tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-59328910399172652172024-03-13T10:10:27.806-04:00Building a New El Salvador TodaySHARE Foundationhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00702552278356651914noreply@blogger.comBlogger243125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5932891039917265217.post-87416714904736503952011-06-07T11:42:00.001-04:002011-06-07T11:42:57.910-04:00The SHARE Blog has movedAs part of launching our new website, our blog has moved. Now you can our latest updates from El Salvador and SHARE Counterparts at: <a href="http://www.share-elsalvador.org/blog">www.share-elsalvador.org/blog</a><br />
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Have a look today to see what else is new at SHARE. We'll see you <a href="http://www.share-elsalvador.org/blog">there</a>! (And don’t forget to change your bookmark).SHARE Foundationhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00702552278356651914noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5932891039917265217.post-71783881724958831732011-06-07T11:42:00.000-04:002011-06-07T11:42:03.423-04:00SHARE launches new website!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-sJzjeMJbO7g/Te1HR7SoOHI/AAAAAAAABf4/vQz1BjjXHKE/s1600/Snapshot+of+new+website.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="115" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-sJzjeMJbO7g/Te1HR7SoOHI/AAAAAAAABf4/vQz1BjjXHKE/s200/Snapshot+of+new+website.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>SHARE El Salvador is pleased to announce that we have just launched our new website! Besides an exciting new look, the new site makes it easier for you to read project updates, interviews, and action alerts. Take a look now at <a href="http://www.share-elsalvador.org/">www.share-elsalvador.org</a>!<br />
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Help us out by sharing the website with your friends and telling us what you think!SHARE Foundationhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00702552278356651914noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5932891039917265217.post-31239919718934553282011-05-25T12:11:00.001-04:002011-05-25T12:40:01.808-04:00Threats Continue at Radio Victoria: Please Show Your Solidarity!<a _mce_href="http://share.live2.radicaldesigns.org/wp-content/uploads/Radio-Victoria-Cabañas.jpg" href="http://share.live2.radicaldesigns.org/wp-content/uploads/Radio-Victoria-Caba%C3%B1as.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img _mce_src="http://share.live2.radicaldesigns.org/wp-content/uploads/Radio-Victoria-Cabañas.jpg" alt="" class="alignleft size-full wp-image-1723" height="161" src="http://share.live2.radicaldesigns.org/wp-content/uploads/Radio-Victoria-Caba%C3%B1as.jpg" title="Radio Victoria Cabañas" width="240" /></a> "Since the early 1990s, <a _mce_href="http://news.change.org/stories/radiovictoria.org/ingles.htm" href="http://news.change.org/stories/radiovictoria.org/ingles.htm">Radio Victoria</a> has provided a voice for the residents of the northern hills of El Salvador. Founded in the aftermath of the nation's bloody civil war, today Radio Victoria transmits daily local and international news and other programs to communities so poor they often lack telephone and mail services.<br />
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The journalists who run the station are mostly 16 to 24 year-olds who grew up in Honduran refugee camps and returned to the area with their families as the civil war raged around them.<br />
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<a _mce_href="http://news.change.org/stories/el-salvador-protect-independent-radio-from-death-threats" href="http://news.change.org/stories/el-salvador-protect-independent-radio-from-death-threats" target="_blank">And now, someone wants them dead." </a><br />
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Threats to members of the Radio Victoria continue:<br />
<b>Oscar:</b><br />
1) "extermination > look oscar we aren't kidding shut up this radio or you also die you dog”<br />
<b>Pablo:</b><br />
1) "extermination > look pablo we are watching you better than your police we are close to you where you go the cameras in the radio will not save anyone get out or what" <br />
<b>Cristy:</b><br />
1) " exrerminio > griga (exterminio > gringa???) today yes we have to act with the people in your radio now it is too much manuel pablo oscar and maricela are to be assassinated you should leave... "<br />
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<b>PLEASE support the radio by sending your messages of support</b>—emails in Spanish and especially voice recordings they can play on the radio. The authorities and people responsible need to continue to hear that the international community is paying attention and in solidarity with the Radio. As Cristina Starr at the Radio says: “We are only little people and we keep getting these nasty things and it scares us and upsets us and wears us down psychologically, so all forms of support are helpful, we are together here, we are in touch with each other, supporting each other and we feel all your support surrounding us too.”<br />
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You can also <b>sign the change.org petition</b>: <a _mce_href="http://www.change.org/petitions/investigate-death-threats-against-el-salvador-journalists" href="http://www.change.org/petitions/investigate-death-threats-against-el-salvador-journalists" target="_blank">Investigate Death Threats</a> against El Salvador Journalists.SHARE Foundationhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00702552278356651914noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5932891039917265217.post-48016254528783911922011-05-24T12:13:00.000-04:002011-05-24T12:13:10.893-04:00El Salvador Sees Epidemic of Violence Against Women<i>This article written by Hannah Stone, talks about femicide in El Salvador and mentions SHARE Counterpart ORMUSA.</i><br />
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<span class="itemImage"><a class="modal" href="http://insightcrime.org/media/k2/items/cache/755a09762452d6eb5c314d532540d319_XL.jpg" title="Click to preview image"> </a> </span> <div class="itemIntroText"> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Ad6GbSn4U7g/TdvY0S51sJI/AAAAAAAABfs/cBeMlG4oTF8/s1600/755a09762452d6eb5c314d532540d319_L.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Ad6GbSn4U7g/TdvY0S51sJI/AAAAAAAABfs/cBeMlG4oTF8/s200/755a09762452d6eb5c314d532540d319_L.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>A rise in brutal killings of women, known as “femicides,” in El Salvador can be blamed on various factors, from gender inequality to organized crime to a society hollowed out by gang culture, features common to many parts of Central America<br />
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</div><div class="itemFullText"> Non-governmental organization Salvadoran Women for Peace (Organizacion de Mujeres Salvadoreñas por la Paz - ORMUSA), which tracks violence against women, <a href="http://observatoriodeviolencia.ormusa.org/feminicidios.php" target="_blank">reported that, according to police statistics, there were 160 such murders</a> committed in the country in the first three months of the year. This would put the country on track for a record 640 such killings in 2011 - higher than any year since the organization began to track the issue in 1999.<br />
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Human rights organizations in Latin America use the word “femicide” to refer to the murders of women who are killed because of their gender. Murders defined in this way typically involve sexual violence, mutilation, and torture, with the mangled bodies of victims often left in public places.<br />
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El Salvador has one of the highest murder rates in the world, with almost 70 per 100,000 people. This is mostly due to soaring gang violence, with the country an increasingly important transit location for drugs being trafficked into the U.S., and the local “maras” or gangs fighting over the business. Sexualized killings of women make up a relatively minor proportion of the many violent deaths -- of some 4,000 murders the police registered in 2010, 580 were identified as femicides.<br />
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<a href="http://insightcrime.org/insight-latest-news/item/960-el-salvador-sees-epidemic-of-violence-against-women">Read more </a><br />
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</div>SHARE Foundationhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00702552278356651914noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5932891039917265217.post-58353038340772610152011-05-13T17:07:00.000-04:002011-05-13T17:07:52.848-04:00Urgent Action for Radio Victoria: Change.org Petition!<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Helvetica,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 13px;"></span><br />
<div class="" style="border-width: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 1em; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Change.org recently created an </span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">online petition</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> that makes it </span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">easy</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> to </span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">take action</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> to </span></i><i style="color: cyan;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.change.org/petitions/investigate-death-threats-against-el-salvador-journalists" style="border-width: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">demand an Investigation of Death Threats Against Radio Victoria Journalists in El Salvador (click here)</a></span></b></span></i><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: cyan;"> </span>and </span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">spread the word</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">. </span></i></div><div class="" style="border-width: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 1em; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; line-height: 12px;"></span></span></i></div><i><div class="related-petition-content" style="background-color: #fbfbfb; border-color: rgb(221, 221, 221); border-style: solid; border-width: 0px 1px 1px; font-family: inherit; font-size: 12px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; height: 90px; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 30px 10px 10px 250px; text-align: center; vertical-align: baseline;"><h6 class="title" style="border-width: 0px; color: cyan; font-family: inherit; font-size: 16px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: bold; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; min-height: 2em; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="http://www.change.org/petitions/investigate-death-threats-against-el-salvador-journalists" style="border-width: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: 16px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Investigate Death Threats Against El Salvador Journalists</a></h6><div style="color: black;"><a class=" bubble-button" href="http://www.change.org/petitions/investigate-death-threats-against-el-salvador-journalists" style="background-color: white; border: 1px solid rgb(238, 239, 239); cursor: pointer; display: inline-block; font-family: inherit; font-size: 12px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0.25em 0px 0.5em; opacity: 1; outline-width: 0px; padding: 2px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="background" style="border-width: 0px; display: block; font-family: inherit; font-size: 12px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 1px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="content" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline-block; font-family: Lato,Helvetica,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: normal; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0.3em 0.75em; vertical-align: baseline;">SIGN PETITION</span></span></a></div><div class="signatures" style="border-width: 0px; color: #999999; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="count" style="border-width: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br />
</span><span class="unit" style="border-width: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></span></div></div></i><br />
<div class="" style="border-width: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 1em; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #006699; font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 20px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 12px;"><br />
</span></span></b></span></span></div><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Change.org published the following article on Tuesday May, 10th</span></i><br />
<div class="" style="border-width: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: 13px; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 1em; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; line-height: 12px;"></span></i></div><i><h1 class="title" style="border-width: 0px; color: #d9ead3; font-family: inherit; font-size: 30px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: 900; line-height: 1.3; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">El Salvador: Protect Independent Radio from Death Threats</h1><div class="details" style="border-bottom: 1px dotted rgb(204, 204, 204); border-width: 0px 0px 1px; font-family: inherit; font-size: 12px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 1em 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px 150px 0px 0px; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline;"><br />
<div class="by" style="border-width: 0px; color: #666666; font-family: inherit; font-size: 12px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 15px; margin: 0px 0px 0.5em; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">by <a href="http://news.change.org/authors/antonio-ramirez-2" style="border-width: 0px; color: #006699; font-family: inherit; font-size: 12px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Antonio Ramirez</a> · May 10, 2011</div></div></i><br />
<div class="" style="border-width: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: 13px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 1em; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-28Rgx7uaVt8/Tcv_7W9FSOI/AAAAAAAABfo/2tcSR2wHhIw/s1600/elvis111-250x187.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-28Rgx7uaVt8/Tcv_7W9FSOI/AAAAAAAABfo/2tcSR2wHhIw/s1600/elvis111-250x187.jpg" /></a>Since the early 1990s, <a href="http://news.change.org/stories/radiovictoria.org/ingles.htm" style="border-width: 0px; color: #006699; font-family: inherit; font-size: 13px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Radio Victoria</a> has provided a voice for the residents of the northern hills of El Salvador. Founded in the aftermath of the nation's bloody civil war, today Radio Victoria transmits daily local and international news and other programs to communities so poor they often lack telephone and mail services.</div><div style="border-width: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: 13px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 1em; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The journalists who run the station are mostly 16 to 24 year-olds who grew up in Hondruan refugee camps and returned to the area with their families as the civil war raged around them.</div><div style="border-width: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: 13px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 1em; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">And now, someone wants them dead.</div><div style="border-width: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: 13px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 1em; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Last month, Radio Victoria's workers began receiving a wave of death threats from a shadowy group reminiscent of the macabre rightwing "<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JX_7X0JsV8o" style="border-width: 0px; color: #006699; font-family: inherit; font-size: 13px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">death squads</a>" active during the civil war.</div><div style="border-width: 0px; color: cyan; font-family: inherit; font-size: 13px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 1em; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="http://www.change.org/petitions/investigate-death-threats-against-el-salvador-journalists" style="border-width: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: 13px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">Demand an Investigation of Death Threats Against Radio Victoria Journalists in El Salvador! (Click Here!)</a></div><a href="http://www.change.org/petitions/investigate-death-threats-against-el-salvador-journalists" style="border-width: 0px; color: #006699; font-family: inherit; font-size: 13px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank"><a name='more'></a></a><br />
