Tim Muth
Stories
May 26th, 2008
El Salvador: A Computer in Ecuador Stirs Up Salvadoran Presidential Campaign
· 19:56 · AmericasA computer file purportedly discovered on a laptop computer at a guerrilla camp in Ecuador, has bloggers in El Salvador wondering what impact it will have and what impact it should have on the upcoming elections in their country scheduled for March 2009. The laptop computer was taken in the Colombian army's raid on the camp of FARC guerrillas in Ecuador. In that raid the number two man of the FARC, Raul Reyes, was killed, and his computer seized.
The furor in El Salvador started when the Spanish newspaper El Pais disclosed[es] that one document on the computer referred to a Salvadoran making an introduction in 2007 from the FARC to Australian arms dealers. The Salvadoran named was Luis Merino, a senior official of the left-wing Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN) and member of the Central American parliament. The conservative press in El Salvador played up the story with prominent pictures showing Merino beside the FMLN's presidential candidate Mauricio Funes.
Photo by Fixem and used under a Creative Commons license.
Bloggers in El Salvador have been writing about how this story could impact the presidential campaign of Funes. Blogger Hunnapuh wrote a post [es] which put the issue in the context of the campaign strategy of the ruling right-wing ARENA party. According to Hunnapuh, ARENA is trying to convince the “swing” voter. This is the person who is currently inclined to vote for the FMLN and Mauricio Funes, but is not a party militant and would not vote for the FMLN if convinced that “FMLN = [Venezualan president Hugo] Chavez.” But the strategy is shifting with the disclosure of the FARC computer files:
Por lo que se vé, la estrategia la han cambiado un poco dados los acontecimientos, ahora la tesis me imagino que es FMLN = FARC, pero como lo expuse anteriormente, nuestro pueblo tiene una memoria coyuntural y toda esta publicidad y cobertura mediática actuales sera pronto olvidada.
Si en realidad hay algo de verdad en todas las acusaciones, se deben ejecutar las acciones legales pertinentes de parte de los paises que se consideren ofendidos e iniciar los juicios legales que correspondan, pero si solo se queda en la pura propaganda, se demostrará que símplemente se trata de estrategias electorales.
If indeed there is some truth in all accusations, the relevant legal actions should be implemented on the part of countries deemed offended and they should initiate appropriate legal proceedings. But if it only stays in the realms of pure propaganda, it will demonstrate that the [media focus] was just electoral stratagems.
The writer at the blog Salvadorans in the World [es] sees the repetition of the regular themes of Salvadoran politics in this story:
Y es aquí dónde las principales fuerzas políticas salvadoreñas se enfrentaran en una guerra de acusaciones e insultos. El FMLN dirá que todo esto es un montaje, un show, una estrategia más de la derecha para mantenerse en el poder. Por otro lado, ARENA volverá a repetir la misma historia, que el FMLN tiene nexos con grupos que no benefician en ningún modo al país, bla bla bla, etc. En la guerra de acusaciones e insultos, las propuestas para sacar al país adelante quedarán relegadas a un tercer o cuarto plano.
En este escenario adverso, Mauricio Funes debería dar señales inequívocas que tiene criterios propios, y más importante, que tiene suficiente independencia de los comandantes en el FMLN para pedir que se investigue a fondo las acusaciones.
In this adverse scenario, Mauricio Funes should give clear signals that he has his own criteria, and most importantly, that he has sufficient independence from commanders in the FMLN to ask for a thorough investigation into the allegations.
Ernesto Rivas-Gallont did not believe [es] that presidential candidate Funes had done well in his initial response to the story. In Funes' initial statement after the El Pais story, Rivas-Gallont saw an unconditional defense of Merino, the FMLN leader, with Funes acting almost as an apologist for the FARC.
Con esa actitud, Mauricio ha desilusionado a aquellos que creímos en su independencia, porque estamos convencidos que un gobierno de Funes sería controlado por los mismos que hoy controlan el partido y parecen controlar al candidato.
With this attitude, Mauricio has disappointed those who believed in his independence, because we are convinced that a government controlled by Funes would be controlled by the same ones who today control the party and seem to control candidate.
