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,

 

(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."

 

 

(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.

SAN SALVADOR – FMLN presidential candidate Mauricio Funes, said that if he wins the elections in 2009 he will immediately withdraw Salvadoran military troops from Iraq.  El Salvador is the only Latin American country supporting the US effort in Iraq.

On the other hand, Funes stressed: "El Salvador has many problems to solve.  The Army can be assigned tasks such as opening avenues of cooperation, giving medical care and other tasks in border areas, where there are great needs."

Funes, a well-known television journalist and former correspondent for CNN in El Salvador, said that his prediction is that the FMLN will win outright, without the necessity of a run-off election.  Opinion polls favor Funes with proportions that give anywhere from two to 14 percent, above the AREAN candidate, Rodrigo Avila.

Funes announced that next weekend he will travel to the United States, where he has scheduled meetings with representatives of international banks, officials in Washington, and with leaders of the Salvadoran community in the USA.

In addressing the issue of dollarization Funes reiterated that his government will maintain the U.S. dollar as the national currency.

In the first eleven months of the year police have shut down twenty operations that illegaly copies music CDs.  More than one hundred alleged criminals have been arrested.  However, it is believed the illegal music CD business sells more than $30 million each year.

Police officer guards captured CDs.

(Angus Reid Global Monitor) - Left-wing presidential candidate Mauricio Funes is leading in El Salvador, according to a poll by Borge & Asociados published in El Diario de Hoy. 41.5 per cent of respondents would support Funes of the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN) in next year’s election, up 3.9 points since July.

Rodrigo Ávila of the governing conservative Nationalist Republican Alliance (ARENA) is second with 37.8 per cent, up 7.3 points in four months. One-in-five 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.

On Oct. 27, Funes reiterated that he would maintain a close relationship with Washington if elected and regardless of who becomes the next president of the United States, saying, "I will work hand-in-hand with the American president-elect, because the relationship between our countries is government-to-government."

The next legislative election is scheduled for Jan. 18, 2009, with a presidential ballot following on Mar. 15.

(From Radio Netherlands) Leaders of Latin American countries, Spain and Portugal are trying to find solutions to the worldwide financial crisis at a three-day Iberian-American summit in El Salvador.

The participants are hoping to formulate a united standpoint on the crisis. This will enable them to participate fully in the world credit crisis summit, scheduled to be held in Washington in mid-November.

Almost all Iberian and Latin American government leaders are present at the summit. Only Venezuela and Cuba are represented by official government delegations.

Bolivia played a man down for most of the game after goalie Carlos Arias was sent off with a red card in the 33rd minute.

Quintanilla's goal came on a shot from the left side of the field about 25 yards from the goal. The ball ended up in the right side of the net, traveling past the outstretched hands of diving goalie Sergio Galarza.

Romero's goal was on a kick from the center of the field that went just over Galarza's hand to hit the underside of the crossbar and into the goal.

(From the Council on Hemispheric Affairs) The highly anticipated U.S. presidential election has brought a wave of hope for change and confidence that the political process under an Obama presidency will be put to work on the side of the people. A parallel case is seen in El Salvador, where people are hopeful that a positive shift in politics will be seen in the Salvadoran presidential election on March 15th, 2009. The two main contenders in the presidential race are Rodrigo Avila, who belongs to the ruling right-wing National Republican Alliance Party (ARENA), and Mauricio Funes, who is a member of the leftist Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN). Already, this election cycle appears distinct from the past because, for the first time in nineteen years, polls of perspective voters tend to favor the latter candidate.

The current president of El Salvador is ARENA’s Antonio Saca. During his term, Saca has attempted to improve, with scant success, El Salvador’s crime prevention rate and negative social and economic conditions by forming a tight knit relationship with the Bush administration. The close relationship between the two right wing administrators has helped El Salvador sign onto Bush’s U.S Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC). The MCC is a five year, $461 million anti-poverty program intended to stimulate growth in the poorest areas of the country, particularly northern El Salvador, where more than 50 percent of the population lives below the poverty line. Measures to improve the lives of Salvadorans have included investments in agricultural production as well as in education and rural business development. The percentage of the population living below the poverty line has declined to 35.2 percent (twenty-three points lower than in 2000) and the country’s GDP growth has increased two points since 2004.

 

(International Herald Tribune/Associated Press) El Salvador's president says he'll keep troops in Iraq alongside U.S. forces as long as Baghdad needs them.

President Tony Saca estimates that could be "one more year," but says it depends on circumstances. He says his country will be there "with the coalition until it finishes its work."

In his words, "We're going to finish what we started."

El Salvador has about 280 soldiers in Iraq and is the only Latin American nation that has had forces there since the war started in 2003. Five Salvadoran soldiers have died serving in the Middle Eastern nation.

Saca spoke Monday while presenting medals to troops returning from a six-month stint in Iraq.

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.”