<div style="border-width: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: 13px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 1em; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Local activists believe the threats are linked to the radio's involvement in a struggle against <a href="http://progressive.org/lydersen0710.html" style="border-width: 0px; color: #006699; font-family: inherit; font-size: 13px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Pacific Rim</a>, a Canadian mining company that hopes to install a massive gold mine in the region. Since 2009, Salvadoran anti-mining activists have been <a href="http://news.change.org/stories/anti-mining-activists-threatened-kidnapped-and-murdered-in-el-salvador" style="border-width: 0px; color: #006699; font-family: inherit; font-size: 13px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">threatened, robbed, kidnapped and murdered</a> while protesting the potential environmental and social damage Pacific Rim's mine would cause the local community. Recently, over 1,000 Change.org members sent letters supporting a full investigation of these murders.</div><div style="border-width: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: 13px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 1em; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Kzid9wJGiJQ/Tcv_3nL9G3I/AAAAAAAABfk/JfAexe77Guk/s1600/radio-victoria.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Kzid9wJGiJQ/Tcv_3nL9G3I/AAAAAAAABfk/JfAexe77Guk/s320/radio-victoria.jpg" width="320" /></a>But as the struggle against Pacific Rim has heated up, so has the intimidation against activists.</div><div style="border-width: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: 13px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 1em; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">On the morning of April 30th, someone slipped a note under the Radio Victoria's door threatening the lives of three of the radio's workers if they didn't quit "talking" and leave the station that week.</div><div style="border-width: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: 13px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 1em; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">A few days later, two journalists received death threats in the form of text messages to their personal cell phones; some of the messages mentioned the three year-old daughter of one of the journalists. The threats were signed by a group that calls itself <i style="border-width: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: 13px; font-style: italic; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Exterminio</i>, or Extermination.</div><div style="border-width: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: 13px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 1em; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Then, more death threats came after the radio held a press conference calling for an investigation into the threats.</div><div style="border-width: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: 13px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 1em; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Unfortunately, such threats are <a href="http://elsalvadorsolidarity.org/joomla/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=372&Itemid=65" style="border-width: 0px; color: #006699; font-family: inherit; font-size: 13px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">nothing new</a> for the small radio station. Since 2006, young journalists have received so many death threats that two of them are currently provided protection by the International Human Rights Commission.</div><div style="border-width: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: 13px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 1em; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><b style="border-width: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: 13px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">But despite consistent calls for stronger protections for Radio Victoria staff, the Salvadoran Attorney General Romero Barhona and Director of Human Rights David Morales have done little to investigate the threats.</b></div><div style="border-width: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: 13px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 1em; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Now, Salvadoran and US activists are calling on the Attorney General and Director of Human Rights to investigate the threats and take action to provide police protection for Radio Victoria staff.</div><div style="border-width: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: 13px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 1em; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Salvadoran activists say that messages of international solidarity are important to keeping such activists safe. <b><a href="http://www.change.org/petitions/investigate-death-threats-against-el-salvador-journalists" style="border-width: 0px; color: cyan; font-family: inherit; font-size: 13px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">Click here to Demand an Investigation of Death Threats Against Radio Victoria Journalists in El Salvador!</a></b></div>SHARE Foundationhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00702552278356651914noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5932891039917265217.post-1926149280423527372011-05-09T16:25:00.000-04:002011-05-09T16:25:35.219-04:00ACTION ALERT! Support Radio Victoria<div style="clear: right; float: right; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: center;"><img align="baseline" alt="radio-victoria" border="0" height="320" hspace="0" src="http://pr.ak.vresp.com/860b24e33/voiceselsalvador.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/radio-victoria.jpg?__nocache__=1" style="min-height: 134px; width: 200px;" title="radio-victoria" vspace="0" width="160" /></div><br />
<h3 style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"> <span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">Action Alert! Support Radio Victoria</span></h3><div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">On May 3rd, World Press Freedom Day, Radio Victoria in Cabañas, once again denounced death threats against their workers.<br />
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During the early hours of Saturday April 30th a note was slipped under Radio Victoria´s front entrance naming 3 workers and threatening their lives if they did not leave the Radio by Wednesday May 4th.<br />
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On May 2nd during the evening 2 radio journalists received text messages on their cell phones threatening them in different ways including saying that one of the workers´ 3 year old daughter would be the one to pay if they did not change the tone of the radio.<br />
<br />
On May 4th, new threats were sent to two of the radio workers.<span style="border-collapse: collapse;"><b></b> Radio Victoria needs your help and solidarity. Here is who you can contact to ask for an exhaustive investigation, for results of the investigations, for full protection for ALL workers at Radio Victoria, for guarantees of freedom of the press y freedom of expression, for democratic and independent media and whatever else you want to say.</span></span></div><div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="border-collapse: collapse;"><b>PLEASE CONTACT:</b></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="border-collapse: collapse;"> <br />
Send an email to the Attorney General Romeo Barahona to <b>demand a full investigation</b> and protection for our workers. The Attorney General of the Republic is the only one who can decide what gets investigated and he is not taking us seriously. Please send an email to his assistant at: <u><a href="mailto:hector.burgos@fgr.gob.sv" target="_blank">hector.burgos@fgr.gob.sv</a></u><br />
<br />
<b>If you speak Spanish, </b>you could also call Salvadoran Attorney General Romeo Barahona at <a href="tel:011-503-2260-6350" target="_blank" value="+50322606350">011-503-2260-6350</a> and make your voice heard.<br />
<br />
Send an email to David Morales, Director of Human Rights at the Ministry of Foreign Relations to <b>demand specialized police protection for those being threatened: </b><a href="mailto:dmorales@rree.gob.sv" target="_blank">dmorales@rree.gob.sv</a></span></span><br />
</div>SHARE Foundationhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00702552278356651914noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5932891039917265217.post-89236156705445252872011-05-04T14:19:00.001-04:002011-05-05T13:55:19.636-04:00The Struggle Against Climate Change in El Corozal<div style="background-color: transparent; color: #93c47d;"><h3 id="internal-source-marker_0.958150762366131"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-weight: normal; white-space: pre-wrap;">This update was originally published in our eNewsletter on Earth Day 2011.</span></h3><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The small 60 family community of El Corozal, where SHARE counterpart REDES has been working since 2006, is so remote and tucked away into the hills outside of Berlin, Usulután, that they still do not receive running water or electricity in the community. The school only goes up to fifth grade and with only two teachers and one principal who is also teaching classes, there are two grades of students being taught by one teacher at the same time. Given the distance to the middle school in Berlin, very few students are able to continue studying after the fifth grade. In fact, when the mayor’s office of Berlin offered to train someone from the community as a health promoter with the condition that it be someone with a high school degree, the community realized, upon searching for an eligible person, that nobody in the community had obtained a high school degree.<a name='more'></a></span></div><div style="background-color: transparent; color: #93c47d;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br />
</span></div><div style="background-color: transparent; color: #93c47d;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></div><div style="background-color: transparent; color: #93c47d;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">However, upon meeting with the community leaders in El Corozal, the first thing we noticed was not the lack of resources. We were invited to meet in the newly inaugurated church of El Corozal. We sit down on chairs on the new tile floor and look at the posters that have been hung up on the while in front of us. “Welcome SHARE!” The sign says. “We are a community of 250 men, women, and children. Our biggest concerns are climate change and food security.” Next to the map is a neatly written chart which explains the organization of their community, including what institutions support them and how they have divided themselves into 11 different working committees.</span></div><div style="background-color: transparent; color: #93c47d;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br />
</span></div><div style="background-color: transparent; color: #93c47d;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Underneath the welcome sign and organizational structure graphic are two “community resource and risk maps” which detail all the risk zones in the area and all the community resources such as the school, the church, the seed bank, various wells, and the main roads. Every home is included in the map and the homes that are more vulnerable to destruction from natural disasters are drawn in red. Every area on the road from Berlin that is a potential risk area during the raining season is colored in red. As a community that was heavily affected by the 2001 earthquakes, Hurricane Stan in 2005, and Hurricane Ida in 2009, they have learned that preparation and organization is what can save a community from total destruction. The emergency response committee had been trained in first aid techniques and coordinated with the health committee in how to react in a disaster. We are looking at an amazing example of risk management and disaster preparation.</span></div><div style="background-color: transparent; color: #93c47d;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br />
</span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Beyond preparation for disaster, the community knows that the true culprit for the levels of disaster induced destruction in recent years has been climate change. After Hurricane Ida hit El Salvador in 2009 and dumped half as much rain on the country in one night that Hurricane Mitch brought in a whole week in 1998, people began to be more concerned. In El Corozal, people lost up to 40% of their crops for that year. As part of the Hurricane Ida recovery, SHARE sponsored a project through REDES that would teach communities like El Corozal about climate change to raise awareness about what is happening to our environment.</span></div><div style="background-color: transparent; color: #93c47d;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br />
</span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">According to the Salvadoran Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources, the temperature in El Salvador in the past forty years has increased up to 5 degrees. Recent studies reported in the </span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Nature Journal</span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> connect human activity to an increase in temperature and precipitation. What does this mean in El Salvador? According to REDES, an increase in temperature causes drought and decrease in water sources. Yet, as warm air carries more precipitation, it also means that when it does rain, which can no longer be predicted as it used to be by Salvadoran farmers, it rains so heavily that crops are completely wiped out.</span></div><div style="background-color: transparent; color: #93c47d;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br />
</span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">For the community of El Corozal, a community that lives off of agriculture, this can be devastating. In addition to climate change, neo-liberal policies put into place at the end of the Civil War that favor foreign imports have weakened local agriculture. Most farmers who depend on genetically modified seeds and chemical fertilizers find that the growing cost of these products make it nearly impossible for them to have any type of earning from their crop production.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div><div style="background-color: transparent; color: #93c47d;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><br />
</span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Taking all of this into account, the environmental team and local producers in El Corozal, together with REDES, have begun to experiment with organic seeds that would not have to be bough every year, but rather taken from the former year’s production. Genetically modified seeds are made so that they do not produce new seeds so that farmers have to continue to buy seeds each year. They have also begun a process of making their own organic fertilizer from compost and chicken manure. In an experiment that they did last year by planting different variations of organic corn seeds and chemical versus organic fertilizer, they learned that organic fertilizer worked just as well as chemical fertilizer. They were also able to identify one variation of corn that withstood the drought, heavy rains, and wind characteristic to these hills better than any of the others.</span></div><div style="background-color: transparent; color: #93c47d;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The community leadership in El Corozal continues to work towards solutions to how to deal with the effect of climate change on their crops and on their community. Disaster planning and preparation helps them to be ready for heavy rains and to mitigate risks as much as possible. Working toward organic production and food sovereignty should lessen their dependence on major businesses. “The community is in a state of emergency” says directive president Antonio Funes Campos, “we have to take action and do something.” And indeed the community of El Corozal is doing the best they can do given the gravity of the situation.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div><div style="background-color: transparent; color: #93c47d;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><br />
</span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Yet if there is one thing that community leaders have learned from their climate change training it is that much of what can be done is out of their hands. Countries like El Salvador are not the countries producing the high levels of greenhouse gases that are causing global warming. Its countries like the United States. More than ev poor in developing countries are suffering from the effects of actions taken by “first world” citizens. So as we celebrate this Earth Day 2011, SHARE, REDES, ander, the the people of El Corozal invite you to start thinking about how to act more as a </span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">global citizens</span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> and about what steps we can all take to promote global environmental justice.</span></div>SHARE Foundationhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00702552278356651914noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5932891039917265217.post-10677127647503410202011-05-04T11:41:00.000-04:002011-05-04T11:41:29.633-04:00Radio Victoria Press Release<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>Dear SHARE family,<br />
<br />
Once again, the Radio Victoria in Victoria, Cabañas is receiving death threats. Threats against many of the young people at this community radio have been going on all year, along with threats to burn down the radio. Numerous anti-mining activists have already lost their lives and many other leaders in this movement have been threatened or attempts have been made on their lives. <br />
<br />
Please stay posted for ways to stand in solidarity with these inspiring, dedicate young people at the Radio Victoria. <br />
<br />
In solidarity,<br />