El-Visitador [es] referred to the links to the FARC to support his conclusion that the FMLN was a “very dangerous entity.”
Reflecting the polarization of El Salvador's politics and parts of its blogosphere, the view of El Visitador is counter-balanced by Chichicaste [es], who has a lengthy post[es] challenging the media coverage of the FARC computers and looking at the links between El Pais, its ownership and the owners of powerful media in San Salvador. For Chichicaste, the nonstop coverage in Salvadoran newspapers and television is an sign of the fear that foreign multi-national corporations have over the prospect of a Mauricio Funes' victory.
0 comments · »»April 12th, 2008
El Salvador: Blogging for Justice in a Little Girl's Murder
· 16:32 · Americas
Bloggers in El Salvador have taken up the cause of justice in the nine year old murder case of Katya Miranda. This young girl was murdered in 1999 in a crime of shocking depravity.
The facts of the case are recounted in a video interview of Katya's mother and available on YouTube. Katya's mother left her two daughters at the home of her paternal grandfather along El Salvador's coast with a promise to pick them up in the morning. Yet when morning came, nine-year-old Katya was dead — raped, beaten and murdered. Despite the presence of members of her father's family and their employees at the home, nobody claimed to have seen or heard anything. The father, grandfather and other male relatives are high-ranking officials in El Salvador's military and the National Civilian Police.
Many believe that the investigation of the crime was haphazard and incomplete, but eventually Katya's father, grandfather and two employees were charged with the crime in 2000. However all the charges against them were subsequently dismissed in legal proceedings widely criticized by human rights organizations such as Amnesty International and the Human Rights Institute at the University of Central America in San Salvador. The current attorney general has indicated no interest in reopening the case.
With the ninth anniversary of Katya's murder, Salvadoran bloggers are raising a call for justice to be done in this case. The symbol of their campaign is the logo at the top of this post.
Carlos Abrego at Cosas Tan Pasajeras [es] urged readers to participate in the organized campaign which includes signing an online petition, to take a photo of the campaign logo at locations across the world which will be added to a photo CD to be delivered to the attorney general, and to participate in a “Day of Roses” march to commemorate the little girl.
The blog Salvadoreños en el Mundo [es] carried a letter to Katya written by her mother to commemorate this anniversary. Ixquic* [es], a single mother and human rights lawyer who has written about Katya's case many times, displayed a tiny angel made of seashells found on the beach where Katya's small body was found.
Ernesto Rivas-Gallont urged readers to sign the petition and expressed the outrage of many [es], when he wrote:
¡Qué espanto! ¿Qué se puede decir de una sociedad donde existan individuos capaces de perpetrar crímenes de esta magnitud? El caso de Katya ha tomado relevancia por el cinismo de los asesinos y por su prominencia y por la prominencia de la institución a la cual pertenecen. Pero monstruos como ellos abundan en este país.
No es raro leer en nuestra prensa o escuchar en los noticieros, de padres que violan a sus hijas y, aunque no con la misma frecuencia, de padres que asesinan a sus hijos.
¿Cómo nos verán desde afuera? ¿Qué informarán los embajadores de países amigos a sus cancillerías?
What horror! What can one say about a society where individuals exist capable of perpetrating crimes of this magnitude? The case of Katya has taken relevance for the cynicism of the murderers and their prominence and for the prominence of the institution to which they belong. But monsters like them abound in this country.
It is not rare to read in our press or to hear in the news, of fathers who rape their daughters and, although not with the same frequency, of fathers who murder their children.
How will they see us from outside? What will the ambassadors of friendly countries report to their ministries?
Victor at Alta Hora de la Noche [es] wrote on his blog a personal reflection of his own fortune having a father and family who protected him during the years of El Salvador's civil war. Katya's violation at the hands of male relatives demands justice:
Que se pida que se haga justicia va mas allá de cualquier discursito barato de que lo social va a ser prioritario de acá en adelante…. Antes de pensar en esas supuestas reformas hay que limpiar lo sucio que hay en los rincones de nuestra patria. Y que se omita hacer justicia en el caso de una niña violada y asesinada, asi como se omite hacer justicia con muchos otros casos de niñas y niños violentados física y sexualmente es una enorme mancha que va a seguir empañando nuestra sociedad y en especial a quienes hemos delegado la facultad de hacer valer la justicia.
