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An interview with Hugo Martínez

[Abridged translation of an interview from ContraPunto of San Salvador for May 23. See original here and related articles here and here.]

By Fernando de Dios and Magdalena Flores

San Salvador – It was learned on Sunday that the current president of Honduras, Porfirio Lobo, and former President Manuel Zelaya, overthrown in a coup d’état on June 28, 2009, had reached an agreement for the latter’s return to his country and, consequently, for the reintegration of Honduras into the Organization of American States (OAS).

The decision, backed by a mediation process initiated by the presidents of Venezuela and Colombia, Hugo Chávez and Juan Manuel Santos, was recognized by the Minister of Foreign Relations of El Salvador in a statement in which he indicates that “the conditions established by the accord pave the way as well for the return of Honduras to the Organization of American States (OAS), a step El Salvador, along with other countries of the region, has advocated.” (more…)

[Translation of an article from ContraPunto for April 29. See original here.]

By Luis Armando González

San Salvador – The Right, represented by ARENA [Alianza Republicana Nacionalista], dominated the political life of El Salvador for 20 years. To break this domination — a domination constructed of interwoven economic, political and media components — the FMLN [Frente Farabundo Martí para la Liberación Nacional] had to be innovative in a political formula that allowed it to broaden its electoral base. (more…)

[Translation of an article from ContraPunto for March 30. See original here. The author, Juan José Dalton, editor-in-chief of ContraPunto, is the son of Roque Dalton, Salvadoran poet and revolutionary killed in 1975. See more on Roque Dalton and his sons here.]

By Juan José Dalton

San Salvador – Sometimes one is mistaken, or wants to be mistaken, and believes in the good faith of the powerful. But the powerful have no good faith.

We have recently had a visit to El Salvador from Barack Obama. In contrast with other places and times, Obama was welcomed in my country with joy and enthusiasm, but above all with hopes that at last we Salvadorans would be seen as partners and as friends of the gringos and not as puppets or as their enemies. (more…)

[Translation of an article from ContraPunto of El Salvador for March 27. See original here.]

By Gloria Morán

San Salvador – Years ago fishing became the livelihood for the family of Don Maximiliano Figueroa, now past his 70th birthday. His means of support could now be threatened by mining. He lives in the hamlet of Las Cuevitas, in Metapán, Santa Ana.

The hope of catching something that might help feed him and his family knows no time of day. In the morning or in the afternoon, boats come and go on Güija Lake. (more…)

[Translations of two articles from La Jornada of Mexico City for December 24.  See originals here and here.]

Human Rights Commission documents kidnapping of 20,000 migrants in 2010

Mexico City, December 23 – The Comisión Nacional de Derechos Humanos (CNDH – National Human Rights Commission) of Mexico has documented more than 10,000 kidnappings of illegal migrants during a six-month period of this year, an official of the organization announced on Thursday.

The CNDH has recently investigated at the scene the abduction of some 50 immigrants who were travelling on a freight train through Oaxaca, in southern Mexico, as charged by Central American governments. (more…)

“People will keep going to the US despite massacres”

[Translation of an article from El País of Madrid, Spain, for September 12. See original article here.]

by Pablo Ordaz

Fifty-year-old Mauricio Funes speaks without holding back. He assails equally the Right that ruled his country for two decades and the radical Left that raised him to the presidency of El Salvador a year ago. Despite the fact that his country continues to be mired in the deepest poverty and inequality, 74 percent of Salvadorans still trust him. This interview was conducted Friday in Mexico City, where he had gone to secure from President Felipe Calderón a commitment to fight together against organized crime.

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Question: After the killings in Tamaulipas, in which 13 of the 72 murdered immigrants were Salvadoran, you sent a letter to the president of Mexico, Felipe Calderón. What did you say? (more…)

[Translation of an article from Contrapunto of El Salvador for August 30. See original article here.]

by Magdalena Flores

San Salvador – Feminist groups are not at all happy with President Mauricio Funes.

The Movimiento Amplio de Mujeres (Broad Movement for Women) demonstrated last Thursday near the presidential residence, west of the capital, to show their total rejection of recent statements by Funes, who a few days ago overruled the head of the Instituto Salvadoreño para el Desarrollo de la Mujer (ISDEMU – Salvadoran Institute for the Development of Women), Julia Evelyn Martínez, for signing a regional document that, among other things, called for revision of laws penalizing abortion.

Martínez participated last July in the XI Conferencia Regional sobre la Mujer de América Latina y el Caribe (Sixth Regional Conference on Women of Latin America and the Caribbean), a gathering that supported the Consenso de Brasilia (Brasilia Consensus), a document that deals with reproductive health, including abortion and birth control. (more…)

[Translation of an article from El Faro of San Salvador for July 27. See also “El Salvador: The congressmen and the Bible” posted here on July 10.]

By Sergio Arauz

After almost a month of debate throughout the country, President Mauricio Funes, who initially supporting the bill enthusiastically, has rejected a measure that would require the daily reading of passages from the Bible in all schools of the country.

The president argued that requiring the reading of biblical texts goes against the constitution by violating the religious freedom established in the document. (more…)

[Translation of an article from ContraPunto of El Salvador for July 5 concerning passage on July 1 of a bill to require that Salvadoran school children be read passages from the Bible for at least seven minutes at the beginning of every school day. The measure, supported by the Alianza Republicana Nacionalista (Arena, the former ruling party) and other rightist parties and opposed by the leftist Frente Farabundo Martí para la Liberación Nacional , received the votes of 45 members of the 84-member unicameral legislature. President Mauricio Funes initially supported the bill but said later he would consult religious leaders before deciding whether to sign it into law or veto it. As of this posting, he has yet to decide.]

by Julián González Torres

San Salvador – More than a century ago, Julio Interiano, secretary of public education, development and welfare, wrote in his report on efforts concerning primary education, “A school is a model of society. And society is heterogeneous; there is no uniformity of beliefs. The state, then, which recognizes the rights of all and guarantees the fullfillment of them, cannot teach the practice of any specific sect, much less of a number of them, nor can it instill dogmatic beliefs outside the domain of reason”… (more…)

[Translation of an article from ContraPuntos of El Salvador for June 1.]

By Edgardo Ayala and Gregorio Morán

San Salvador — Is there change or not?

For a limited number of officials, including the president of the republic, Mauricio Funes, there have indeed been changes in comparison to what previous administrations have done. But for a sea of citizens, including political and economic analysts, not so much – that’s not to say, none.

This past June 1, Funes spoke of his administration’s accomplishments in its first year. It was a classic display of figures and “achievements” by what is said to be the first leftist government of El Salvador.

A display that, as always happens, selected and emphasized figures that present a favorable panorama of the situation, as has always been done. Which is reasonable. Nobody want to talk about how his house is collapsing, even if that seems to be the case. (more…)

[Translation of an editorial from the Salvadoran website Raices.com for May 3.]

The principal feature of the May Day celebrations on the streets of San Salvador was that the people, especially those in the governing party, the Frente Farabundo Martí para la Liberación Nacional (FMLN), were asking President Mauricio Funes for changes. To the degree that they reminded him that it was they who had put him in office and they could remove him.

The burning of an effigy with the president’s face and Uncle Sam’s hat was perhaps the demonstrators’ most stunning blow, although to listen to the leaders, among them José Luis Merino and Vice President Salvador Sánchez Cerén, things were more cordial than that, in that more confidence was shown than dissatisfaction. They even said change requires the participation of the people. (more…)