Tedde</i></span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>PRESS RELEASE </b></span> </div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Today, May 3rd, is World Press Freedom Day and on this day Radio Victoria is again denouncing death threats against their workers. </span></span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">During the early hours of Saturday April 30th a note was slipped under Radio Victoria´s front entrance naming 3 workers and threatening their lives if they did not leave the Radio by Wednesday May 4th.</span></span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">On May 2nd during the evening 2 radio journalists received text messages on their cell phones threatening them in different ways including saying that one of the workers´ 3 year old daughter would be the one to pay if they did not change the tone of the radio.</span></span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Tomorrow May 4th Radio Victoria and ADES, Santa Marta´s Social and Economic Development Association, will hold a press conference in front of El Salvador´s Attorney General´s office denouncing the total lack of results from investigations into who are the intellectual and material authors of these continuous threats.</span></span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">We will send out more information soon on how you all can support the Radio and other human rights defenders in El Salvador.</span></span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><br />
</span></span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Thank you for your attention and support. </span></span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"></div>SHARE Foundationhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00702552278356651914noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5932891039917265217.post-55068154715236190412011-05-01T00:01:00.001-04:002011-05-02T11:29:32.639-04:00May 1st: Change Through Mobilized Communities!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></div><i>Excerpt from the Pagina de Maiz, a weekly publication put out by SHARE counterpart, Equipo Maiz.</i><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.answercoalition.org/la/assets/images/may-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.answercoalition.org/la/assets/images/may-1.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">This May 1, 2011, workers, student organizations, farmers, women, and entire communities will come together to mobilize with workers from all around the world in unity for political change to end capitalist exploitation and imperialist domination.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The reality of today is that capitalism is in an economic crisis, and this crisis is causing nations to turn against one another for vital resources such as gas and water.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">This May 1st will be the 3rd year in a row that the people of El Salvador will be able to march freely away from the corrupt government of ARENA. Yet they are still battling for historic demands on increased minimum wages, educational rights, healthcare, and more. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Mobilized communities have realized that they cannot simply "sit and wait" for changes to happen. With FMLN they must make these changes happen. They've realized they need to push for more communities, factory workers, wealthy business owners, and the like in order to have a bigger voice in political changes and policies. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The freedom of the working class will not be obtained by anyone but the working class! They must continue their struggle for political rights! To all the workers and organized communities fighting for their rights as people, we thank you for your continued dedication!</div>SHARE Foundationhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00702552278356651914noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5932891039917265217.post-53668225188489328202011-04-27T17:48:00.000-04:002011-04-27T17:48:35.963-04:00Electoral Reform: Multi-Party City Councils<style type="text/css">
p { margin-bottom: 0.21cm; }
</style> <div lang="en-US" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">As part of a number of electoral reforms being proposed by civil society, one that stands out, especially as Legislative and Mayoral elections approach, is the proposal to accept multi-party City Councils.</div><div lang="en-US" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.electoralgeography.com/new/en/wp-content/gallery/el-salvador2009l/2009-el-salvador-legislative-municipalities.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="219" src="http://www.electoralgeography.com/new/en/wp-content/gallery/el-salvador2009l/2009-el-salvador-legislative-municipalities.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Local election results 2009</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div lang="en-US" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">Currently, El Salvador is the only country in Latin America that functions on simple majority elections for city councils. That means that when one party wins the local elections and takes the mayors office, every person on the City Council comes from that political party. Whereas, in most other countries in Latin America, the City Council is made up of representatives from different parties depending on how well they were represented in recent elections.</div><div lang="en-US" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"></div><a name='more'></a><br />
<br />
<div lang="en-US" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">For example, in the municipality of San Salvador in 2009, the ARENA party won the elections. This means that the mayor, the trustee, the 8 aldermen, and the 8 alternates are from the ARENA party. If this new proposal were to be accepted in El Salvador, the San Salvador City Council in this example would consist of, the ARENA mayor, the ARENA trustee, 8 ARENA aldermen, and instead of 8 ARENA alternates there instead would be 8 more aldermen but from the FMLN party, which correlates directly to their representation in the elections.</div><div lang="en-US" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div lang="en-US" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">Those who support this proposal point out that no change would have to be made to the Salvadoran Constitution as the Constitution states that: “the Government is republican, democratic and representative” and that “the political system is pluralistic and this is expressed through political parties, which are only and instrument to exercise the peoples representation within the government.”</div><div lang="en-US" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div lang="en-US" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">Other arguments in favor of this system are:</div><ul><li><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span lang="en-US">It strengthens political representation</span></div></li>
<li><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span lang="en-US">It works to depolarize society</span></div></li>
<li><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span lang="en-US">There would be more transparency within local governments</span></div></li>
<li><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span lang="en-US">More stability among local governments when different political parties win the elections</span></div></li>
</ul><div lang="en-US" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div lang="en-US" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">Overall it is said that this system would strengthen representational democracy. The ARENA party would have representation in 261 out of 262 municipalities, the FMLN in 251, the Christian Democrat party in 104, the National Conciliatory Party in 172, the FDR party in 6 and the Democratic Change party in 12.</div><div lang="en-US" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div lang="en-US" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">One criticism of this system would be that women's participation in local governments would diminish since women are often times included in City Councils as alternates. Some have asked that what will happen when political parties share seats on the City Councils and place mainly men in those seats. A representative of the Social Institute for Democracy (ISD), a former SHARE counterpart, responded to that concern by stating that a comprehensive electoral and political party reform law, that they are working towards, would include a provision that would require equal participation from men and women in all political parties. Currently the Democratic Change party is the only party with that provision. Yet, such a comprehensive reform law is still a long way off.</div><div lang="en-US" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div lang="en-US" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">The ISD and other organizations and institutions working towards the plural party City Council systems hope to implement this change within the next few years. If not by next years elections, then by the 2015 mayor elections.</div>SHARE Foundationhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00702552278356651914noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5932891039917265217.post-41096525837891578632011-04-14T13:31:00.001-04:002011-04-14T13:35:33.306-04:00More Great 2010 Delegation Quotes!<u>Churchwomen Delegation</u><br />
"The delegation experience challenges me to an even greater commitment to the advocacy education work I do. I'm greatly encouraged by the efforts of SHARE with women's empowerment and leadership for young women. This is absolutely necessary for peace in our world."<br />
<br />
"I appreciated SHARE not spoon feeding data to us, but rather letting individuals learn from the conversations, the travel, and reflections shared."<br />
<br />
"Once again my eyes and heart have been opened to the suffering that has been felt by the Salvadorans. Once again I am impressed with their hope and energy. I was very touched by the stark poverty of Llano Grande, but once again was moved by their hope."<br />
<br />
<u>Cretin Derham Hall</u><br />
“I learned a lot in El Salvador and a lot about myself. I wish I could put it into words, but there are no words powerful enough to explain everything.”<br />
<br />
"I learned that as a U.S. citizen, we have an impact on the countries of the world. It is our responsibility to educate ourselves so we can use our knowledge to help the world."<br />
<br />
“Through this experience, I've been shown that the world has many issues and you can never be done learning about and questioning them. That is the only way to find solutions.”<br />
<br />
I have learned more about the history and current political and economic structure existing in El Salvador. I learned more about the interconnection between El Salvador, the U.S., and other countries. I learned a simple way of life can be an effective and happy way of life. One of the most important lessons I learned is knowledge is power and one of the most important ways to help the poor and vulnerable. I also learned a lot about CAFTA"<br />
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<u>St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Parish</u><br />
“I learned so much: the history of El Salvador, the current issues that are affecting the country, more of the Spanish language, and what it really means to be a community.”<br />
<br />
“I think the advocacy was well done – because otherwise the delegation would just be a “show and tell” without allowing groups to take back what they've learned and carry out their sistering relationship.”<br />
<br />
“Learned of the challenge many people face in their everyday lives. The things we take for granted can not be afforded, like a high school education, clean water, food, medicine.”<br />
<br />
“New perspective on faith and what it means to be a Catholic as described by Father Rutilio Grande and Mons. Romero.”<br />
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<u>Eastern Michigan University</u><br />
“I've learned the truth about the issues here. About CAFTA, mining, immigration, human rights, corruption, impunity, ARENA, FMLN, health, public and private health care, and poverty. I also learned about hope and overcoming all odds. I learned that the USA isn't perfect and that their “aid” often does more harm than good. I learned that the current situation isn't working and things need to change. I've learned about issues that I didn't even know existed. I think SHARE teaching about advocacy is awesome. At the very least I plan on telling everyone who will listen about the truth in El Salvador and of the world.”<br />
<br />
“I have learned about the impact of poverty, human rights, and health in El Salvador. Being in the rural community helped me learn the importance of sharing with people and living in solidarity. I have learned the importance of good energy, hard work, struggles, perserverance, and hope. I also learned about the economy and the impact the civil war has on people today. My perspective of the world has changed dramatically. I am more critical of U.S. Foreign policy. I believe in sharing with people and creating a community. I plan on advocating for social justice back at home by creating a sense of awareness about issues in El Salvador and educating myself.”<br />
<br />
“I've learned to appreciate the world and people around me more frequently. Also, I've learned to try and keep myself centered in what I want in life. I feel a lot more solidarity with Salvadorans and other Centra Americans after participating in this trip. SHARE does a great job incorporating advocacy issues.”<br />
<br />
<u>Georgetown University:</u><br />
“...Coming out of the trip I feel incredibly enriched. I've grown so much in this past week.”<br />
<br />
“I learned that choices I make in the US affect people abroad and I saw that first hand.”<br />
<br />
“I want to make my life less materialistic and spread the story about the real El Salvador to my friends and classmates and continue my relationship with Share, Santa Monica and my family.”<br />
<br />
<u>Visitation Medical Delegation </u><br />
“I learned more about the country and people of El Salvador; their politics, beliefs, economic situation, and history. I have increased appreciation for the country and its peoples' needs. I plan to increase awareness for my family and friends. Remain up to date on issues central to El Salvador and its people.”<br />
<br />
“A great experience – wonderful fellowship – a very close group relationship. Every time we come, we feel blessed and so respectful for those who have so little and yet are so joyful.”<br />
<br />
“It is always a learning experience. Everyone we came into contact with taught us something that we will all carry back.”<br />
<br />
“This is my ninth delegation. I continue to come because it grounds me in the greater world.”SHARE Foundationhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00702552278356651914noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5932891039917265217.post-64315003542843464802011-04-08T11:53:00.001-04:002011-04-08T12:01:33.472-04:00Thank you Marina!<div style="color: white;"><span id="internal-source-marker_0.17892248191858184" style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Thank you Marina for many years working with SHARE.</span></div><div style="color: white;"><br />
</div><div style="color: white;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span></div><div style="color: white;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Marina Peña, SHARE’s El Salvador Field Office Director recently decided to leave SHARE in order to accept a position working as an advisor to the Salvadoran Ambassador in Nicaragua. Marina’s dedication, enthusiasm, and expertise will be greatly missed at SHARE. </span></div><div style="color: white;"><br />
</div><div style="color: white;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span></div><div style="color: white;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">For over 11 years, we enjoyed Marina’s leadership in accompanying partner communities as they moved from war to reconstruction. The success of the Mujeras Ganaderas, the cooperative of cattle women in the Bajo Lempa, is one example of Marina’s ability to encourage and empower a marginalized group of women. She guided through the process of forming their own women’s cooperative and walked with them until they secured their legal status. Today they are a thriving, successful, and respected women’s organization.</span></div><div style="color: white;"><br />
</div><div style="color: white;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span></div><div style="color: white;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Marina was a champion in supporting the struggle of women and human rights. Last November, with the support of SHARE, a Salvadoran women’s organization passed landmark legislation to protect women from violence. The Romero Coalition, another advocacy effort that Marina championed, was instrumental in pressing Salvadoran President Mauricio Funes to ask for pardon on behalf of the Salvadoran government for violations committed during the war at the 30th anniversary commemoration of Archbishop Oscar Romero. </span></div><div style="color: white;"><br />
</div><div style="color: white;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span></div><div style="color: white;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">We are sure Marina will do a superb job working with the Salvadoran community in Nicaragua.</span></div><div style="color: white;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span></div><div style="color: white;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">We want to say thank you Marina for her leadership and for her many years advancing the mission of SHARE. We wish her success and hope she will continue to be part of the SHARE family even while she is in Nicaragua.</span></div><div style="color: white;"><br />