To ask for justice is done goes beyond any cheap little talk that the social good will be a priority from here onwards… Before one thinks of reforms, one must clean up the filth in the corners of our country. And failing to do justice in the case of a girl raped and murdered, as there has been a failure of justice in many other cases of children physically and sexually abused is a huge stain that will continue tarnishing our society and especially those to whom we have delegated the authority to enforce justice.
The time for justice in Katya's case is fast expiring as the ten year statue of limitations expires in 2009. To remind readers of the urgency, Salvadoran blogger Hunnapuh [es]added a countdown timer which counts down the time within which new legal proceedings must be taken.
3 comments · »»October 15th, 2007
El Salvador: Bloggers and Journalists
· 04:45 · AmericasThe intersection points of blogging and journalism are many and varied in El Salvador. Journalists are bloggers. Bloggers write about journalists and vice versa. Although El Salvador is a country where most people can't spend significant amounts of time online, the ever-growing number of bloggers in El Salvador is starting to influence public debate.
Discussions about the role of blogs were sparked when the conservative El Diario de Hoy newspaper ran a piece titled Cybernetic Proselytism [ES] which warned of supposed dangers from blogs including “disinforming, disorienting and denigrating,” all resulting in prejudice to democracy. In particular, the writers of the article warned that blogs were going to be used inappropriately by political parties leading up to national elections.
Jorge Ávalos, a blogger who also is a journalist employed by El Diario de Hoy, responded [ES] with with a quotation from Álvaro Rivera Larios in the digital periodical El Faro:
Pero es obvio que algunos sectores de nuestro país no ven con buenos ojos que se forme una ciudadanía crítica. Lo paradójico es que esos mismos sectores le teman a la posibilidad de que los blogs desinformen. Lo que temen esos sectores es la pérdida del monopolio informativo e ideológico que durante años han ejercido sobre la opinión pública salvadoreña, es decir, le temen a la pluralidad de informaciones y visiones que abren las nuevas tecnologías.
But it is obvious that some sectors of our country don't view happily that a critical citizenry is forming. The paradox is that these same sectors fear the possibility that blogs will disinform. What these sectors fear is the loss of their information and ideology monopoly that they have exercised for years over Salvadoran public opinion, that is to say, they fear a plurality of information sources and visions which new technologies open up.
Ávalos is one of several journalists in El Salvador who write their own personal blogs. Among others are Paolo Luers, Juan Jose Dalton, and Ernesto Rivas-Gallont. Interestingly, both Luers and Rivas started their blogs after having disagreements with the periodicals for which they were writing.
Do professional journalists bring something extra to the blogosphere? Reflecting on this question, Ávalos quoted a comment from the forum LibreOpinion.net on the value of the personal blogs of professional journalists:
Yo veo con mucho entusiasmo el hecho de que algunos periodistas estén en la blogósfera, porque nos permiten conocer puntos de vista de la noticia que ellos persiguen sin las ataduras que les impone el medio para el que trabajan. Es una labor ya no tanto de reportar sino de opinar respecto de la noticia, y tal periodista, creo yo, sí ha pasado por la etapa de investigar, entrevistar, tabular datos, etc.
I view with much enthusiasm the event of some journalists being in the blogosphere because they permit us to know points of view that they perceive without the strictures imposed on them by the media for which they work. It is a labor not so much of reporting, but of opining, with respect to the news; such a journalist has already gone through the stages of investigating, interviewing, tabulating data, etc.
Journalist blogger Rivas-Gallont is a well known figure in El Salvador. Among other positions, he was formerly the country's ambassador to the United States and is a columnist for the country's largest daily paper, La Prensa Grafica. Rivas-Gallont started his blog Conversations with Neto Rivas [ES] after La Prensa Grafica reduced the space available for his regular column in the paper, and he needed more room for his writing. Rivas-Gallont recently commemorated the one year anniversary of his blog:
Eso es lo que hace interesante y dinámico a un blog. ¡Qué aburrido y monótono sería que todos estuviéramos de acuerdo en todo! Esta publicación no es una manifestación de amor a la madre. Esta es una publicación de ustedes y para ustedes, donde todos expresamos libremente lo que pensamos, sin temor a represalia alguna. Un regalo de la libertad de expresión que, como debe ser, apreciamos en nuestro país.
