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Wednesday, December 24, 2008
Update from Noah Bullock
In the last year
we have worked hard in the Episcopal missions in El Salvador, and as we mark the end of the year, I wanted to share some of
the progress we have made over the last year in two of our many projects. Below is are two links where you can download
two files;
One is an update
for Hasta La Cosecha, the Episcopal Church's sustainable agriculture project.
http://www.sendspace.com/file/0m23zp
The other is a
Power Point Slide show of the construction of the El Carmen bridge in the village El Carman. The Bridge was inaugurated on
December 7th, the theme of the day was, as the plague read, "United We Move Forward." There were over 200 people and
it was truly a great day! In the new year I will try and compose a small written summary of the work with photos
of the inauguration day, as we are very proud, and there are many stories.
http://www.sendspace.com/file/12vwpu
I apologize that
I cannot send the files directly due because they contain lots of pictures and are quite large.
In the last
few months there has been a strong sense of accomplishment in the missions and optimism for what can been achieved
through cooperation and solidarity. This comes as good news at christmas time, especially this year, in which, human
greed has taken such a heavy toll on life of the national economy. When you looking over these two files keep in mind
that these accomplishments we share with you. Your accompaniment of these otherwise marginalized communities gives people the
confidence to work together, to reject the unjust and collectively build a vision of something much better.
In constructing bridges, churches, clinics, and schools, community, planting the fields, and fighting for human rights, our
message written in wet cement is stands true that against great challenges, "United We Move Forward."
I want thank all of the people who have supported our work in El Salvador in your solidarity, prays, visits,
and donations.
Merry Christmas
Companeros,
Sunday, December 21, 2008
"If it moves, it dies"
Twenty seven years after the worst massacre by the army in the fifteen year Salvadoran civil war a member
of the Batallón Atalcatl has spoken of the events of December 11, 1981. A total of 765 innocents died that day,
including young children and the elderly. Efraín Antonio Fuentes was seventeen years old at the time and had been
in the army only a few months. Speaking to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights he told of being ordered into
the community of El Mozote and told, "If it moves, it dies." Only one resident escaped the massacre of all the people
in the village which had thought it was safe because they were a neutral group of evangelicals who did not follow Liberation
Theology.
Monday, December 8, 2008
Bush To Meet With President Saca at White House
(RTT News) - President George Bush will meet with President Elias Antonio Saca of El Salvador at the White
House on December 16, a White House press release revealed Monday.
In the release, White House Press Secretary Dana
Perino called El Salvador "an important ally of the United States" and said Saca's visit "underscores the deep friendship
between the United States and El Salvador."
[Bush will leave office on January 20 and Saca on June 1 so this appears to be a Hail and Farewell tour
for both. Polls show that Saca's party is not likely to continue in the presidency.]
Funes Has Comfortable Lead in El Salvador
(Angus Reid Global Monitor) - Former broadcast journalist Mauricio Funes is widening his
advantage over his strongest opponent ahead of next year’s presidential election in El Salvador, according to a poll by CID-Gallup.
44 per cent of respondents would back Funes of the [leftist] Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN) in the 2009
ballot, up four points since August.
Rodrigo Ávila of the governing conservative Nationalist Republican Alliance (ARENA) is second with 31 per
cent. A quarter of 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.
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