</div><div style="color: white;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span></div><div style="color: white;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Un fuerte abrazo and muchas gracias for your love and dedication, Marina!</span></div><div style="color: white;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span></div><div style="color: white;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Jose Artiga</span></div><div style="color: white;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Executive Director</span></div>SHARE Foundationhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00702552278356651914noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5932891039917265217.post-34175675152289970282011-04-07T13:36:00.000-04:002011-04-07T13:36:45.841-04:00Top Ten 2010 Delegate Quotes<style type="text/css">
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<ul><li><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">“<span lang="en-US">Instead of just hearing about poverty and peoples' struggles, we lived it and saw first hand in a way that will affect me forever. SHARE's incorporation of advocacy issues was truly remarkable and inspiring to me. I plan on initiating events and fundraisers on campus to create awareness in the U.S. about issues in El Salvador.” </span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span lang="en-US">Eastern Michigan University</span></span></div></li>
</ul><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-mhoLwE8LTvQ/TZ30FwriqfI/AAAAAAAABfU/ukIMg3-e2rA/s1600/CDHA+Julia+n+mami.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="215" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-mhoLwE8LTvQ/TZ30FwriqfI/AAAAAAAABfU/ukIMg3-e2rA/s320/CDHA+Julia+n+mami.jpg" width="320" /></a><br />
</div><ul><li><div align="LEFT" lang="en-US" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;"> <span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">"I can now understand how big on an impact the policies of the USA have on the rest of the world. Even though the American people may not realize their power, they are responsible for their actions." </span></span></div><div align="LEFT" lang="en-US" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Cretin Derham Hall</span></span></div></li>
</ul><div align="LEFT" lang="en-US" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;"> <br />
</div><ul><li><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span lang="en-US"><span style="text-decoration: none;">"The past week has driven home the need to understand, to a greater degree, the global impact of my way of life. Then </span></span><span lang="en-US"><u>change</u></span><span lang="en-US"><span style="text-decoration: none;"> those areas that are harmful to the global community." </span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span lang="en-US"><span style="text-decoration: none;">Churchwomen Delegation </span></span> </div></li>
</ul><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><ul><li><div align="LEFT" lang="en-US" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;"> “<span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">We all need to open our eyes and hearts to listen to our brothers and sisters all over the world. Each one of our brothers and sisters has a great story to tell.”</span></span></div><div align="LEFT" lang="en-US" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Parish</span></span></div></li>
</ul><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><ul><li><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-wfI77ZxxPvo/TZ31m560AMI/AAAAAAAABfg/lAKUAZp0tpw/s1600/CDHJ+Nick+n+kids.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-wfI77ZxxPvo/TZ31m560AMI/AAAAAAAABfg/lAKUAZp0tpw/s320/CDHJ+Nick+n+kids.jpg" width="320" /></a><span lang="en-US"><span style="font-weight: normal;">"I have learned so much about the civil war and current economy in El Salvador. I have also learned about the USA's involvement in the war and what advocacy organizations are doing to help the people of El Salvador today. More than anything I have learned about the strength and kindness of the Salvadoran people." </span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span lang="en-US"><span style="font-weight: normal;"> Cretin Derham Hall</span></span></div></li>
</ul><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><ul><li><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span lang="en-US"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">"The question should be what </span></span></span><span lang="en-US"><u><span style="font-weight: normal;">didn't</span></u></span><span lang="en-US"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"> move or touch me; every minute was jam-packed--so informative, so motivating, so inspirational. Each leader offered so much in knowledge, joy and giving. Each were very sensitive to the needs and to requests. Never has there been been such giving leadership. The delegates themselves were so inspiring, each bringing and sharing a unique gift." Churchwomen Delegation </span></span></span> </div></li>
</ul><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><ul><li><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">“<span lang="en-US"><span style="font-weight: normal;">I realize now that it is every person's duty as a human being to help all other human beings, no matter what their circumstance. I plan to tell stories of the people I met, making sure that these people are not forgotten.” Eastern Michigan University</span></span></div></li>
</ul><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><ul><li><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">“<span lang="en-US"><span style="font-weight: normal;">I have learned how welcoming and loving one community can be and that love is unconditional. I've learned that every name and face has a story. It is important to give dignity to every person.” </span></span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-XFXbW9tWDr8/TZ30MvrhKVI/AAAAAAAABfY/7ZewzgSITb0/s1600/GtownSantaMonica.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-XFXbW9tWDr8/TZ30MvrhKVI/AAAAAAAABfY/7ZewzgSITb0/s320/GtownSantaMonica.jpg" width="320" /></a><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span lang="en-US"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Cretin Derham Hall</span></span></span></div></li>
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</div><ul><li><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">“<span lang="en-US"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">I went in with an open mind and I feel like I learned more in a week here than in a semester at school.” </span></span></span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span lang="en-US"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Georgetown University</span></span></span></span></div></li>
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</div><ul><li><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span lang="en-US"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">"I always appreciate having my vision and perspective broadened -- as it was during this trip. With so many Salvadoran immigrants in the US, I appreciate the insights into the pain of their choice to leave El Salvador and the vast challenges for those who stay behind or return." </span></span></span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span lang="en-US"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Churchwomen Delegation </span></span></span></span> </div></li>
</ul><div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div>SHARE Foundationhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00702552278356651914noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5932891039917265217.post-53885525651217661512011-04-05T17:54:00.000-04:002011-04-05T17:54:44.749-04:00Women's Rights in the Workplace<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Lz6VjLZJU3Q/TZOT-YOrvCI/AAAAAAAABek/TC2p-3l1X_k/s1600/woman+factory+job.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="177" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Lz6VjLZJU3Q/TZOT-YOrvCI/AAAAAAAABek/TC2p-3l1X_k/s200/woman+factory+job.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Salvadoran Women working in a factory</td></tr>
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On March 30th, the International Labor Organization presented their report on Legislation Regarding Women's Work Rights in Central America and the Dominican Republic. The report revealed that the most common types of labor violations in the workplace for women are in regards to maternity and sexual harrasment. <br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">International Labor Organization Representative, Maria Jose Chamorro, presented the report to the audience. Some interesting facts about El Salvador labor laws:</div><ul><li><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">El Salvador ratified the International Agreement on Work Dicrimination in 1995, and the International Agreement on Equal Pay in 2000, while the rest of the Central American countries had ratified those agreements in the 1950's and 1960's.</div></li>
<li><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">Article 3 of the Salvadoran constitution states that "All persons are equal under the law. To have access to civil rights there could be no restrictions based on nationality, race, sex or religion."</div></li>
<li><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">Both the Convention for the Elimination of All forms of Violance Against Women and the Inter-American Convention to Prevent, Sanction and Erradicate Violance Against Women have been ratified by the Salvadoran government.</div></li>
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<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">Despite fact that these and a number of other laws are in place to protect women in the workplace, there is still a great amount of discrimination and abuse directed towards working women. Here are some examples.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><ul><li><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">Salvadoran National Assemblywoman, Margarita Velada, gave the example of the maternity law in El Salvador that requires thatt a women be working for an employer for six months to recieve maternity benefits. Ms. Velada posed the question that if a man where to obtain a job and get an an accident a week later and need medical care, no one would doubt that his job would cover him. This is an example of discrimination that pregnant women face</div></li>
<li><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">The head of the Ministry of Work, Marina de Aviles, gave the example of how some companies, no longer allowed to give pregnancy tests to women when the apply for a job, now make women take a lie detector test and ask if they are pregnant, if they fail the test, they are not hired.</div></li>
</ul><ul><li><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">In El Salvador, in 2009, there were a total of 709 reports of sexual harrassment in the work place.</div></li>
</ul><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">Presenters acknowledged that this great amount of discrimination still exists because there are few women who actually come forward and denounce it. This could be due to the fact that they are unaware of their rights and believe that the employer has legitimate reasons for discriminating, or it could be because they are in desperate need of their job and fear that by making a denouncement they will lose it. In many cases it is hard to make a denouncement because there are either no witnesses or witnesses are employers who are also afraid of losing their job.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">The conclusion was made that something that governments and civil society should work for is a culture where women know their rights and are unafraid to denounce discrimnation. This would also mean promoting a culture where the legal bodies that exist side with the victim and not the employer.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">SHARE Counterparts like ORMUSA and the IMU are examples of organizations working to empower women and denounce injustice. We celebrate the passing of the <a href="http://thesharefoundation.blogspot.com/2010/11/law-passed-in-el-salvador-for-life-free.html">Life Free of Violence Against Women Law</a>, but we know that we must continue to support those organizations in their work to become a society free of discrimination and violence against women.</div>SHARE Foundationhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00702552278356651914noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5932891039917265217.post-67317399392329585832011-04-01T19:51:00.001-04:002011-04-01T19:54:47.792-04:00Remembering María Julia: Defender of Human Rights in El Salvador<style type="text/css">
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<div lang="en-US" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ltXa4Ord5PM/TZZktBVHmRI/AAAAAAAABfQ/CAJUHzc-TDE/s1600/IMG_2131.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ltXa4Ord5PM/TZZktBVHmRI/AAAAAAAABfQ/CAJUHzc-TDE/s320/IMG_2131.JPG" width="277" /></a></div>“<span lang="en-US">Our struggle to exercise these rights here in El Salvador continues, we will keep searching for this truth and justice in El Salvador's courts. I don't know when, but one day truth and justice will flourish in our country for the victims who abandoned this utopia with their blood.”</span><br />
- Dr. María Julia Hernández</div><div lang="en-US" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span lang="en-US">Dr. María Julia Hernandez, long-time director of Tutela Legal, The Salvadoran Archdiocese's human rights office, and defender of the victims of horrific human rights violations, died March 30</span><sup><span lang="en-US">th</span></sup><span lang="en-US"> four years ago. </span><br />
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<span lang="en-US"></span><i>SHARE worked with María Julia, Tutela Legal, and the Archdiocese on many human rights initiatives over the years, including human rights campaigns during the war, coordination with the movement of refugees repopulating communities in the late 1980s, and working on the initial design for a memorial wall dedicated to the civilian victims of the war. SHARE brought María Julia on tour in the U.S. to promote and fundraise for the construction of the memorial wall. Says SHARE Executive Director José Artiga, “María Julia is one of our most prominent women leaders in El Salvador. She worked closely with all the Archbishops, and was a defender of human rights who promoted denouncements, justice, and reparations.”</i></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span lang="en-US">In honor of María Julia Hernández, Wednesday March 30</span><sup><span lang="en-US">th</span></sup><span lang="en-US"> 2011 members of Tutela Legal organized a mass and forum in the Crypt of the National Cathedral, where María Julia, Archbishop Oscar Romero, and a number of other priests and religious persons are buried. María Julia is one of the only women buried in the Crypt. A group of forty people gathered to commemorate her life, including members of COMADRES, the Committee of the Mothers of the Disappeared, and many others who knew her. In the spirit of María Julia, during the opening prayer, one of the priests proclaimed, “We are gathered here for the dignity of all, no matter their social class.” </span> </div><div lang="en-US" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-gnzNnZWKHWA/TZZZy3DhJ6I/AAAAAAAABfA/t9ODt3-37Iw/s1600/IMG_2126.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="150" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-gnzNnZWKHWA/TZZZy3DhJ6I/AAAAAAAABfA/t9ODt3-37Iw/s200/IMG_2126.JPG" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Decorating María Julia's tomb<br />
with flowers</td></tr>
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</div><div lang="en-US" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">Following the mass, Luis Morales and Dr. Aceda Díaz shared reflections about María Julia's personality, work, and legacy. María Julia first became involved in working for human rights after meeting Archbishop Romero in 1977 at a gathering of student groups. Archbishop Romero called on the students to aid the victims of disappearance and genocide, and María Julia decided to accompany him in this work. She took on a preferential option for the victims, committing the rest of her life to defending human rights.</div><div lang="en-US" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div lang="en-US" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">In 1983, María Julia took leadership of the newly formed Tutela Legal. She and her team worked tirelessly and systematically to investigate, record, and denounce massacres, murders, disappearances, and other human rights violations, and to protect victims. While these atrocities stopped happening systematically with the end of the war, they remained covered by silence, impunity, and the amnesty law. María Julia continued to work for the truth to be known and acknowledged. Together with Tiberio Arnoldo Romero, brother of Archbishop Oscar Romero, she brought the case of Archbishop Romero's assassination to the Inter-American Human Rights Commission. She also played an instrumental role in coordinating the exhumations of the El Mozote Massacre, bringing irrefutable evidence to light. She helped facilitate the planning and construction of the Monument to Truth and Memory as well, a memorial wall with the names of nearly 30,000 civilian victims killed or disappeared during the war. <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Lic. Luis Morales, Dr. Díaz, and Ovidio Gonzalez, current<br />
director of Tutela legal. Mexican singer-songwriter and<br />
defender of immigrant rights performs a song.</td></tr>