That is what is interesting and dynamic about a blog. How boring and monotonous it would be if we were all in agreement on everything. This publication is not a show of a mother's love. It's a publication of you and for you, where we all freely express out thoughts, without fear of any reprisals. A gift of freedom of expression that is, as it ought to be, something we appreciate in our country.
(Journalists who write their own personal blogs are a far cry from the blogs sponsored on the website of El Salvador's largest daily newspaper, La Prensa Grafica. That paper, now features 7 blogs on its website, including blogs dealing with sex advice, sports, music and criminal defense among other topics).
Yet the editorial position of El Diario de Hoy notwithstanding, the media in El Salvador is sometimes taking notice of bloggers as opinion leaders. Blogger Hunnapuh wrote about being invited to participate in a radio program roundtable with other bloggers. He describes the session in his post, A Night on the Radio [ES]. The panel of bloggers was asked to give their take on the upcoming election campaigns and the party strategies in the country.
Salvadoran bloggers have often written about journalists. In a tragic recent example, a young Salvadoran journalist was gunned down outside his family's home in Soyapango on September 20. Salvador Sánchez was a radio journalist for alternative media including Radio Maya Vision, YSUCA, and Radio Cadena Mi Gente. Sánchez reported on a variety of topics on the radio, including the protests and arrests in Suchitoto, gang activity, and political demonstrations. The killers and their motives are unknown.
The fact that this murder victim was a journalist created a question — was he killed because of what he reported on, was he just a victim of gang violence in his neighborhood, was this an attack on free speech or just an act of criminal elements acting with impunity against a young man. Blogger Hunnapuh set out in his blog [ES] three different journalists' accounts of the murder, and then concluded:
Por desgracia la investigación está en manos de una institución policial que ha ido perdiendo credibilidad conforme la han ido politizando mas para servir a los designios del gobierno actual que a la propia ciudadanía. No podemos afirmar que Sánchez fuese víctima de Escuadrones de La Muerte, pero tampoco debemos descartar esa posibilidad.
Unfortunately the investigation is in the hands of a police institution that has been losing credibility as it becomes more politicized more to serve the designs of the current government than its own citizens. We are not able to affirm that Sánchez was a victim of Squadrons of Death, but neither can we discard this possibility.
Finally, bloggers have been and will be writing about the journalist who is a presidential candidate. Mauricio Funes, a popular journalist in El Salvador, has been selected by the left wing FMLN to head its ticket in upcoming presidential elections. Since the elections are not until March 2009, there will be plenty of cyber-ink spilled over a passionate election.
2 comments · »»July 16th, 2007
El Salvador: What Bloggers are Saying About Protesters and Terrorism
· 00:14 · AmericasA bloody street protest one year ago led to the passage of an Anti-Terrorism Law in El Salvador. The alleged cop-killer in the disturbances outside of the University of El Salvador has been arrested, and the Anti-Terrorism Law is being used — to prosecute protesters demonstrating against the government's water policy. The Salvadoran blogosphere has had much to say about this turn of events.
On the 5th of July 2006, a demonstration outside the University of El Salvador turned deadly violent as a sniper shot at riot police, killing two and wounding several more. (In the Salvadoran media that day's events are now known simply as “5-J”). After a year long manhunt, the alleged sniper Mario Belloso was apprehended on July 2, 2007, with an orgy of media coverage in the Salvadoran press which has yet to end.
The aftermath of Belloso's capture has journalist blogger Jorge Ávalos concerned. Soon after the capture, he notes [ES] that ruling ARENA party officials were trying to make propaganda use of the arrest, and the press and the government seemed not to care about the presumption of innocence. On the day of Belloso's capture, Ávalos expressed his hope that the national police could act with professionalism and good forensic technique as they assembled the case.
Two days later, however, Ávalos found that the police couldn't seem to resist the temptations of the high profile case. Police officials had leaked a photo from the search of Belloso's house which showed Belloso with a ranking member of the opposition FMLN party. Ávalos commented that the police were playing a very dangerous game[ES] in their anxiousness to get such photos into the hands of the media. The consequence might be a loss of the “chain of custody” over that proof.
