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Monday, April 30, 2007
Dominican Minister calls for end to double taxation
(From Dominican Today) Dominican Treasury Minister Vicente Bengoa has said that Central America, Panama
and the Dominican Republic have to negotiate a treaty with the United States aimed at preventing double taxation. Bengoa made
this suggestion during the fifth meeting of Central American, Panamanian and Dominican Treasury Ministers.
He stressed the importance and urgent need to approve this agreement, because following the DR-CAFTA agreement’s
entry into effect many companies are coming to the region and this could create “taxation cannibalism” between countries,
“which try to attract investments on the basis of tax exemptions”.
He said that the worst-case scenario would be for governments to have to make tax reforms that would affect
local producers, employees and consumers.
Antonio Saca, president of El Salvador, told reporters and participants that
the Dominican minister’s declaration had taken the words out of his mouth.
He said that the best way of improving a
government’s income was to boost economic activity and improve tax collections, rather than raising taxes.
Saturday, April 28, 2007
Agricultural Harvests Expected to be Up by 15%
Mario Salaverría, minister of Agriculture, said yesterday that because of good rains he expects crops to
be improved by 15% this season. The planting season for beans, rice, corn, and other grains will be in the third and
fourth weeks of May. 160,000 farmers will be supplied with improved hybrids by the government.
Adolescent Pregnancies on the Rise
(From El Diario de Hoy) Problems associated with pregnancy are the third most frequent reason for hospitalization
among girls ten to fourteen. Xochilt Sandoval, head of surgery at the national maternity hospital said that girls 12
and 13 don't realize the risks of pregnancy at their age. He said they they lack mental and physical maturity.
More than ten percent of 15 year old girls admit to sexual activity. The girls that seek prenatal care usually don't
do that until after the first trimester which is too late.
Thursday, April 26, 2007
El Salvador Wins Homicide Olympics
(From La Prensa Grafica) Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador are the most violent countries in Central America;
El Salvador is the worst. El Salvador has 55.5 murders per 100,000 people per year. Honduras has 40.6. Gang
violence is a large part of the problem; some estimates indicate there are 30,000 gang members in El Salvador. Homicide
rates in El Salvador are about ten times the US rate.
The Divorded No Longer Singled Out
(From La Prensa Grafica) Today the Legislative Assembly approved modification to federal law so that divorced
and widowed people will no longer be forced to be listed as such on their identification documents. Many believed this
label led to discrimination. From now on, divorced and widowed people can choose to be listed as single on their government
issued ID cards (DUI). They will have to pay $10.35 to have existing IDs reissued.
Six Schools Get Computer Science Classrooms
(From La Prensa Grafica) Six schools in Santa Ana have new computer rooms, dedicated by President
Saca yesterday. Each school received twenty computers, which will be used by students from kindergarden to ninth grade. The
national Education Department spent about $100,000 on facilites and $180,000 on computer equipment.
Sunday, April 22, 2007
First Courtyard by Marriott Hotel Opens in El Salvador
Marriott International, Inc. (NYSE:MAR) today announced the opening of its first Courtyard by Marriott hotel
in El Salvador with the opening of the 133-room Courtyard by Marriott San Salvador Hotel. The hotel opened under a management
agreement with Caribe Hospitality El Salvador. It is the first Courtyard-branded hotel to open in El Salvador and the third
to open in Central America.
The general manager is Julia Bennett. The Courtyard by Marriott San Salvador Hotel is currently offering
a rate of $109.00 USD per night plus all applicable taxes.
The hotel is conveniently located adjacent to La Gran Via
lifestyle center, a new upscale entertainment complex in San Salvador, which offers guests a wide variety of local dining
and shopping options.
Saturday, April 21, 2007
El Salvador bishop says US fuel project will hit the poor
by Rafael Menjívar Saavedra (ALC)
San Salvador (ENI).
The Lutheran bishop of El Salvador has spoken out against a proposal for the Central American country to host
a pilot project to produce ethanol fuel from sugar cane and yellow maize due to escalating oil prices.
"Since corn
and sugar cane are the raw materials for the producing of ethanol for fuel in the country, we are opposed to it because its
negative impact on the family economy will be greater than the benefits that it could bring about," said Bishop Medardo Gómez
of the Salvadoran Lutheran Synod.
Thursday, April 19, 2007
Message from Archbishop Martín de Jesus de Barahona
With deep pain I have known the sad news occurred this Monday April 16TH, about
the tragic slaughter of the students of the Polytechnic University Virginia Tech, in the state of Virginia, United States.
I have prayed by the assassinated
young people and for their parents, in addition we will like to express our solidarity as a church
to the suffering of the university student community, with our Episcopal Church Mother of the United States and with the North American people in general.
We will continue praying, so that there is not more violence in the world, which affects
to our most precious human reserve.
May GOD all powerful give us the wisdom and strength to support this difficult moment.
Revdmo. Martín Barahona
Bishop of the Episcopal Church - Anglican of El Salvador
and Primate of Central Region of America (IARCA)
Saturday, April 14, 2007
Drive seeks medical supplies for El Salvador
(From The Auburn, NY, Citizen) Good Shepherd Catholic Community consists of four worship sites: Our Lady
of the Lake in King Ferry, St. Michael in Union Springs, St. Patrick in Aurora and St. Patrick in Moravia. These parishes
are collecting simple medical supplies to help create 50 family health kits and two school/clinic medical supply kits for
a small rural community in San Pedro, El Salvador. This project will benefit the 47 families (approximately 300 people) who
enjoy a special relationship with southern Cayuga County through the Cayuga-San Pedro Sister Community Project.