</tbody></table></div><div lang="en-US" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">Luis Morales emphasized the importance of María Julia's work for truth, justice, and reparations, naming each as a fundamental right of victims of grave human rights violations, violations that impact not only individuals or families, but whole communities, countries, and even humanity at large. He referenced a 2004 UN Development Project report declaring that in El Salvador two genocides have been carried out: the mass murder of indigenous rural farmworkers in 1932 known as La Matanza, and the political repression in the 1970s and 1980s. Morales warned of the need for truth, justice, and reparations to keep this piece of history from repeating once more.</div><div lang="en-US" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div lang="en-US" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">Dr. Aceda Díaz, a lawyer and long-time friend and acquaintance of María Julia, shared personal memories of María Julia. She painted a picture of the male-dominated society they both grew up in. At the time María Julia attended the University of Central America, majoring in philosophy, very few women went to university at all and even fewer studied law or philosophy. University was for men, and men filled nearly all seats in the government, and other positions of public authority.</div><div lang="en-US" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-6RecfK5ZGr8/TZZZ_B0vGxI/AAAAAAAABfE/JcskX5Jxh-8/s1600/IMG_2128.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-6RecfK5ZGr8/TZZZ_B0vGxI/AAAAAAAABfE/JcskX5Jxh-8/s320/IMG_2128.JPG" width="240" /></a></div><span lang="en-US">Dr. Díaz first heard of María Julia in the early 1980s. As a young lawyer with a small office during a time of mounting repression, she often received visits from people whose family members had been disappeared or assassinated, and felt completely impotent, with no idea how to help them or where to refer them to. Then she heard of a little office, Tutela Legal, run by María Julia Hernández. Dr. Díaz reminded everyone that to hold the position María Julia held during the war, documenting disappearances, torture, and massacres, and traveling to other countries to share and denounce these cases, meant running risk of her life, yet María Julia showed no fear. During an interview Dr. Diaz once heard, a reporter asked María Julia, “So what have you really achieved? Peoples' human rights continue to be trampled daily.” María Julia responded, “As Christians we do not have the right to give up hope. We must keep working so that one day things will be better.” When Dr. Diaz remarked how impressed she was with María Julia's answer, María Julia replied, “We cannot lose hope.” </span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span lang="en-US"> </span> </div><div lang="en-US" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">Dr. Díaz sees María Julia's life, deep faith, and clear commitment as a reminder that we all have a commitment to transform the place we are at, to put our gifts to the service of others. <i>Long live María Julia!</i></div>SHARE Foundationhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00702552278356651914noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5932891039917265217.post-86321412071946035992011-03-31T02:03:00.001-04:002011-03-31T18:11:13.211-04:00Congratulations Pro Busqueda: Government Publicy Recognizes Children Disappeared During the Armed Conflict<style type="text/css">
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-sQUj3xeyV5A/TZQMnbNe6DI/AAAAAAAABeo/6uL3NX7_OQg/s1600/IMG_2105.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-sQUj3xeyV5A/TZQMnbNe6DI/AAAAAAAABeo/6uL3NX7_OQg/s200/IMG_2105.JPG" width="200" /></a>A seemingly endless line of children, youth, and the occasional adult gathered outside the Feria Internacional in San Salvador the morning of March 29<sup>th</sup>, 2011. Everyone trickled through the gates one by one and rushed toward a huge ampitheatre decorated with kites and crawling with people for <span style="font-style: normal;">the </span><span style="font-style: normal;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Day of the Children Disappeared During the Armed Conflict</span></b></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">.</span></b></span><span style="font-style: normal;"> While the Salvadoran Legislative Assembly first named March 29</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;">th</span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;"> the Day of the Children Disappeared During the Armed Conflict in 2007, </span><i><b>this Tuesday marked the first time the Salvadoran government participated in the celebration, publicly acknowledging the many children who suffered forced disappearance and separation from their families during the armed conflict.</b></i><i><span style="font-weight: normal;"> </span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Pro Busqueda coordinated this exciting historic commemorative event together with the Salvadoran Secretariat of Social Inclusion, lead by First Lady Vanda Pignato. </span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
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</style> </div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-NWo30ABhTVw/TZQM8l19jHI/AAAAAAAABe4/aoXtO_229ac/s1600/IMG_2121.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-NWo30ABhTVw/TZQM8l19jHI/AAAAAAAABe4/aoXtO_229ac/s200/IMG_2121.JPG" width="200" /></a><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Probusqueda, a</span></span> Salvadoran<span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"> non-profit organization dedicated to searching for those disappeared as children during the armed conflict, has spearheaded the fight for truth, justice, and reparations for disappeared children and their families. After seventeen years advocating for families of the disappeared and working with many individuals who were disappeared, for Pro Busqueda to finally hear the government's acknowledgement of responsibility for the many children forcibly taken from their families during the war marked a historical moment. </span></span>Father Jon Cortina, S.J. started Pro Busqueda together with families from the community of Guarjila shortly after the end of the war. Families have reported over nine hundred cases of disappeared children to the staff of Pro Busqueda, who have found over three hundred people, and continue to search for more than five hundred. Pro Busqueda brought a number of young people who were disappeared and have since been found to the commemoration on Tuesday.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
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</style> </div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">Members of Pro Busqueda opened the event reminding everyone that it was a morning to pause and remember the those children torn from their homes, to share the search so many families and individuals have walked, and through this moment of truth step toward justice and begin to build sanity and reconciliation for El Salvador. They then brought the crowd together chanting “No los olvidamos,” We do not forget them. School groups, individuals, and organizations from all fourteen departments of El Salvador added their voices.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
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</style> </div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-NwowhdjScCQ/TZQMyCs2gYI/AAAAAAAABew/tJo2JULDN0A/s1600/IMG_2109.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-NwowhdjScCQ/TZQMyCs2gYI/AAAAAAAABew/tJo2JULDN0A/s200/IMG_2109.JPG" width="200" /></a>Much of the crowd surged to their feet at the announcement of President Mauricio Funes' entrance. As Funes slowly descended the main staircase with his wife at his side and a trail of dignitaries, members of Pro Busqueda, and victims of forced disappearance behind him, he shook the hand of each of the kids and young adults lined up alongside the stairs, a wide grin lighting his face. Once Presidente Funes and his wife took their seats on the stage, the official commemorative act began. The act included the introduction of a postage stamp for the Day of Children Disappeared During the Armed Conflict, featuring a child's footprints, prizes awarded to university students who wrote essays about disappeared children, and speeches by Ester Alvarenga, Coordinator of Probusqueda, and President Funes. As icing on the cake, those gathered had the pleasure of listening to internationally renowned singer/song-writer Julieta Venegas perform following the commemorative act. </div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-m5e_H4VxQqc/TZQM19HeYUI/AAAAAAAABe0/SQmpUV9QDLE/s1600/IMG_2111.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="150" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-m5e_H4VxQqc/TZQM19HeYUI/AAAAAAAABe0/SQmpUV9QDLE/s200/IMG_2111.JPG" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
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</tbody></table>During her speech, Ester Alvarenga noted the Inter-American Human Rights Court's 2005 ruling which declared the Salvadoran government guilty of violating of various human rights in the case of Erlinda and Ernestina Serrano Cruz, sisters disappeared at the ages of 7 and 13 as a breakthrough moment in the fight for justice for the families of disappeared children. The ruling set out various steps for the government to take as acts of reparation, including the creation of a national day of commemoration. In response, in 2006 the Salvadoran Legislative Assembly named March 29<sup>th</sup> the Day of the Children Disappeared During the Armed Conflict. As further steps, in 2010 President Funes made an official apology to all the victims of human rights violations committed by the government during the war and signed an executive decree for the formation of a National Search Commission, to search for children disappeared during the war. Ester Alvarenga called on the Attorney General, Supreme Court, and Legislative Assembly to act for justice as well, rather than forestall it, as they have done so far.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-eLGN1hOBr5s/TZQMtUK_yvI/AAAAAAAABes/JnIw8gaFjRk/s1600/IMG_2106.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-eLGN1hOBr5s/TZQMtUK_yvI/AAAAAAAABes/JnIw8gaFjRk/s200/IMG_2106.JPG" width="200" /></a></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">President Funes focused on the need for truth and his efforts to work towards reparations in response to atrocities committed during the armed conflict with the complicity of the Salvadoran government. He emphasized truth as a necessary step towards reconciliation, stating that, “a page should not be turned before it has been read.” He negated statements that dredging up the truth would open up wounds or incite hate, saying that truth is necessary for the dignity of the victims, and is an act of love. He called on the Attorney General to carry out full investigations of past grave human rights violations, in the name of a victim's right to the truth.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">For Andrea and José Ramirez, a husband and wife who were both disappeared as children near the beginning of the armed conflict, the president's acknowledgement of disappeared children was an incredibly important first step towards reparation. “Clearly it can't repair everything. It can't give her back her arm,” comments José, referring to Andrea, whose right shirt sleeve hangs loose and empty. “I was separated from my family for twelve years, placed in an orphanage. That can never be undone, I can never get those years back,”says Andrea, voice filled with urgency and passion. “Nevertheless, this is a step, and we feel very happy that the government is acknowledging the disappeared. Past governments never took us into account. Thus recognition from the government makes us as victims feel important.”</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">José and Andrea hope that this is just the first of many steps, and the government will continue taking action and making reparations. They recognize that this effort will need the support of other branches of government, and will require further investment of funds. “This is an effort we have to carry out all together,” declares Andrea. “It must include the Attorney General's office and the Legislative Assembly as well as the president. The president can have all the best of intentions, but if one of the others stands in the way, nothing will happen. Objectives have been set, like the creation of the National Search Commission. The best of professionals should be appointed. Although even with the best of the best, if the commission doesn't have funding, they will not be able to do anything.”</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">Angela, a young woman also forcibly disappeared during the war and adopted by a family in the United States, shared the Ramirez's sense of the importance of the moment, while remaining critical but hopeful of what may follow. While Angela felt uncertain as to whether Funes is the appropriate official to offer an apology, since it was not his government who committed the disappearances, and the military also holds heavy responsibility, she found the moment very moving. “I cried. This is what you carry around with you for your whole life, and to know that it's not just you, but that it's part of the national history, and the history that's being written today... it was a very emotional moment.” She found it particularly meaningful to share the moment with other young people who had been disappeared during the war. Peter, a young Salvadoran also taken from his family and adopted by a family in the U.S. wholeheartedly agreed. “One of the most meaningful parts was meeting other people who have been through the same thing. Hopefully we can be role models or provide a support network for others trying to find their families. Each person has a different story, but to be able to talk to someone that has been through something similar is huge.”</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">Congratulations to Pro Busqueda and to the many families and individuals who searched many months and years for their loved ones! While words can sometimes seem empty, it is the first time that the Salvadoran government has officially and publicly recognized the many children death squads and members of the armed forces snatched from their families and homes during the war, and the deep emotional and psychological pain this caused these individuals, families, and communities – words with weight and meaning. May the ongoing struggle for justice bring many more moments to celebrate.</div> <br />
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<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"></div>SHARE Foundationhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00702552278356651914noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5932891039917265217.post-88865938116208621392011-03-24T15:15:00.000-04:002011-03-24T15:15:22.543-04:00In the Words of Romero...<style type="text/css">
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-waNKaq2kq1M/TYuIawyZC2I/AAAAAAAABec/OTaMN0DyStY/s1600/P3240913.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-waNKaq2kq1M/TYuIawyZC2I/AAAAAAAABec/OTaMN0DyStY/s320/P3240913.JPG" width="240" /></a></div><div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">On all of our delegations that travel to El Salvador, we take the time to visit the Divina Providencia, run by the Carmelite nuns, and also the place where Oscar Romero lived and died. In a recent visit to the small house where Romero lived, one of the sisters in talking about Romero's homilies said: "People close to Monseñor used to say: "Be careful with what you say in your homilies!" And Monseñor would respond by saying that in preparing his homilies, he would write down everything that he was going to say, but as soon as he stood up there in front of all the people and the words starting coming out, it was different than what he had prepared. That to say that he felt that it was a power greater than him that was speaking." Here are some of those prophetic words:</div><div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">"We have never preached violence, except the violence of love, which left Christ nailed to a cross, the violcen that we must each do to ourselves to overcome our selfishness and such cruel inequalities among us. The violence we preach is not the violence of the sword, the violence of hatred. It is the violence of love, of brotherhood, the violence that wills to beat weapons into sickles for work."</div><div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">"I will not tire of declaring that if we really want an effective end to violence we must remove the violence that lies at the root of all violence: structural violence, social injustice, exclusion of citizens form the management of the country, repression. All this is what constitutes the primal cause, from which the rest flows naturally."</div><div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">"This is the fundamental thought of my preaching: Nothing is so important to me as human life. Taking life is something so serious, so grave-- more than the violation of any other human right-- because such bloodshed only negates love, awakens new hatreds, makes reconciliation and peace impossible."</div><div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">"There is one rule by which to judge if God is near us or is far away-- the rule that God's word is giving us today: everyone concerned for the hungry, the naked, the poor, for those who have vanished in police custody, for the tortured, for prisoners, for all flesh that suffers, has God close at hand."</div><div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">"What good are beautiful highways and airports, beautiful buildings full of spacious apartments, if they are only put together with the blood of the poor, who are not going to enjoy them?"</div><div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">"Peoples are free to choose the political system they want but not free to do whatever they feel like. They will have to be judged by God's justice in the political or social system they choose. God is the judge of all social systems. Neither the gospel or the church can be monopolized by any political or social movement."</div><div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">"El Salvador's liberation need not mean so much bloodshed; there is still time. If we all bring to bear the goodwill to renounce material things and seek those of divine worth, we can certainly find the way. Naturally, there must be the courage to yield in regard to what has become an untouchable institution, one at the base of all forms of violence: institutionalized violence, the country's injustice."</div>SHARE Foundationhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00702552278356651914noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5932891039917265217.post-463605888228585972011-03-24T14:24:00.000-04:002011-03-24T14:24:40.723-04:00Commemorating Father Rutilio Grande<a href="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-HLEJkL5B83I/TYtyNcG1sbI/AAAAAAAABeE/ocl8IvsgSWs/s1600/RG11mjov.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-HLEJkL5B83I/TYtyNcG1sbI/AAAAAAAABeE/ocl8IvsgSWs/s200/RG11mjov.JPG" width="200" /></a>Saturday March 12th marked the 34th anniversary of <a href="http://www.share-elsalvador.org/rutilio/091406a.htm">Father Rutilio Grande</a>'s martyrdom. A priest from El Paisnal, Rutilio Grande spoke against the injustices at the hands of an oppressive government, and dedicated his life's work to organizing the impoverished, marginalized rural farmers of El Salvador as they demanded respect for their rights. Members of the army shot him to death along with two other people, in 1977 on his way to give mass. Community members and social organizations continue to commemorate his life and death every year to hold up his example of commitment to the people and communities, and of speaking out for justice as a model for youth, men, women, and children to follow today, in the midst of continued inequality. <br />