Looking back with a year's perspective, blogger Ixquic writes that the events of 5-J were the birth of “terrorism”[ES] in El Salvador — at least in the eye of the conservative ruling parties. With the images of the 5-J shootings still playing across the TV, the government pushed through a new anti-terrorism law. While Ixquic, a lawyer blogger, says she has no problem with a law which condemns terrorism properly understood, this new law left important terms undefined, allowing for the possibility that it could be used maliciously by a government which wanted to come up with its own definitions of terrorism.
The new anti-Terrorism law had its most controversial application yet on July 2, the same day Belloso was captured. Demonstrations to protest the water privatization policy of El Salvador's current government resulted in clashes with riot police outside of the city of Suchitoto. On that day, president Tony Saca was scheduled to travel to Suchitoto to give a speech and initiate a project for “decentralization” of water systems, which many understand as the piecemeal selling off of water systems to private businesses to run. Demonstrators blocked access on the roads leading into the city. Various units of then anti-riot police (Unit for the Maintenance of Order “UMO”) arrived to clear the roads. Tear gas and rubber bullets were launched at demonstrators, and press photographs show demonstrators throwing rocks and buring rubbish in the streets.
Marches through the streets and demonstrations which block traffic are not uncommon in El Salvador. But this time the government had a new tool — 14 of the protesters, including several leaders of the local development organization CRIPDES, were arrested and charged under the Anti-Terrorist Law. Photos and video of the protests and the arrests were quickly on the Internet and being spread to supporting groups nationally and internationally.
On July 7, the 14 arrested outside Suchitoto faced an initial hearing in the specialized Organized Crime Court in San Salvador. The organization US-El Salvador Sister Cities carried a live blog from the large group of demonstrators outside of the court who were urging that the court throw out the terrorism charges. The judge, however, ruled against the demonstrators, sending 13 of them to prison for “provisional detention” for up to 3 months prior to the actual trial on terrorism charges.
From the scene after the decision was announced:
The crowd is angry but peaceful, still outside the tribunal building. The Riot Police is still there, but there has been no aggression. Julio Portillo, (Marta Lorena Araujo Martinez’s husband) spoke to the crowd immediately following the verdict, saying that he was disappointed and outraged, and called upon all Salvadorans to work ceaselessly over the next 3 months to get the accused out of jail. Now FMLN leaders are speaking, as well.
The crowd is waiting to see where the detainees will be taken, to go with them in caravan and hold vigil outside the jail, wherever it turns out to be.
In his blog, writer Juan Jose Dalton criticized charging protesters with terrorism [ES]:
Los detenidos en Suchitoto serán procesados como “terroristas”, pero eran activistas sociales que a lo sumo lo que tiraron fueron piedras….
¿Cómo comparar a Lorena Martínez, presidenta de la organización de campesinos cristianos CRIPDES y procesada como “terrorista”, con los secuaces de Osama Bin Laden? Estamos retornando a la locura…
Those arrested in Suchitoto will be processed as “terrorists,” but they were social activists and the most that they shot was stones.How does one compare Lorena Martinez, president of CRIPDES, an organization of Christian campesinos with the followers of Osama bin Laden? We are returning to the madness [a phrase used to describe the conditions surrounding El Salvador's civil war from 1980-1992]
Similarly, blogger JC at La Terminal found that this use of the anti-Terrorism law made the word “terrorism” a farce:
Tirar piedras, quemar llantas, tapar una calle, quemarle un carro a los desprevenidos PNCs en el marco de una protesta anti gubernamental no es algo que me cause gracia, ni que me guste ni que apruebe.
Pero si una ridícula Ley da pié a que una jueza diga que eso es “terrorismo” entonces cualquier cosa es terrorismo….
Pero si ser tonto es terrorismo, yo también soy terrorista… y la jueza también.
