water bodies. In its 37 years of existence, the reservoir changed to a hypereutrophic lake promoting by its high nutrient concentrations excessive plant growth and decay, thereby causing anoxia (lack of oxygen in the water) and severe reductions in water quality, fish, and other animal populations.
The rivers Suquiapa, Sucio and Acelhuate, forming 30 % of the flow entering the reservoir, are draining the untreated sewage and wastewater effluent from at least 154 municipal and industrial sources from the metropolitan area of San Salvador. Elevated concentrations of heavy metals such as cadmium, mercury, copper and aluminium were found in the water as well as in different water plants and fishes. Heavy metals are accumulating in the organisms and, therefore, concentrating along the food chain. The last link in the food chain, such as humans, receives the highest concentration of the toxic substances. (more)
President Mauricio Funes today announced that the presence of Salvadoran soldiers in the streets to fight crime will be extended and expanded. From the Latin American Herald Tribune:
Salvadoran President Mauricio Funes announced Friday a one-year extension of the deployment of troops to help police battle crime.
“The military presence in the streets has had a very positive impact, all the opinion polls reflect that,” he told members of the armed forces at an event marking the Day of the Soldier.
Funes said he was expanding from 19 to 29 the number of zones to be patrolled by soldiers.
“We trust that in these 12 months they (the troops) bring the results the population hopes for,” he said, stressing that the “participation of the armed forces, while very valuable, must be seen only as an exceptional measure.”
A new program called a "Billion Baby Turtles" will be announced in El Salvador on the 100th anniversary of the birth of Jacques Coustean on June 11. The program is described on the blog of SEE Turtles:
[T]the beaches of El Salvador ... are home to one of the most endangered sea turtle populations in the world, the Pacific Hawksbill turtle. Until last year, virtually 100% of the Central American nation's sea turtle eggs were collected for sale or eaten in bars and restaurants. Thanks to recently passed conservation laws and innovative public-private partnerships, that's all changed. In 2009, for the first time in decades, nearly one million baby sea turtles found their way to the ocean in El Salvador and 2010 should see a continuation of that success. The innovative approach of Billion Baby Turtles involves collaboration between former egg collectors, local non-profit organizations, government agencies, the tourism sector and international foundations around the world.
According to FUNZEL, the Salvadorean partner with USAID working to coordinate the expanded sea turtle network, there are now dozens of communities, hundreds of turtle volunteers—or "tortugueros” as they like to be called—and numerous agencies and non-profit organizations committed to the recovery of Hawksbills and the three other sea turtle species known to live in El Salvador. (Read more)
Thanks to the folks at the Voices on the Border’s blog for bringing to our attention a new grassroots movement in El Salvador to stand up to extortion:
A couple weeks ago, Salvadorans tired of the extortion and violence that plagues their neighborhoods began a calling on their fellow citizens to overcome their fears and not pay when the violent street gangs try to extort money. The movement uses the face of Don Ramón, a Mexican sitcom character from the 1970s known as a “rent-dodger,” to convey its message that the people are tired and should no longer going to pay extortion (or “the rent” as it is called on the street).
In a short period, the image of Don Ramón has been spray-painted all over the capital, and found its way onto t-shirts and bumper stickers, and banners that have been unfurled on bridges, monuments, and bridges. Almost 20,000 people have joined the movement on Facebook
This Tuesday, the 20th of April, various monuments, buildings, and bridges in the Capital are covered in giant banners that state: “I AM NOT PAYING THE RENT!”
It is time to shed our fear and retake our lives.
We are tired of feeling powerless against the violence and blackmail that have converted our neighborhoods, villages, parks, and schools into zones where law does not apply; there is no happiness; and we live without harmony.
We cannot continue this way. Our fear, our silence, and our passivity are accomplices to the crimes committed by the delinquents. We cannot wait for the State to resolve that which we are unwilling to confront and stop.
This is why we, a group of citizens who are tired of the impotence, are adopting the figure Don Ramón to declare that we are retaking what belongs to us: our neighborhoods, communities, villages, schools, and voice in order to be heard.
Ours is a call to civil courage and to take responsibility for our communities. Don’t try to respond to violence with more violence. If you try as Salvadoreños to recoup what is ours, the word gang will return to meaning our circle of friends; and respect will return to being that which we earn through a job and dignity instead of with threats and violence; and that the neighborhood returns to a place of cohabitation and happiness, and no longer a territory of dispute between gangs.
Ours is a call to overcome fear. We are no longer able to allow our fear to paralyze us. We have to raise our voice and show that we, the decent people, we are much, much stronger. The face of Don Ramón will have propagated throughout the city so quickly because it is a symbol that the majority are tired of remaining silent.
Don Ramón is only a face that we adopted to express that we are tired and that we as individuals have to take responsibility for our families, our communities, and our El Salvador. There is no political party, church, or ministry behind this campaign. We are all Don Ramón.
Even when the Don Ramón banners are no longer on the bridges and monuments, the message will remain. It will hit Salvadorans in their heart and conscious: We are all tired, but we are able to decide to take action and we will be strong if we act together. We cannot feed ourselves to the violence that is consuming us. We all ought to promise to take action to recuperate what is ours. This is why Don Ramón exclaims: I AM TIRED! I WILL NOT PAY THE RENT!
We call upon all that are able to reproduce this message where you live, work, or study. We are more, and we are more creative.
San Salvador, April 20, 2010
The Don Ramón Initiative
There ia a new article on the web about the conflict over gold mining in northern El Salvador. The article, by Leonard Morin, is titled El Salvador's Misfortune in Gold: Mining, Murder, and Corporate Malfeasance, and covers the conflict up to the present day from a point of view sympathetic to the anti-mining activists.
Surfing the internet this week, I came across this little statistic: cellphone penetration in El Salvador now exceeds 100% which means there are more cell phones than people in the country. This happens as people have more than one cell phone or SIM card, perhaps on different cell networks.
Most Salvadoran cell phones are pre-paid accounts, with recharge cards being available for sale at the tiniest stores in communities everywhere. An article in IPS last year explains the growth of cell phone usage:
Telecommunications manager Saúl Vásquez said many people own more than one cell phone, because they are drawn in by the constant promotions offered by the telecoms companies.
Blanca Flores, a student of communications who has two cell phones, said she purchased her second after having problems with the first.
"I kept losing my Claro connection, so I decided to get another number, from Telemóvil," she told IPS.
The large proportion of Salvadorans who live outside of the country - 2.5 million live in the United States - has had a major influence on the expansion of cell phone use. Many migrants’ relatives use mobile phones to communicate, especially with their families in rural areas of El Salvador where fixed lines are unavailable.
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