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While El Salvador is no longer at war, economic wealth and job opportunities remain concentrated in the hands of a few. A culture of violence continues, manifesting itself in one of the highest murder rates on the continent. In the midst of these and other challenges, it is essential to build an identity Salvadorans are proud of, and remember people who touched and transformed the lives of many to believe in themselves and to work for love and justice.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-_-TwRRoffyo/TYuCz-s0XrI/AAAAAAAABeI/yNORDpjfVcw/s1600/RGmisa.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-_-TwRRoffyo/TYuCz-s0XrI/AAAAAAAABeI/yNORDpjfVcw/s200/RGmisa.JPG" width="200" /></a></div>This year over 800 people gathered in Aguilares to commemorate Father Grande, in an event coordinated by UCRES and the local government. Most people came from neighboring communities, though some came from other areas of El Salvador, and even a few from other countries. From Aguilares, everyone joined in walking to The Three Crosses, the monument constructed in memory of Father Rutilio Grande, Nelson Rutilio Lemus (16), and Manuel Solórzano (72), at the site they were gunned down at on March 12, 1977. Today a paved road surrounded by dusty, tranquil looking fields runs past the monument. <br />
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<a href="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-mSZPfq6sI_c/TYuD0_2GAEI/AAAAAAAABeM/UjounkYPkt0/s1600/11.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-mSZPfq6sI_c/TYuD0_2GAEI/AAAAAAAABeM/UjounkYPkt0/s200/11.JPG" width="200" /></a>The monument consists of three black crosses in memory of the three people killed, framed by a wall, with one of Father Grande's most well known quotes: Let's all go to the banquet, to the table of creation. Each of us has a bench, a place, and a mission.” Guillermo Cuellar based the words of the opening song for the Salvadoran Popular Mass on Father Grande's words. This Saturday, everyone joined in singing Let's All Go to the Banquet” to begin a commemorative mass just across from The Three Crosses. Music from the popular mass, and other songs born out of Christian Base Communities and the liberation theology Father Rutilio practiced and preached, filled the mass. Songs with words like “When the poor believe in the poor, we can shout, “liberty,” When the poor believe in the poor, we can build brotherhood... At the Lord's table we all committed ourselves to sowing love” and “The Bible is the word of life, the Bible is the word of God.” <br />
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<a href="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-iIf5sXSwmqk/TYtwWB0NfLI/AAAAAAAABeA/kMgv5sif1fg/s1600/RG11banner.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-iIf5sXSwmqk/TYtwWB0NfLI/AAAAAAAABeA/kMgv5sif1fg/s200/RG11banner.JPG" width="200" /></a>As mass came to a close, the morning sun sat overhead in a brilliant blue sky, filling the air with clinging heat and baking the road. Everyone re-grouped in the center of the road, holding posters and banners commemorating Father Rutilio, and joined in the Caminata, a slow, mindful walk from the Three Crosses to El Paisnal. Rutilio, Nelson and Manuel are buried in El Paisnal, and the central plaza is named after Rutilio Grande. All along the walk, UCRES high school and university scholarship students helped pass out bags of water to the walkers, and collected trash. One university student, Heidy Santamaría, said she comes to the commemoration every year. For her Father Rutilio is important because of the way he stood up for people's rights and because of the profound impact his life and death had on Monseñor Romero.<br />
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In El Paisnal following the caminata, one young woman commented, “Rutilio Grande was a defender of human rights and a friend of the people. I wish I could have met him.” She said she heard that when he first came to El Paisnal, the people would always serve him chicken, a real luxury for the economically impoverished families of the area. However, he told them that he did not want to be seen as more than anyone else just because he was a priest, and that he wanted to eat whatever the people ate. If the people ate beans, then he would eat beans too. <br />
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The many gathered sent a strong clear message that Father Rutilio Grande's acts and message of love for the people and for justice continue to move and inspire today's women, men, children, elderly, and youth to keep walking with love and demanding their rights.<br />
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<br />
<i>More info. about</i> <a href="http://www.share-elsalvador.org/rutilio/091406a.htmSaturday%20March%2012th%20marked%20the%2034th%20anniversary%20of%20Father%20Rutilio%20Grande%27s%20martyrdom.%20A%20priest%20from%20El%20Paisnal,%20Rutilio%20Grande%20spoke%20against%20the%20injustices%20at%20the%20hands%20of%20an%20oppressive%20government,%20and%20dedicated%20his%20life%27s%20work%20to%20organizing%20the%20impoverished,%20marginalized%20rural%20farmers%20of%20El%20Salvador%20as%20they%20demanded%20respect%20for%20their%20rights.%20Members%20of%20the%20army%20shot%20him%20to%20death%20along%20with%20two%20other%20people,%20in%201977%20on%20his%20way%20to%20give%20mass.%20Community%20members%20and%20social%20organizations%20continue%20to%20commemorate%20his%20life%20and%20death%20every%20year%20to%20hold%20up%20his%20example%20of%20commitment%20to%20the%20people%20and%20communities,%20and%20of%20speaking%20out%20for%20justice%20as%20a%20model%20for%20youth,%20men,%20women,%20and%20children%20to%20follow%20today,%20in%20the%20midst%20of%20continued%20inequality.%20%20%20While%20El%20Salvador%20is%20no%20longer%20at%20war,%20economic%20wealth%20and%20job%20opportunities%20remain%20concentrated%20in%20the%20hands%20of%20a%20few.%20A%20culture%20of%20violence%20continues,%20manifesting%20itself%20in%20one%20of%20the%20highest%20murder%20rates%20on%20the%20continent.%20In%20the%20midst%20of%20these%20and%20other%20challenges,%20%20it%20is%20essential%20to%20build%20an%20identity%20Salvadorans%20are%20proud%20of,%20and%20remember%20people%20who%20touched%20and%20transformed%20the%20lives%20of%20many%20to%20believe%20in%20themselves%20and%20to%20work%20for%20love%20and%20justice.%20%20This%20year%20over%20800%20people%20gathered%20in%20Aguilares%20to%20commemorate%20Father%20Grande,%20in%20an%20event%20coordinated%20by%20UCRES%20and%20the%20local%20government.%20Most%20people%20came%20from%20neighboring%20communities,%20though%20some%20came%20from%20other%20areas%20of%20El%20Salvador,%20and%20even%20a%20few%20from%20other%20countries.%20%20From%20Aguilares,%20everyone%20joined%20in%20walking%20to%20The%20Three%20Crosses,%20the%20monument%20constructed%20in%20memory%20of%20Father%20Rutilio%20Grande,%20Nelson%20Rutilio%20Lemus%20%2816%29,%20and%20Manuel%20Sol%C3%B3rzano%20%2872%29,%20at%20the%20site%20they%20were%20gunned%20down%20at%20on%20March%2012,%201977.%20Today%20a%20paved%20road%20surrounded%20by%20dusty,%20tranquil%20looking%20fields%20runs%20past%20the%20monument.%20%20%20The%20monument%20consists%20of%20three%20black%20crosses%20in%20memory%20of%20the%20three%20people%20killed,%20framed%20by%20a%20wall,%20with%20one%20of%20Father%20Grande%27s%20most%20well%20known%20quotes:%20Let%27s%20all%20go%20to%20the%20banquet,%20to%20the%20table%20of%20creation.%20Each%20of%20us%20has%20a%20bench,%20a%20place,%20and%20a%20mission.%E2%80%9D%20Guillermo%20Cuellar%20based%20the%20words%20of%20the%20opening%20song%20for%20the%20Salvadoran%20Popular%20Mass%20on%20Father%20Grande%27s%20words.%20This%20Saturday,%20everyone%20joined%20in%20%20singing%20Let%27s%20All%20Go%20to%20the%20Banquet%E2%80%9D%20to%20begin%20a%20commemorative%20mass%20just%20across%20from%20The%20Three%20Crosses.%20Music%20from%20the%20popular%20mass,%20and%20other%20songs%20born%20out%20of%20Christian%20Base%20Communities%20and%20the%20liberation%20theology%20Father%20Rutilio%20practiced%20and%20preached,%20filled%20the%20mass.%20Songs%20with%20words%20like%20%E2%80%9CWhen%20the%20poor%20believe%20in%20the%20poor,%20we%20can%20shout,%20%E2%80%9Cliberty,%E2%80%9D%20When%20the%20poor%20believe%20in%20the%20poor,%20we%20can%20build%20brotherhood...%20At%20the%20Lord%27s%20table%20we%20all%20committed%20ourselves%20to%20sowing%20love%E2%80%9D%20and%20%E2%80%9CThe%20Bible%20is%20the%20word%20of%20life,%20the%20Bible%20is%20the%20word%20of%20God.%E2%80%9D%20%20%20As%20mass%20came%20to%20a%20close,%20the%20morning%20sun%20sat%20overhead%20in%20a%20brilliant%20blue%20sky,%20filling%20the%20air%20with%20clinging%20heat%20and%20baking%20the%20road.%20Everyone%20re-grouped%20in%20the%20center%20of%20the%20road,%20holding%20posters%20and%20banners%20commemorating%20Father%20Rutilio,%20and%20joined%20in%20the%20Caminata,%20a%20slow,%20mindful%20walk%20from%20the%20Three%20Crosses%20to%20El%20Paisnal.%20Rutilio,%20Nelson%20and%20Manuel%20are%20buried%20in%20El%20Paisnal,%20and%20the%20central%20plaza%20is%20named%20after%20Rutilio%20Grande.%20All%20along%20the%20walk,%20UCRES%20high%20school%20and%20university%20scholarship%20students%20helped%20pass%20out%20bags%20of%20water%20to%20the%20walkers,%20and%20collected%20trash.%20One%20university%20student,%20Heidy%20Santamar%C3%ADa,%20said%20she%20comes%20to%20the%20commemoration%20every%20year.%20For%20her%20Father%20Rutilio%20is%20important%20because%20of%20the%20way%20he%20stood%20up%20for%20people%27s%20rights%20and%20because%20of%20the%20profound%20impact%20his%20life%20and%20death%20had%20on%20Monse%C3%B1or%20Romero.%20%20In%20El%20Paisnal%20following%20the%20caminata,%20one%20young%20woman%20commented,%20%E2%80%9CRutilio%20Grande%20was%20a%20defender%20of%20human%20rights%20and%20a%20friend%20of%20the%20people.%20I%20wish%20I%20could%20have%20met%20him.%E2%80%9D%20She%20said%20she%20heard%20that%20when%20he%20first%20came%20to%20El%20Paisnal,%20the%20people%20would%20always%20serve%20him%20chicken,%20a%20real%20luxury%20for%20the%20economically%20impoverished%20families%20of%20the%20area.%20However,%20he%20told%20them%20that%20he%20did%20not%20want%20to%20be%20seen%20as%20more%20than%20anyone%20else%20just%20because%20he%20was%20a%20priest,%20and%20that%20he%20wanted%20to%20eat%20whatever%20the%20people%20ate.%20If%20the%20people%20ate%20beans,%20then%20he%20would%20eat%20beans%20too.%20%20%20The%20many%20gathered%20sent%20a%20strong%20clear%20message%20that%20Father%20Rutilio%20Grande%27s%20acts%20and%20message%20of%20love%20for%20the%20people%20and%20for%20justice%20continue%20to%20move%20and%20inspire%20today%27s%20women,%20men,%20children,%20elderly,%20and%20youth%20to%20keep%20walking%20with%20love%20and%20demanding%20their%20rights.%20%20More%20info.%20about%20Father%20Rutilio%20Grande:%20http://www.share-elsalvador.org/rutilio/091406a.htm%20%28on%20the%20blog%20we%20could%20make%20the%20first%20mention%20of%20Rutilio%20Grande%20a%20link%20to%20this%20article%20about%20Rutilio%20on%20the%20SHARE%20site%29%20%20A%20beautiful%20piece%20in%20Spanish%20about%20the%20commemoration%20published%20in%20the%20Salvadoran%20newspaper%20the%20CoLatino:%20http://www.diariocolatino.com/es/20110314/nacionales/90418/El-padre-Rutilio-Grande-el-pastor-de-la-juventud.htm?tpl=69%20">Father Rutilio Grande</a><br />
<br />
<i>A beautiful piece in Spanish about the commemoration published in the Salvadoran newspaper the CoLatino: </i><a href="http://www.diariocolatino.com/es/20110314/nacionales/90418/El-padre-Rutilio-Grande-el-pastor-de-la-juventud.htm?tpl=69">http://www.diariocolatino.com/es/20110314/nacionales/90418/El-padre-Rutilio-Grande-el-pastor-de-la-juventud.htm?tpl=69</a>SHARE Foundationhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00702552278356651914noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5932891039917265217.post-6733318861772422162011-03-24T12:18:00.001-04:002011-03-24T12:22:01.996-04:00Perspectives on Obama's Visit to El Salvador<i>For two days this week, El Salvador was in the world media spotlight when US President Obama visited. Various news outlets did a wonderful job highlighting a variety of important, and often controversial, issues regarding Obama’s visit and US-ES relations more generally. Here is a selection of those thought-provoking perspectives in their own words:</i><br />
<br />
<b>A Missed Opportunity at Romero's Tomb</b><br />
For Maryknoll Fr. Roy Bourgeois, the visit was at best a missed opportunity. His organization, SOA Watch, revealed that Romero’s killers were trained at the U.S. Army School of the Americas, now named the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHINSEC).<br />
"I and many other human rights activists were hopeful," he said, that Obama would acknowledge "that Romero and thousands of others were killed, tortured and disappeared by graduates of this school."<br />
"Obama didn’t even acknowledge, let alone apologize for, the U.S. role in El Salvador," Bourgeois said.<br />
Read more at: <a href="http://ncronline.org/news/obama-romeros-grave-missed-opportunity"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: lime;">http://ncronline.org/news/obama-romeros-grave-missed-opportunity</span></a><br />
<br />
<b>US Funds for Security Initiatives: Human Rights and Sovereignty?</b><br />
During his visit to El Salvador, President Obama announced $200 million to finance “ security and anti-narco trafficking in Central America at a joint press conference held on Tuesday, March 22nd with his Salvadoran homologue, President Funes. Among other issues, there are serious human rights concerns: <br />
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<a name='more'></a><br />
<br />
<b>Obama in Latin America: Another Missed Opportunity </b><br />
And in El Salvador Obama declared his commitment to comprehensive immigration reform in the United States but blamed the impasse on the lack of support from the Republicans in Congress. <a href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2011/03/22/remarks-president-obama-and-president-funes-el-salvador-joint-press-conf"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: lime;">Obama and Salvadoran president Mauricio Funes announced</span></a> a set of confusingly overlapping initiatives for “prosperity,” with euphemistic labels like Partnership for Growth, Cross Roads Partnership, and New Pathways to Prosperity.<br />
<br />
However as Funes himself explained, these are basically aimed at boosting "economic predictability," increase “trust with investors,” and “send a message to investors that they can invest in El Salvador.” Obama also announced $200 million for a new Central American Citizen's Security Partnership, which only appears to be repackaging the Central American Regional Security Initiative based on extending the Merida Initiative in Mexico that has failed to curb drug cartels and has produced more than 35,000 deaths since 2006. <br />
<br />
<a href="ttp://www.fpif.org/articles/obama_in_latin_america_another_missed_opportunity"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: lime;">http://www.fpif.org/articles/obama_in_latin_america_another_missed_opportunity </span></a><br />
<br />
<br />
<b>“The Mexico-to-Colombia Security Corridor Advances” in <i>The Nation</i></b><br />
The origin of this security corridor is Plan Colombia—Bill Clinton’s multibillion-dollar aid program to one of the worst human-rights violators in the world. The main effect of Plan Colombia has been to diversify the violence and corruption endemic to the cocaine trade, with Central American and Mexican cartels and military factions taking over export of the drug to the United States. This, along with the economic disruptions caused by NAFTA and the CAFTA, kicked off the cycle of criminal and gang violence that today engulfs the region.<br />