To throw rocks, burn tires, block streets and burn a car in an anti-government protest is not something that amuses me, nor do I like it, nor do I approve it. But what a ridiculous law where a judge can say these things are terrorism, then anything is terrorism….To say their actions was terrorism is to insult common sense and to insult the victims of true terrorism acts. If what they did in Suchitoto is terrorism, then I am a terrorist… and so is the judge.
Another blogger, Victor Castro, picked up on this same theme, writing in his blog[ES] that “because I have plans to go back out and march in the street expressing my discontent with government policy X or Y, — then I am a terrorist too.”
In addition to this application of the anti-Terrorism Law, Jjmar, who is one of the original contributors at the popular Hunnapuh blog, was worried about the presence of the armed forces[ES] in the confrontation between the government and the protesters in Suchitoto:
El otro elemento de preocupación es el uso de la Fuerza Armada en incidentes de protesta popular. La fuerza armada tiene claramente definido su rol en la Constitución de la República. No tiene funciones de seguridad pública o de servir de apoyo a la PNC ante protestas populares. Además los soldados no tienen la preparación adecuada para actuar en estos casos. No es lo mismo que un antimotín dispare una escopeta con balas de goma o lance una bomba de gases lacrimógenos a que un soldado dispare su M 16 o con una ametralladora punto cincuenta contra la masa de manifestantes.
The other element for worry is the use of the Armed Forces in incidents of popular protest. The armed forces have a clearly defined role in the Constitution of the Republic. It does not have functions of public security or to serve as support to the PNC [National Police] before popular protests. Besides, the soldiers do not have adequate preparation in order to act in these cases. It's not the same thing for an anti-riot officer to fire a shotgun with rubber bullets or launch a tear gas bomb as a soldier to shoot his M-16 or a 50 caliber machine gun against the mass of demonstrators.
All of these events are playing out in El Salvador where the atmosphere is already politically polarized and will only become more so as national elections in 2009 approach.
3 comments · »»May 22nd, 2007
What Salvadoran bloggers are saying — about a war-like political campaign
· 03:23 · AmericasThere are 22 months to go before the March 2009 elections for President and National Assembly in El Salvador, but already the campaign is a major theme in the Salvadoran blogosphere. The current round of comments were triggered by a political rally led by president Tony Saca, where he made comments which many described as “war-like.” Blogger Hunnapuh takes note (ES) of Tony Saca's call to the governing right-wing ARENA party faithful to create an army of “nationalist soldiers,” with Saca warning that “he who sleeps loses, there can be no vacations.”
According to Hunnapuh, Saca is “walking with a warlike and provocative discourse which contradicts his pose as a conciliator who is open to dialog and reconciliation.” Echoing a theme seen on several blogs, Hunnapuh views Saca's proselytizing as flatly illegal and in violation Article 81 of El Salvador's Constitution which forbids political campaigning more than 4 months before the presidential election and Article 237 of the electoral code which forbids a public official from using his public office for partisan political ends.
The impending presidential campaign has prompted blogger Jjmar to write a two part series on internal divisions (ES) within the ruling conservative ARENA party. Noting that while the corporate media is ever eager to describe internal divisions in the leftist opposition FMLN, Jjmar finds there is a “curtain of smoke” over the problems and divisions within ARENA while the media is selling the image of ARENA as solid and unified.
One split Jjmar describes is between those in ARENA who believe that a campaign based on fear of the consequences of a victory by the left-wing FMLN is the best course (as it was in 2004 elections) and those who are concerned about increased polarization in the country and its impact on the business climate. Corruption is also one of their concerns:
La preocupación por la corrupción sin precedentes del actual gobierno, no solo tiene a la base la imagen, sino las ganancias. Antes los funcionarios se conformaban con “regalías”, ahora les exigen “comisiones”. Antes había funcionarios que con una botella de vino se quedaban felices y contentos, ahora piden entre el 10% y el 15% del total de la obra en licitación.
“Los Torogoces” is a group composed of members of the strong, traditional business sector of the country who meet together for breakfast on a regular basis. According to Jjmar's sources, Los Torogoces want president Saca to step down as head of ARENA and for other government officials to step out of leadership positions in the party. They fear that without de-linking the government and the party, ARENA will be burdened with the errors of the government in future elections. Las Torogoces also oppose any plan to make Rene Figueroa, the Minister of Security, ARENA's nominee for the presidency.