The
people of San Pedro are campesinos (small farmers) who grow beans and corn, and the women make hammocks to sell. They live
in simple homes made with earth and wood, without electricity or water. They have a small school serving kindergarten through
third-grade.
Members of the southern Cayuga community will be traveling to El Salvador in May. The following donations
are being collected and will be distributed directly to the families: Band Aids, multi-vitamins, toothpaste, bar soap, Neosporin/antibiotic,
Vaseline, Tylenol, Ibuprofen, Acetaminophen and anti-diarrhea medicine. Any financial donations will be used to purchase additional
supplies in El Salvador (parasite medicine and pediolyte). Medications will be given to Doctors for Global Health, a group
that operates clinics in the area near San Pedro. All donations are welcome, whether individual items, complete kits or financial
contributions.
For questions about the parish collection, contact Debbie Patrick at 315 497-2049. To learn more about
the Cayuga-San Pedro Sister Community Project or the upcoming trip to El Salvador, contact Larry or Laura Buffam at 315 364-8901.
Sunday, April 8, 2007
Interview with President Saca
In an interview published in La Prensa Grafica last week Salvadoran president Antonio Saca spoke of the
coming 2009 presidential election. He said the candidate of ARENA will be chosen in open primaries. The voting
in these primaries will not be secret, however, but will be by a showing of hands. When questioned he said the party
is open to a female candidate, but he will not be openly choosing a candidate personally.
President Saca also was questioned on the national debt, now well over the legal limit 40% of GDP at $7.3B.
Saca claims this figure is in error and that the government is working to reduce the debt. He says, however, that funds
must be spent on dams, ports, roads and hospitals.
Sun, April 8, 2007 | link
Saturday, April 7, 2007
Bank Consolidation Continues
Bancolombia de Panamá is seeking to purchase at least 53% ownership of Banco Agrícola Comercial (Banagrícola)
de El Salvador. Bancolombia, based in Columbia, has market value of $5B and is listed on the NYSE (symbol CIB).
Salvadoran Army Prepares to Work for Peace
(From La Prensa Grafica) The Salvadoran army has been preparing units of infantry, medical units, military
police and engineering for severak months to take part in peacekeeping missions of the UN. Last January Raja Jahanzeb,
a colonel in the army of Pakistan completed an evaluation of the readiness of Salvadoran troops for these missions.
Friday, April 6, 2007
Emotional Pictures of Story Below
Fri, April 6, 2007 | link
Thursday, April 5, 2007
A daughter stolen in wartime returns to El Salvador
By MARC LACEY
New York Times
CACAOPERA, EL SALVADOR — Suzanne Marie Berghaus finally came home.
Berghaus, a 26-year-old from the Boston suburbs, walked into a humble homestead here in rural El Salvador
on Tuesday and spotted someone older with a face that resembled her own but whom she did not know.
Then, mother and daughter embraced.
Soon after, others came for hugs of their own. Confronted with siblings, cousins, nieces and nephews — strangers
all — Berghaus wiped away tears. "Hola," she said, one of the few Spanish words she knows.
At the age of 14 months, Berghaus had been plucked from a hammock by a government soldier, one of hundreds
of babies snatched by the military during the war in what was part counterinsurgency strategy and part business venture.
Many of the stolen children were sent to orphanages, where they were adopted in a wartime system that had
tinges of compassion and greed.
Born into this struggling family in the Salvadoran hinterlands, Berghaus grew up instead with an American
family in Wilmington, Mass.
Wednesday, April 4, 2007
Reenactment of The Passion in San Miguel
(I doubt the first Pontius Pilate had a wireless microphone.)
Wed, April 4, 2007 | link
Sunday, April 1, 2007
El Salvador chose as “pilot” country for ethanol project
United States and Brazil invited El Salvador to become the “pilot” country for
the production of ethanol thus helping to save on hydrocarbons, was confirmed in El Salvador by the country’s president Elias
Antonio Saca.
“Today Saturday President Lula da Silva and President George Bush and following on the memorandum of understanding
signed by the two countries in early March in Sao Paulo, have invited El Salvador to undertake the production of ethanol as
a pilot case in Central America and we feel most satisfied since this is the confirmation of our energy policy”, said President
Saca.
Human rights pioneer dies in El Salvador
Maria Julia Hernandez, celebrated human rights activist of El Salvador, died on March 30 after suffering
a heart attack.
Reverend Jose Maria Tojeira, rector of the University of Central
America in San Salvador, described Hernandez as "an extraordinary woman, committed; many people and myself personally feel
a great gratitude to her in the case of the Jesuits." Tojeira was referring to the case in which several Catholic priests
and university staff members were gunned down at the university in November 1989. Hernandez concluded, in the first investigation
of the murders, that they had been done under orders of the Salvadoran government. The university later gave her an honorary
doctorate of law.
Hernandez was best known as the director of Tutela Legal (Legal
Protection), a human rights group that was sponsored by the Catholic Church. She had also worked side by side with murdered
Archbishop Oscar Romero. Hernandez continued Romero's dedication to human rights work, having already dedicated her
life to social work.
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