Former Salvadoran President Tony Saca Hoping To Wedge His Way Back Into Power

Ex-President Antonio “Tony” Saca (Wikipedia)

Ex-President Antonio Saca (2004-2009) has maneuvered his way back into political relevancy as head of a new “movement” bent on breaking the duopoly of El Salvador’s primary parties.

During a rally held Feb. 25 in San Salvador, Saca announced plans to represent the nascent Movimiento Unidad in next February’s presidential election, when he will test his luck against popular San Salvador Mayor Norman Quijano of the far-right Alianza Republicana Nacionalista (ARENA) and current Vice-President Salvador Sánchez Cerén of the left-wing Frente Farabundo Martí para la Liberación Nacional (FMLN). Quijano, who enjoys an early lead in the polls, and Sánchez Cerén, were selected to represent their respective parties late last year.

El Salvador Continues To Sound The Alarm Over Guatemalan Gold Mine

Desperate to ward off what they claim is a “slow and sure danger” to residents in El Salvador, frustrated opponents of “Cerro Blanco” – a Canadian-owned gold and silver mine under preparation just over the border in Guatemala – are now hoping for help from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR).

Inter-American Human Rights Court Takes El Salvador To Task Over El Mozote Massacre

An international court ruling on the infamous “El Mozote massacre” of 1981 has put new pressure on Salvadoran authorities to stop turning a blind eye to widespread human rights violations committed during the country’s dozen-year civil war (1980-1992).

Gang Truce Cuts El Salvador’s Murder Rate By 40%

Nine months after agreeing to an historic truce, jailed leaders from El Salvador’s largest street gangs say they are ready to curb more than just killings – at least in a handful of strategic “peace zones.” Before moving ahead with the experimental plan, however, the notoriously violent maras, as the groups are known, want the government to do something in return: repeal its repressive “anti-gang law.”

US Judge To Sentence Salvadoran ‘Jesuit Massacre’ Suspect

Inocente Orlando Montano is by no means the only former Salvadoran military official implicated in the infamous 1989 massacre of six Jesuit priests, their housekeeper and her teenage daughter. But the 70-year-old retired colonel is the only one currently awaiting sentencing – albeit not for human rights abuses.

El Salvador’s Principal Parties Quick To Pick Their Presidential Candidates

El Salvador’s two principal political parties – the rightist Alianza Republicana Nacionalista (ARENA) and left-wing Frente Farabundo Martí para la Liberación Nacional (FMLN) – have decided to show their cards early, naming their respective candidates more than a year and a half before the next presidential election.

El Salvador Settles Convoluted Constitutional Crisis

Three months and seventeen rounds of negotiations later, things are finally back to “normal” in El Salvador, where a disagreement over high court judge appointments triggered a drawn-out and debilitating showdown between the legislature and judiciary.

What’s Next For El Salvador’s Life-Saving Gang Truce?

A tenuous truce between rival street gangs has held up for four months and counting, halving El Salvador’s horrific homicide rate and raising hopes among some daring optimists of a lasting “peace process.”

World Bank Helps Canadian Miner Continue Its Pursuit Of Salvadoran Gold

Civil society groups lobby to keep mining out of El Salvador (zambomba/flckr)

El Salvador has already paid dearly for its trend-bucking decision not to open up the country to foreign mining interests. The government has had to shell out millions of dollars in legal fees to fend off arbitration suits filed by jilted mining firms. For anti-mining groups operating on the grassroots level, the high-stakes standoff has been even costlier: at least four Salvadoran activists have been murdered in recent years.

El Salvador Elections: Modest Victory For Right-Wing ARENA

El Salvador’s rightist ARENA party picks up seats in the unicameral legislature (Flickr/-Chupacabras-)

The opposition Alianza Republicana Nacionalista (ARENA) eked out a narrow victory in El Salvador’s March 11 midterm elections to maintain a numbers advantage in the country’s municipal governments and earn a slim lead in the unicameral legislature. Hardly a rout, the results nevertheless marked a major reversal of fortunes for the far-right party, which stumbled after losing the last presidential election.