Reporters Without Borders calls on the police and judicial authorities to carry out a thorough investigation into an incident on 17 September in Huizucar, a municipality near San Salvador, when Allan Martell, a reporter and producer with Radio Bálsamo (http://balsamofm.blogspot.com), a community radio station based in Zaragoza (in the western department of La Libertad), was accosted and threatened by local officials while making a documentary about water distribution problems. Roberto Gúzman, a member of Communal Vision Development Association (ADESCOVI), an NGO based in Huizucar, was also attacked.

Martell, Gúzman and two members of the United Community Association for Water and Agriculture (ACUA) were filming local residents who are forced to queue up every fourth day in the middle of the night in order to obtain water when, after about 10 minutes, their way was blocked by Huizucar mayor Moisés Amílcar Tamacas in his vehicle. Municipal councillor Julio Hernández then appeared on the scene and tried to snatch Gúzman’s camera from him. Municipal administrator José Arias also turned up, armed with a machete, which he used to threaten Gúzman. Martell started to film this but Arias turned on him and tried to break his camera, forcing Martell to stop filming. Martell filed a complaint.

Reporters Without Borders said: “We fear that little progress is being made with the investigation because of the posts held by those responsible for the attack. Their positions as mayor and municipal administrator make this kind of press freedom violation all the more unacceptable.”

(From Angus Reid Global Monitor) - The race for El Salvador’s top office is becoming tighter, according to a poll by CID-Gallup. 40 per cent of respondents would vote for Mauricio Funes of the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN) in next year’s ballot, down one point since May.

Rodrigo Ávila of the governing conservative Nationalist Republican Alliance (ARENA) is second with 30 per cent, up 10 points in three months. Three-in-ten respondents remain undecided.

ARENA’s Antonio Saca, a media businessman, was elected in March 2004, garnering 57.73 per cent of the vote. ARENA candidates have won the last four presidential elections in the Central American country. Saca is ineligible for a consecutive term in office.

In September 2007, Funes became the FMLN’s presidential nominee. In March 2008, Ávila, a former National Police chief, won ARENA’s three-candidate internal nationwide primary.

(From InsideCostaRica.com) The opposition Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN) in El Salvador hold the ruling Nationalist Republican Alliance (ARENA) accountable for the riots in this capital related with forthcoming elections. According to the FMNL denunciations a group of activists from ARENA attacked supporters of the left-wing party, wounding four seriously. The coordinator of the FMLN Campaign Command in San Salvador Lorena Peña denounced physical and verbal aggression by ARENA's party members who were accompanying the candidate to mayoralty in the capital Norman Quijano to the Farabundo Communication Brigade. It is reprehensible that Norman Quijano said in public that there were 90 activists in front of 25 from the FMLN but more worrying is that he expressed that his brigades are armed, emphasized Peña. The FMLN leader Roberto Lorenzana assured that with the view to avoid violence in the electoral campaign the government party rejected an invitation issued to all political parties to sign an agreement. “We want a peaceful campaign, we regret Thursday's event so it is necessary to coordinate information among parties to avoid incidents, emphasized Lorenzana. The Front called the authorities, specially the National Civil Police, to investigate the riots and put end to this type of events which has become a routine in every election period.

Renewable energy company Southridge Enterprises Inc. has inked a deal with Beijing investment firm Shenyang Rrzk Co. to sell a 20 percent stake in Southridge’s El Salvador-based ethanol facility.

The transaction is valued at $4 million. Dallas-based Southridge started construction on the plant in February and expects, when finished, the facility will produce up to 20 million gallons of ethanol per year. The plant is slated for opening at the end of 2009 or the very beginning of 2010.