Carlos Abrego criticizes Figueroa (ES) for Figueroa's public statements linking the FMLN to all the crime and disorder in the country but without any proof or bringing his accusations through proper scandals. Such statements would be bad enough as simple political party propaganda, but Abrego finds them to be even more reprehensible when they come from a government minister, the minister of security. These partisan accusations, Abrego worries, lead to greater polarization an instability in public institutions.
Finally, Ixquic laments the lack of progress(ES) on reform of the electoral process. Items such as the “residential vote” (where polling places are located close to the communities where people actually live), an agreement on auditing the voting lists, and control over campagin financing and propaganda, have failed to make headway in the country. She also looks to the upcoming presidential campaign where she expects the other right-wing parties, like the PCN, to need to find a way to distance themselves from the ruling ARENA party, if they expect to enjoy success at the polls.
1 comment · »»March 22nd, 2007
What Salvadoran bloggers are saying — about the passing of a witness
· 11:34 · AmericasIf your only source of news was the main Salvadoran newspapers, you might have missed the story. The sole survivor of a notorious massacre of civilians during El Salvador civil war passed away on March 6. On December 6, 1981, Rufina Amaya, had somehow managed to escape from the government troops who systematically rounded up and savagely murdered the elderly, the women, the men, the children and the babies in her village, including her 8 month old child who was ripped from her arms. This war crime, known as the El Mozote massacre, led to the deaths of as many as 1000 campesinos in and around the village of El Mozote in Morazan province.
Both the Salvadoran government and the US government which was supporting the regime in 1981, denied that a wholesale massacre of civilians had taken place. After the war, the UN Truth Commission validated the details as have subsequent investigations. The story of the massacre and the subsequent denials were detailed subsequently by journalist Mark Danner.
There was one voice, which spoke simply and humbly as the voice of a witness, which ultimately allowed the truth to be known. That was the voice of Rufina Amaya.
0 comments · »»March 6th, 2007
What Salvadoran bloggers are saying — about murders in Guatemala
· 05:12 · AmericasRecent events involving the murder of four Salvadorans in Guatemala have dominated the blogosphere in El Salvador. On February 19, three members of the Central American parliament (PARLACEN) from El Salvador's ruling ARENA party were found murdered in Guatemala along with their driver. The group had been traveling to a working group meeting of PARLACEN. The bodies were found in a rural area outside of Guatemala City, in the burned out shell of the vehicle in which they had been driving. Among the dead was Eduardo D'Aubuisson, son of the founder of ARENA.
Initially the reaction in the Salvadoran blogosphere was to call for restraint[ES], avoiding a rush to judgment, and calling for an in depth investigation[ES]. Jjmar wrote that no one should seek to take advantage of the murders[ES] for political gain, whether to further the political polarization in El Salvador or to gain a benefit in the 2009 election campaign.
Fears of a political motive were largely eliminated when four Guatemalan police officers were arrested for the murders three days later. The arrested police officers included the head of the organized crime unit within the Guatemalan national police. Yet there was to be another twist. On February 25th, the four Guatemalan police officers were executed in their cells in a high security Guatemalan prison. Most reports indicated that gunmen “stormed” the prison, passing through eight locked(?) doors to get to the suspects and kill them. The executions coincided with a riot within the prison, and the some Guatemalan authorities are still suggesting that the suspects were killed by rioting gang members. The discussion in the blogosphere now turned to organized crime and narco-trafficking and its hold in Central America.
(more…)
February 20th, 2007
What Salvadoran bloggers are saying — unable to escape the past
· 02:40 · AmericasThe ghosts of El Salvador's twelve year civil war continue to surface in the news from El Salvador. First there was the story of Will Salgado, mayor of the city of San Miguel. On January 29, the Washington Post ran a cover story on the aftermath of the civil war which started with these attention getting sentences:
José Wilfredo Salgado says he collected baby skulls as trophies in the 1980s, when he fought as a government soldier in El Salvador's civil war. They worked well as candleholders, he recalls, and better as good-luck charms.
The skulls were taken from corpses of the El Mozote massacre victims in Morazan province which took place in December 1981. Salgado gave an interview to the periodical El Faro, in which he denies ever making such statements, but the Washington Post reporter is sticking to the story.