<br />
In other words, as the rest of South America pulls out of the US orbit (which I would argue ranks as a world historical event as consequential as the fall of the Berlin Wall, though less noticed since it has taken place over a decade rather than all on one night), Washington is retrenching in what's left of its backyard.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.thenation.com/blog/158492/building-perfect-machine-perpetual-war-mexico-colombia-security-corridor-advances"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: lime;">http://www.thenation.com/blog/158492/building-perfect-machine-perpetual-war-mexico-colombia-security-corridor-advances</span></a><br />
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<b>Salvadoran Civil Society Demands of Obama</b><br />
Mr. President, during your upcoming trip, you have an important opportunity to make good on your campaign commitments by offering concrete support to the people of El Salvador in the continued exercise of their sovereign right to develop economic, environmental and social policy that promotes sustainable development.<br />
<br />
Read the demands in this letter here, <a href="http://thesharefoundation.blogspot.com/2011/03/dear-mr-president-please-renegotiate.html">http://thesharefoundation.blogspot.com/2011/03/dear-mr-president-please-renegotiate.html</a>, or watch this youtube video, <a href="http://www.youtube.com/user/SHAREFoundationES">http://www.youtube.com/user/SHAREFoundationES</a>, to see and hear Salvadoran civil society march for these demands on the day President Obama arrived to El Salvador.<br />
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<b>Obama, CAFTA and Mining</b><br />
Obama has to decide where he stands. El Salvador's bishops oppose Pacific Rim, and <a href="http://thesharefoundation.blogspot.com/2011/03/members-of-congress-call-on-obama-to.html">19 Democratic members of Congress</a> and more than 140 organizations including the Sierra Club have asked the President to defend El Salvador in the Pacific Rim case--and to use this outrage as a <a href="http://thesharefoundation.blogspot.com/2011/03/members-of-congress-call-on-obama-to.html">template for reform</a> of the "investor rights" provisions in CAFTA, NAFTA, and other pending U.S. trade agreements. I hope the President tells his trade staff to read his campaign pledges--and <a href="http://www.amazon.com/reader/1400082773#reader_1400082773"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: lime;">pages 44-45 of Dreams From My Father</span></a>. That would remind them that this President uniquely understands what a foreign policy that puts greed over decency means to people on the other side of the equation.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://sierraclub.typepad.com/carlpope/2011/03/oh-well-whats-a-poor-canadian-corporation-to-do.html"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: lime;">http://sierraclub.typepad.com/carlpope/2011/03/oh-well-whats-a-poor-canadian-corporation-to-do.html</span></a>SHARE Foundationhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00702552278356651914noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5932891039917265217.post-42763820178210978312011-03-23T18:27:00.001-04:002011-03-23T18:29:14.097-04:00Dear Mr President: Please Renegotiate CAFTA<style type="text/css">
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<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: black;">Dear President Obama:</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: black;">On your upcoming trip to Latin America, we ask that you state your support for renegotiation of the Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) and for El Salvador’s request to have dismissed a pending CAFTA investor-state arbitration suit challenging El Salvador’s environmental and safety policies relating to metals mining concessions. </span> </div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: black;"><i>Pacific Rim Mining Corp. and Commerce Group Corp. CAFTA cases</i></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: black;">As the unfortunate record of mining in Guatemala and Honduras has demonstrated, certain forms of metals mining can irreparably pollute fresh drinking water, contaminate water used for crop irrigation, and pose grave threats to fishing livelihoods, thus permanently endangering the health and well-being of generations. El Salvador, the smallest and most densely populated country in Central America, already grapples with severe shortages of clean water, as 90 percent of its surface water is contaminated. </span> </div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: black;">The environmental damage caused by mining in neighboring countries largely motivated El Salvador to reform its mining laws. The failure of two companies, Pacific Rim Mining Corp. and Commerce Group Corp., to fulfill the requirements of El Salvador’s mining law is at the crux of two recent CAFTA investor-state attacks. According to legal filings, Pacific Rim Mining Corp. failed to submit an adequate environmental feasibility study and thus did not obtain the environmental permit required to qualify for an exploitation concession. With respect to Commerce Group Corp., the firm’s environmental permit was revoked in 2006 for failure to comply with clean-up and other obligations of the permit, according to Salvadoran court documents. While the Commerce Group Corp. claim was recently dismissed on a technicality – the company’s failure to withdraw a concurrent claim from the Salvadoran judicial system – the preliminary stage of the case alone has cost El Salvador over $800,000 in legal fees. </span> </div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: black;">Rather than supporting El Salvador’s commitment to protecting its citizens and environment, the United States, through its current trade policy, is allowing companies to punish the people of El Salvador for pursing those objectives. In addition to what El Salvador has already spent defending its policies against the Commerce Group Corp. claim, Pacific Rim Mining Corp. is demanding over $100 million dollars in compensation from the Salvadoran state – on top of legal fees the government will incur during the process. This is equivalent to approximately .46 percent of the nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP). The U.S. equivalent, relative to GDP, is over $67 billion. The Salvadoran government could better spend the millions of dollars at stake by investing in the infrastructure and other development programs needed to promote economic growth and improve fundamental health and education.</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: black;">It is especially egregious that Pacific Rim Mining Corp. is not even based in a CAFTA-signatory country, but rather in Canada. That the firm was able to file a CAFTA investor-state arbitration case against El Salvador simply by transferring a subsidiary (Pac Rim Cayman LLC) from the Cayman Islands to Nevada sets a dangerous precedent for the environment, public health, and labor rights in all CAFTA signatory countries. </span> </div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: black;"><i>CAFTA undermines democracy</i></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: black;">The environmental regulations at stake in El Salvador are precisely the type of policies that, as a Presidential candidate, you pledged to protect in trade agreements. While campaigning, you stated, “With regards to provisions in several FTAs that give foreign investors the right to sue governments directly in foreign tribunals, I will ensure that foreign investor rights are strictly limited and will fully exempt any law or regulation written to protect public safety or promote the public interest.” </span><sup><span style="color: black;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=5932891039917265217#sdfootnote1sym" name="sdfootnote1anc"><sup>1</sup></a></span></sup></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: black;">When trade pacts grant expansive corporate rights that impede governments’ abilities to respond to the call of their people for positive environmental and economic policy, they threaten the very principle and practice of democracy and human rights. El Salvador is currently considering whether to protect its natural resources by enacting a national ban on metals mining, similar to the ban recently passed by Costa Rica. The people of El Salvador must be guaranteed the right to determine their country’s environmental policy through the democratic process without threat of retaliation by foreign investors.</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: black;">Violence against anti-mining activists has been on the rise, with three community leaders who opposed mining assassinated in 2009. While some of the perpetrators of these crimes have been prosecuted, the intellectual authors and financers of these crimes have not yet been identified. Death threats and kidnapping attempts against environmental defenders, journalists and religious leaders in El Salvador who oppose mining continue today.</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: black;"><i>The Administration should submit an Article 10.22 submission in the Pacific Rim Mining Corp. case</i></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: black;">On March 2</span><span style="color: black;"><sup>nd </sup></span><span style="color: black;">2011, the communities and member organizations of the </span><span style="color: black;"><i>Mesa Nacional frente a la Minería Metálica</i></span><span style="color: black;"> (National Roundtable against Metals Mining), who have been organizing to defend their land and water from the threat of metals mining, presented an </span><span style="color: black;"><i>amicus curiae</i></span><span style="color: black;"> brief to the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes tribunal hearing the Pacific Rim Mining Corp. case. As these civil society organizations explained in their brief: “at the heart of this arbitration: the attempt by Pac Rim Cayman to extract compensation as a result of its dissatisfaction with the government’s legitimate exercise on political democracy.” </span> </div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: black;">We believe that the tribunal should take their amicus brief into account, and call on your Administration to similarly weigh in. The State Department’s Office of Legal Affairs has the legal right under CAFTA Chapter 10 to formally intervene and submit a brief in the case as well. We strongly encourage the Administration to file a brief in support of your stated campaign position that the investor rights in trade pacts must not be allowed to undermine public safety and the public interest. </span> </div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: black;"><i>Conclusion</i></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: black;">Mr. President, during your upcoming trip, you have an important opportunity to make good on your campaign commitments by offering concrete support to the people of El Salvador in the continued exercise of their sovereign right to develop economic, environmental and social policy that promotes sustainable development. We call on you to:</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 1.27cm;"><br />
</div><ol><li><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: black;">Publicly state your support for dismissal of the case brought by Pacific Rim Mining Corp. challenging El Salvador’s environmental and safety policies relating to metals mining.</span></div></li>
</ol><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 1.27cm;"><br />
</div><ol start="2"><li><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: black;">Publicly state your support for the efforts of President Funes and the National Civilian Police to fully investigate the 2009 murders of community activists Marcelo Rivera, Ramiro Rivera, and Dora Sorto, including the extent to which individuals linked to Pacific Rim Mining Corp. were involved; to bring the intellectual authors to justice; and to end the on-going human rights violations against journalists, community organizers and religious leaders in relation to the mining debate in El Salvador.</span></div></li>
</ol><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><ol start="3"><li><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">Publicly state your support for revisions to<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;"> </span>the existing <span style="color: black;">CAFTA text so as to eliminate the investor-state enforcement mechanism that provides rights for foreign investors to sue sovereign governments and replace the investor-state system with a democratic, transparent, state-state enforcement mechanism that will protect environmental and human rights, rather than endanger them.</span></div></li>
</ol><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 1.27cm;"><br />
</div><ol start="4"><li><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: black;">Prevent repeating mistakes by eliminating the investor-state private enforcement mechanism in pending free trade agreements with Korea, Panama and Colombia and replace it with a more democratic government- government mechanism, and commit to ensuring that any trade pact that results from Trans-Pacific Partnership Free Trade Agreement negotiations underway similarly does not include investor-state enforcement. The Korea FTA alone would empower over 2,000 cross-registered U.S. and Korean corporate affiliates to challenge U.S. and Korean state and federal environmental policies.</span></div></li>
</ol><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 1.27cm;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: black;">We urge you to act quickly and concretely to support El Salvador’s position with regard to the current CAFTA arbitration and to address the underlying policy issues in CAFTA that threaten the exercise of democracy in our hemisphere. </span> </div><div lang="es-SV" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div id="sdfootnote1"><div class="sdfootnote"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=5932891039917265217#sdfootnote1anc" name="sdfootnote1sym">1</a> <span style="font-size: x-small;">Response to a Pennsylvania Fair Trade Coalition questionnaire, April 2, 2008</span></div></div>SHARE Foundationhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00702552278356651914noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5932891039917265217.post-78296224089575910722011-03-23T10:45:00.000-04:002011-03-23T10:45:54.011-04:00Letters From El Salvador: Final day in Huisisilapa<i>The next day we awoke to the realization that we were about to<br />
encounter an extremely enthusiastic and talented group of soccer players. A game was scheduled for 9:30 am on the cancha, or field, seemingly the hottest place in the entire<br />
community. A team of Northwest Students (and a few guest players) and a<br />
team of Huisisilapan community members were formed, and the game began,<br />
with many excited spectators. Numerous people, from both sides, opted not to<br />
play, and sat, talking and mingling, in the shade next to the field.<br />
This was preferable, as each time a player would come off the field,<br />
both the sunburn, and sweat soaked clothing was extremely apparent.<br />
However, by some miracle, or by the kindness on behalf of the<br />
Huisisilapan team, the Northwest School prevailed, winning by one goal.</i><br />
<br />
<i><a name='more'></a><br />
During the game, some of the students documented the finished<br />
photography projects that the families had brought with them down to the<br />
field, because we were going to leave them all behind for the community<br />
to keep. Everyone was curious to see what others had written or drawn,<br />
so a good time was had both on the field, and off.<br />
<br />
The rest of the afternoon was primarily dedicated to spending a<br />
few last hours with our families, which at this point, we had gotten to<br />
know quite well. It was a good afternoon spent chatting, going to the<br />
river, and appreciating, for potentially the last time we would ever be<br />
there, our surroundings. I didn’t want to leave my family, and at 2:45,<br />
when I told them I had to go, but didn’t want to, they simply said<br />
“queda”, or “stay”. I wanted to take their offering, to remain, even<br />
for just a few days longer, but obviously that wasn’t an option. We said<br />
goodbye to the majority of our family, and headed off with one of our<br />
new sisters for a farewell gathering on the footbridge near the school.<br />
<br />
It was apparent that everyone, from both Northwest and<br />
Huisisilapa, were incredibly grateful and appreciative of their<br />
experience. It was hard to articulate exactly what was learned, what was<br />
gained, but what came naturally was the gratitude, and the many, many<br />
thanks given by all. “No tengo las palabras para este experiencia en<br />
ingles, ni español. Puedo decir solo este: gracias, muchas gracias, para<br />
todo.” (Translation: I don’t have the words for this experience in<br />
English, or in Spanish. I can only say this: thank you, thank you so<br />
much.) The goodbyes were long, and we left about forty minutes later<br />
than planned. It was a great example of what was said at the beginning<br />
of the trip. You may need to accommodate, to remain flexible in the face<br />
of change. We had been changed by our new families, by our experiences,<br />
and the time needed to say goodbye, and to express our thanks, was<br />
taken. All were flexible, all were exhausted, and all were content.<br />
<br />
And now, I sit here in the hotel lobby, after a brief dinner and<br />
reflection, myself exhausted, emotionally drained, and excited for<br />
tomorrow. I am so incredibly happy to be here, and as far as I know, as<br />
