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News Article
The Salvadoran trail of Ronald Johnson, Trump’s man for Mexico
December 12, 2024
Ronald Douglas Johnson served as the United States ambassador to El Salvador from 2019 to 2021. He was appointed by President Donald Trump.
 
Johnson quickly became a key ally of Bukele’s administration, making frequent appearances at press conferences, work meetings, and even private events. While Bukele ignored the criticism of  international organizations who raised concerns about the human rights violations, caused also through the detention of tens of thousands El Salvadorans without evidence or trial, Johnson downplayed the controversy, asserting that the priority was reducing crime. The US ambassador also ignored the criticism of Bukeles authoritarian tendencies. He never took a position on the fact that Bukele used heavily armed military personnel to take over Congress.
 
Sixteen months into Johnson’s tenure, Joe Biden assumed the U.S. presidency, reinstated Jean Manes as ambassador in El Salvador, and reversed many of Bukele’s concessions. But with the reelection of Donald Trump Johnson will, if the Senate confirms, become the new ambassador to Mexico.
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Event
Webinar: Political Prisoners and Persecution in El Salvador
December 10, 2024

This Thursday, December 12 at 3 pm ET CISPES will be hosting an important conversation about political persecution in El Salvador today, including political imprisonment, a repressive tactic not seen in El Salvador since the days of the civil war.

Bukele has made persecution of his political opponents, the grassroots opposition, and the independent press a hallmark of his regime. Just this week, police raided the homes of several journalists and artists, taking computers, hard drives, USB drives and other personal property - without even giving them a reason why. 

The raids confirm that Bukele’s widespread violation of due process and human rights is not limited to a supposed war on corruption or on gangs but is used to attack critics.

We are fortunate to hear from two leaders in the struggle to free political prisoners: Lourdes Palacios, coordinator of the Committee of Relatives of Political Prisoners and the Politically Persecuted (COFAPPES), and Ivania Cruz, attorney with the Human and Community Rights Defense Unit (UNIDEHC). 

They will share information about several high-profile cases of political prisoners - including recent victories and ongoing challenges - and the important role that international solidarity campaigns have and will continue to play in the struggle for their freedom.

The webinar will be in Spanish (available via streaming on YouTube and Facebook). For interpretation to English and/or to join the Q&A, please register to join on Zoom here. 

Given that Trump has promised to persecute his political enemies and threats are on the rise against domestic dissent, we hope this conversation will offer timely, useful insights on effective organizing and solidarity. In the face of threats of mass deportations, it’s also critical that we understand the cruel realities of policing and prisons in El Salvador for asylum seekers and other immigrants who may be targeted. 

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News Article
El Salvador: President's push to scrap gold mining ban causes outcry
December 10, 2024
El Salvador was the first country in the world to ban the mining of metals in 2017, warning of the harmful effects of the chemicals used in mining, like cyanide and mercury.
 
President Bukele, who used to be a strong advocate for the mining ban, now writes on X: "God placed a gigantic treasure underneath our feet," and argues that the mining ban was "absurd."
"If we make responsible use of our natural resources, we can change the economy of El Salvador overnight," he added a few days later.
 
Some El Salvadorans see the resumption of mining as a possibility to create jobs. Others who are earning their money through extracting gold nuggets from disused mining tunnels by hand are fearing to lose their income to multinationals.
 
And environmental activists warn about further poisoning of local rivers, which are a source of drinking water for many people.
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Event
Fair Trade Market at Church of the Saviour - Advent Festival
December 7, 2024
Join the Advent Festival at Church of the Savior. They will have fair trade and local holiday gift market, live music, made-on-site fresh donuts, a cookie walk for charity and Dominick the Donkey will be there. We will also be there with our fair trade products!
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News Article
Trump and the Latin American Left, Central America on The Dig podcast, CPAC in Buenos Aires, and more
December 7, 2024

NACLA editorial committee members Jorge Cuéllar and Hilary Goodfriend recently wrapped a marathon, three-episode podcast series on Central America with The Dig, a podcast hosted by Daniel Denvir through Jacobin Radio. This sweeping conversation on the region’s history, political economy, and present conjuncture is intended to serve as an accessible yet comprehensive tool for scholars and activists, beginning with Central American state formation and the imperialist interventions of the late 19th century and concluding with reflections on the far-right demonization of migration in the United States today. 

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Event
Post-Election Direction: what do we do now?
December 5, 2024

It’s been an election like no other: polarizing, ugly, passionately contested. The results suggest a realignment of U.S. politics and a rightward shift in national policies and priorities. Yet most our greatest concerns were invisible during the campaigns.