Blogger Jjmar has no doubt that Salgado made the statements in question, and wonders what that says[ES] for his country that such a man can be a popular mayor of a major city and is being considered as a presidential candidate in 2009. Ixquic looks at Salgado and sees a politician with populist appeal[ES], a “Robin Hood,” who has sold himself to the electorate and the people have bought his sales job. It doesn't seem to matter whether the news about him is good or bad.
(more…)
January 23rd, 2007
What Salvadoran bloggers are saying — on the 15th anniversary of peace accords
· 22:55 · AmericasJanuary 16 marked the 15th anniversary of the signing of the Chapultepec Peace Accords which ended El Salvador's twelve year civil war. The event was marked by official celebrations, conferences, rallies and protests. The bloggers of El Salvador had much to say about the events and the country's progress. The general theme in the Salvadoran blogosphere was that of unfulfilled promise.
Jjmar, who posts at the Hunnapuh blog, does not want the significance of the Peace Accords to be underestimated and describes the accords as the basis for the most important democratic political reform(es) in the modern history of El Salvador. The accords opened to doors to the growth of democracy, guaranteed political rights and opened space where the FMLN could be transformed from a guerrilla movement into a political party, and the country established a Human Rights Ombudsman. But in the socio-economic life of the country, the accords had their greatest shortcomings. The historic structures of Salvadoran society which gave rise to the armed conflict were not abolished by the Peace Accords.
For her part, Ixquic marvels that in a country as small as El Salvador there exist such widely varied opinions(es) about the the same reality. While she notes that the Peace Accords did accomplish the cessation of hostilities, there has been a failure to cement a new social, political and economic system.
Many view the treatment of ex-soldiers and guerrillas as one of the failures. Journalist Juan Jose Dalton reflects on the Peace Accords with the story of Bernardo Menjivar(es). When he was only 11, government forces invaded Bernardo's village in the mountainous province of Chalatenango and massacred the population including his mother, sister and uncles and counsin. From that point forward, he became a messenger for the FMLN guerrilla forces, passing messages from one front to another. When he was 16, he lost both legs in an explosion in a mine field. He was one of the lucky ones though. Eventually he came under the care of the International Red Cross and was later taken to Cuba where he received treatment and rehabilitation and eventually education and training.
0 comments · »»January 8th, 2007
What Salvadoran bloggers are saying — about the new year
· 10:00 · AmericasSalvadoran bloggers begin 2007 with a call for realism when looking at the situation facing the country. There was considerable reaction to the end of the year statements(es) of the president, Tony Saca, who asserted that the economy was growing very healthily and declared that 2007 was to be the “Year of Social Peace.”
JJmar at the Hunnapuh blog comments on the government's patting itself on the back(es) regarding economic growth in 2007. He points out that the government's statistics of 4.7% economic growth had been discredited and that growth was only 3.5%. More importantly, the root of the growth was increasing remittances from Salvadorans who had emigrated abroad and not from economic vitality domestically. Exports were increasing, but these were also tied to the Salvadoran diaspora as “nostalgia” foods were sent to emigrants in the US and elsewhere looking for a taste of home.
Ixquic reflects the hopes and dreams (es) of many Salvadorans. She also heard the government say that the economy is growing, but notes that there does not seem to be an improvement in ordinary lives. She suggest that the lack of benefit to the ordinary person from economic growth could be the result of growing inequality of the distribution of economic resources in the country. Similarly, when the government tries to spin the country's crime problems by stating that crime has not increased in the past 12 months, Ixquic finds little comfort for the victims when crime is already at painfully high levels.
What troubles Ixquic the most, she writes, is a lack of citizen spirit and participation whether it be in politics, or justice, or civil actions. Those who do participate seem to be stuck with anachronistic ideologies and lacking in creative solutions. Although the next election is not until 2009, Ixquic already sees signs of the country becoming ungovernable as the old parties harden their positions.
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About Tim Muth
With help from friends in El Salvador, I blog about everything related to that country. I am a lawyer by training, and I am the "Tim" of Tim's El Salvador Blog. Other GV sites
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