are all of your children. Upon spending time with our second families,<br />
we remember our own. You are so incredibly important in each of our<br />
lives, and I, on behalf of everyone, thank you. We miss you all!<br />
<br />
Sincerely,<br />
<br />
A senior, a traveler, an observer</i>SHARE Foundationhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00702552278356651914noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5932891039917265217.post-46341566955475269132011-03-22T18:32:00.001-04:002011-03-22T18:34:03.287-04:00Members of Congress call on Obama to support environmental protection and trade reform in El Salvador<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><i>A press release from CISPES regarding Obama's stay in El Salvador.</i></span><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><b>Members of Congress, policy experts call on President Obama </b></span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"></span><br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><b>to support environmental protection and trade reform in El Salvador</b></span></div><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Washington, D.C. & San Salvador - As President Obama travels to El Salvador, leaders in Congress and national policy organizations are calling on him to support the Salvadoran government in protecting the country’s environmental and social rights rather than succumbing to pressure from multinational mining corporations.<br />
<br />
Nineteen House Democrats and over 140 environmental, religious, and human rights organizations signed letters to the President asking him to amend investment rules in U.S. trade policy, to prevent corporations from challenging other countries’ regulations through private arbitration. The letters also ask Obama to denounce a $100 million lawsuit by a Canadian mining company, Pacific Rim, against the government of El Salvador for allegedly violating the Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA).<br />
<br />
“I urge President Obama to offer support for El Salvador’s legitimate right to develop policies protecting human rights and the environment,” said <b>Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin (D-WI)</b>, who co-sponsored the congressional letter. “The U.S. should applaud El Salvador’s commitment to promoting the health and well-being of its citizens, and the protection of the environment. Instead, our trade policies enable North American mining companies to sue the Salvadoran government for upholding its legitimate right to protect its air, water, and soil. This is unacceptable; I’m grateful to my colleagues for joining me in calling on the President to raise this issue during his upcoming visit to El Salvador.”</span><br />
<a name='more'></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><br />
<br />
“CAFTA’s flawed investment provisions allow companies to attack common-sense public health and environmental laws as we have witnessed in El Salvador,” said <b>Rachel Ackoff, Sierra Club's Associate Washington Representative for Trade</b>. “As the Obama administration negotiates its first trade deal, the Trans-Pacific Partnership, it must steer away from the failed investment provisions of the past and ensure that future trade agreements live up to the President’s promise of a ‘smart, fair and strong’ trade policy.”<br />
<br />
“CAFTA violates the security and sovereignty of our people, as it generates legal conditions under which transnational corporations can sue in an unjust manner,” said <b>Héctor Berríos, with the National Roundtable Against Metallic Mining.</b> “We are asking President Obama to modify the clauses that relate to investment, among others, for all the damage they have caused our population.” Berríos lives in the rural department of Cabañas, where three environmental defenders were murdered in 2009. <br />
<br />
Thousands of protestors marched Monday and today in San Salvador, demanding greater respect for Central American sovereignty. Video footage is available. <br />
<br />
A copy of the Congressional letter is available <a href="http://www.cispes.org/documents/ElSalvadorLetter3.18.11.pdf" style="color: #2a5db0;" target="_blank">here</a>. A copy of the organizational letter is available <a href="http://www.cispes.org/documents/CAFTA_sign-on_ObamaFINAL_eng.pdf" style="color: #2a5db0;" target="_blank">here</a>. </span>SHARE Foundationhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00702552278356651914noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5932891039917265217.post-89852049435452919672011-03-22T14:03:00.000-04:002011-03-22T14:03:10.503-04:00Social Movement Presents Demands to Obama<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-Br_ZNLcvywg/TYjbezEGgaI/AAAAAAAABdc/xeRWfjj_fq0/s1600/P3220975.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-Br_ZNLcvywg/TYjbezEGgaI/AAAAAAAABdc/xeRWfjj_fq0/s320/P3220975.JPG" width="320" /></span></a></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Protest in front of the Salvador del Mundo monument</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The MPR-12 Movement along with a number of other groups in the social movement held a march this morning to present their demands to President Obama during his visit to El Salvador. Those demands include:</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"></span><br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">-Close the U.S. military bases in Central America</span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">-Close the ILEA (U.S. run police training academy in El Salvador)</span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">-Revoke CAFTA</span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">-Respect the rights of immigrants</span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">-Freedom for the 5 Cuban political prisoners in the United States</span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">-Not allow the reintegration of the Coup Government in Honduras into the OAS</span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">-Stop the military agression in Libya</span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Some photos and quotes from the march:</span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></span></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-8GaQhrBl6Rk/TYjdUodbyFI/AAAAAAAABdo/YfVoRFiN7Ag/s1600/P3220926.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-8GaQhrBl6Rk/TYjdUodbyFI/AAAAAAAABdo/YfVoRFiN7Ag/s200/P3220926.JPG" width="200" /></span></span></a><a href="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-qFNDe6wxV6g/TYjclMYI0OI/AAAAAAAABdk/NyxLoXeWAdg/s1600/P3220971.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-qFNDe6wxV6g/TYjclMYI0OI/AAAAAAAABdk/NyxLoXeWAdg/s200/P3220971.JPG" width="200" /></span></span></a></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"></span></span></span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">We are here as the MPR-12 Movement to denouce the Free Trade Agreement, and also so that people know how militarized this whole region is. Obama said that he would demilitarize the region and instead he has increased military presence here, we are here so that people know that.</span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">-Carmen from the Dimas Rodriguez Community in El Paisnal</span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-0_JZG6cmU00/TYjejFr49aI/AAAAAAAABdw/Co0-w8kbf6s/s1600/P3220918.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-0_JZG6cmU00/TYjejFr49aI/AAAAAAAABdw/Co0-w8kbf6s/s200/P3220918.JPG" width="200" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Repeal CAFTA</span></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table><a href="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-aXnrTjZfeqM/TYjeGmziHMI/AAAAAAAABds/Fq4WAF0_d4I/s1600/P3220916.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-aXnrTjZfeqM/TYjeGmziHMI/AAAAAAAABds/Fq4WAF0_d4I/s200/P3220916.JPG" width="200" /></span></span></a><br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">For us it is a contradiction that the leftist government here is being so servile to the U.S. government when we still have many great challenges like the Free Trade Agreement that allows North American mining companies to come in and exploit El Salvador. We think that the Free Trade Agreement should be revoked because it has made the situation for farmers in the country much worse.</span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">-Guiselle, from the UST (United Workers Union)</span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></span></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-FPDcv0YdUDA/TYjfyDpBinI/AAAAAAAABd0/eH5jkroCMM4/s1600/P3220925.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-FPDcv0YdUDA/TYjfyDpBinI/AAAAAAAABd0/eH5jkroCMM4/s200/P3220925.JPG" width="200" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Respect for immigrant rights!!!</span></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">One of the reasons that we are here is to ask Obama to respect the rights of immigrants living in the United States. We think that the Salvadorans living in the United States for many years have the right to be there so that they can continue to support their family members. We have the right to be here to peacefully protest since El Salvador is a democracy that allows for these type of gatherings.</span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">-Protester</span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></span></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-w_vT6JSW0x0/TYjhAWY1N4I/AAAAAAAABd4/8d6cRsBL-Gs/s1600/P3220951.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-w_vT6JSW0x0/TYjhAWY1N4I/AAAAAAAABd4/8d6cRsBL-Gs/s200/P3220951.JPG" width="200" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Stop Bombing Libya!</span></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">We think that it is a disgrace that while Obama is visiting Central America, Libya is currently being bombed....These photos that we have here with us are of our martyrs in Honduras. Many of them were disappeared and killed during the coup in Honduras. They were our friends and companians and that is why we remember them.</span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">-Honduran protester</span></span></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-Yr2e1Md9XVc/TYjiBLXkjiI/AAAAAAAABd8/tQ7_5aYes5U/s1600/P3220949.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-Yr2e1Md9XVc/TYjiBLXkjiI/AAAAAAAABd8/tQ7_5aYes5U/s200/P3220949.JPG" width="200" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Hondurans killed in the conflict following the 2009 coup</span></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"></div></span>SHARE Foundationhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00702552278356651914noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5932891039917265217.post-46341709947755856762011-03-21T12:27:00.001-04:002011-03-21T12:28:27.561-04:00Letter From El Salvador: Day Three- Return to Huisisilapa<div style="background-color: transparent;"><div style="background-color: transparent; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana;">During the delegation, Northwest students and teachers participated in two one-night homestays in the community of Huisisilapa. Families returning from refugee camps in Honduras in 1991 founded the community, starting with a swath of overgrown land, and the few belongings they had brought with them. In the initial years, community members taught students to read under the trees. Today Huisisilapa has elementary school all the way through high school, a dream few rural communities have realized. This next excerpt describes returning to Huisisilapa for the second homestay. </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana;"><i>The next day we arrived earlier than usual, around 9:30 am, after a decent distance traveled to the soundtrack of “The Sound of Music”. We got off the short bus, throats hoarse from a good group sing-a-long, and dispersed to go to our various home stays. That morning the plan was to participate in the Polaroid photography project, in which each family, as well as those who were staying there, had their picture taken. Then each person photographed was asked to attach their image to a piece of paper and write about their personal hopes and dreams, as a form of intercultural and personal exchange within the household. For this morning activity, however, we were only taking the images.</i></span></div><div style="background-color: transparent; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana;"><i></i></span><br />
<a name='more'></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana;"><i> The large group was split up into three smaller ones, based on where within Huisisilapa you lived. The separate groups walked from house to house, taking images, as well as being able to see the various homes in which their friends were staying. It was a fun opportunity to tour the community, as well as share with those who participated. Walking and talking took up a good portion of the morning, and by the time we returned to our various homes, it was time for lunch. The food in Huisisilapa is incredibly fresh and delicious. It’s surprisingly inspiring to be sitting in the backyard one minute, looking at the bananas in the trees, and the next minute, seeing it on your plate as you sit for the meal. The families are incredibly kind and observant as to what you like and what you don’t, what you’ve been eyeing, or talking about, and what you haven’t. It reinforces their generosity and kindness. The afternoon, which initially was chock full of meetings with various groups from within the community, was made more relaxing when many of those meetings were canceled, in favor of rest and time with families during the height of the afternoon heat. Personally, as well as many other students, I spent time with my family by doing the “Hopes and Dreams” Polaroid project with them. Paper was also given to those members in the family who didn’t participate in the photo project, and together we all drew. We had a really good time drawing, writing, and talking together, and before we knew it, it was time for dinner. The project, in my eyes, was very successful in that it brought our family to a level of higher interaction and comprehension. The final products were beautiful to see. That night, an intercultural exchange was planned for the entire community. We had spent the night before in the hotel rehearsing for our miniature talent show. We brought a wide range of talents to view, such as miming, singing, and various forms of dancing. In Huisisilapa, we all gathered in the courtyard of the school in a large circle. It was a huge turnout from the community, with even a few dogs getting a bit stuck in the crowds, curious to see where everyone was going. The acts were presented in such a way that the students from our group would go, and then those from the community, so that it really was a shuffled presentation of culture. The performances given by the community were great, many dancers performed, including a team of break dancers. A community based rap group also presented a few of their originally written pieces, to which many of the youth knew the words by heart. The most popular act of our group was the impromptu solo mime performance given by our own mime extraordinaire, Scott Davis. The children were going crazy for the funny guy pushing down an invisible wall and pulling at a rope that wasn’t there. Scott lead the rope to a confused dog, trapped in the center of the circle of spectators. It was funny until the dog stopped running away, and started to come at him. In any case, it was popular with almost everyone, as were the other student performances. Afterwards, another dance was held in the same courtyard. I don’t know what was said about the first dance, but I’ll just say that it’s pretty hard to have a dance when you’re the only one dancing, and there’s about fifty people staring at you. In any case, this time it was extremely different. Everyone in the community, especially the youth, joined us in dancing for hours. Many students found a nightlong dance partner, whether in another student, a community student, or one of the many young children who really, REALLY love to dance. It was an incredibly fun event that relaxed some of the social stiffness that we had encountered during the prior visit/dance.</i></span></div></div>SHARE Foundationhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00702552278356651914noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5932891039917265217.post-81196664217649509062011-03-16T00:44:00.003-04:002011-03-16T13:03:04.952-04:00First Success Against Commerce Group!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.zcommunications.org/FCKFiles/Image/ElSalvador-Protest2-Big.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="265" src="http://www.zcommunications.org/FCKFiles/Image/ElSalvador-Protest2-Big.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>Great news everyone! The ICSID (International Center for the Settlement of Investment Disputes) has discarded one of the suits filed against El Salvador by Commerce Group! This is a small but important success for the government and people of El Salvador in keeping mining and its negative health and environmental effects out of its country. We want to send a huge thank you to all of those who called, sent letters, e-mails, and faxes to the Commerce Group- you have helped the Salvadoran people win one part of the battle, but it still not over! The urgency against other mining companies like Pacific Rim continues! Please continue your support as we continue our support of the Salvador people against mining.<br />
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For more information see the <a href="http://icsid.worldbank.org/ICSID/FrontServlet">Decision</a> hereSHARE Foundationhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00702552278356651914noreply@blogger.com0