Join Cleveland Peace Action for a panel and audience discussion, in-person and on Zoom, of the election and its implications for our work. They will address Palestine, the growing risk of nuclear war, the iron grip of the military-industrial complex, climate change, Latin America and immigration, and party politics.

register here for the online version: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZMscO2pqTMvGdLzi1Afgi0RwdSyNiHeQb5y#/registration

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News Article
Beatriz v El Salvador: the abortion case that could set a precedent across Latin America
December 2, 2024

In 2013 a young woman, Beatriz had been denied an abortion, even though she was seriously ill and the foetus would not have survived outside the uterus. Beatriz died after being involved in a traffic accident in 2017, but her case is before judges at the inter-American court of human rights and could open the way for El Salvador to decriminalise abortion, which could also set an important precedent in across the Caribbean, South and Central America, abortion is not permitted in seven countries.

In El Salvador, abortion can be punished by up to eight years in prison, and women can even be charged with aggravated homicide, which carries a sentence of up to 50 years in prison. Women have been jailed for miscarriages. And women who advocate for safe access to abortion facing hate and threats online as well as offline.

The Global Center for Human Rights, a US-based anti-abortion organisation linked to conservative evangelical groups and the Heritage Foundation opposes what it calls “ideological colonisation [of] countries rooted in Christian values”. They create websites, petitions and videos where to spread fake news like that Beatriz case was made up by the inter-American court to legalize abortion but also to spread hate against abortion activists by for example calling them “enemy of the state”, a “colleague of terrorists” and a “feminazi”.

This has serious consequences. An activist telles the Guardian: “I have received a lot of threats and hate speech on social networks, especially on X,” she says. “A post can lead to a wave of comments where I’m called a murderer; people accuse me of promoting a crime and there are requests that the attorney general investigate me.”  Anti-abortion groups often gather outside her office to pray, which she sees as an act of intimidation. Her organisation’s website was the target of 13,000 cyber-attacks during the hearing of the landmark case of Manuela v El Salvador at the IACHR in 2021.

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News Article
El Salvador: Catholic church calls on president not to lift ban on gold mining
December 1, 2024
In 2017, El Salvador banned all metals mining above ground and below. A broad coalition of sectors, including the Catholic church, supported the prohibition in order to protect the small country’s water resources from contamination.
 
President Bukele who supported a mining ban during his first campaign for the presidency in 2019 now wants to lift the country’s ban on gold mining and proposes “modern and sustainable” mining that would care for the environment. 
 
“It’s not true that there’s green mining, it’s paid for with lives, kidney, respiratory problems and leukemia that aren’t immediate,” said Amalia López with the Alliance Against the Privatization of Water. The Archbishop José Luis Escobar Alas is also against the President's plans and asked President Nayib Bukele not to reverse the ban.
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Event
Solidarity Bazaar and State of Nonviolence 2024
November 30, 2024
Gather for solidarity to overcome our violent nation and build nonviolence together. There will be an unveiling of a peace & justice poster by a local artist. Vendors will offer their wares. Presentations to be made regarding nonviolent struggles.
Our esteemed speaker: Larry Clark is a United Methodist pastor and a sociologist. He has a Master of Divinity and Master of Arts in Christian Education from the Methodist Theological School in Ohio. He received a Ph.D. in Sociology of Conflict from Bowling Green State University. In retirement he has been filling in a various churches who are without pastors. He is the project director for Bluff Street Village – a tiny home community for low income persons. Larry has facilitated a weekly clergy study for twenty years and has taught Sociology at the University of Toledo. For forty years he has been studying and leading groups in the Holy Land of Israel/Palestine/Jordan
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Event
Black Friday Walk/Fast for Humanity
November 29, 2024

12-2pm: The Walk & Fast for Humanity will convene at  the Fountain of Eternal Life at 120 Public Square on "Black Friday," November 29, 2024, Noon - 2pm. This is to name four world famines and food insecurity in Cleveland, Ohio. We emphasize the huge Pentagon budget and campaigns that foment poverty and famine in proxy war zones of our government. Famine in Gaza, Haiti, Sudan, and Yemen are our focus. We ask that participants everywhere fast from food, fuel and consumerism on "Black Friday." Readings and songs will be offered. From there we will walk to a public building to address our legislators. We invite you to join us and, if you wish, assist with a reading or song. Please reply to this email maria.smith9907@gmail.com if you'd like to be part of the program, or call Don Bryant at 216.255.1576

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