Global Voices Online » El Salvador

El Salvador: The Blog Hunnapuh Moves to New Domain

Eduardo Avila — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 05:07:28 +0000

The blog Hunnapuh [es], which covers many different issues relating to El Salvador, has moved to a new domain Hunna.org [es].

El Salvador: The Issue with Street Protests

Eduardo Avila — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 13:53:40 +0000

Street protests in El Salvador are of a concern for Chambita Hernandez of Gatos Frentudos [es], who writes that everyone has the right to free speech, but that it should not interfere with others' right to free transit.

El Salvador: President Mauricio Funes' Honeymoon

Eduardo Avila — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 09:05:22 +0000

The President of El Salvador Mauricio Funes currently enjoys an 86% approval rate, but Tim Muth writes that his “honeymoon will be challenged by the economy.”

El Salvador: SV Net and the Administration of the Domain .sv

Eduardo Avila — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 09:32:40 +0000

FaFa Monge provides his thoughts on the SVNet, which is the agency that is responsible for administering the domain addresses .sv [es] for El Salvador. Even though the prices are acceptable, Monge thinks that the site could do more to encourage the purchase of these domains, such as offering the option to use a credit card.

El Salvador: Number of H1N1 Cases Leveling

Eduardo Avila — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 13:17:06 +0000

Hunnapuh [es] notes that cases of the H1N1 virus have been leveling off in El Salvador and wonders whether it is due to the measures of keeping children out of schools. However, with the school year soon to restart, there might be a resurgence in the number of cases.

El Salvador: Dangerous Month of August

Eduardo Avila — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 13:13:28 +0000

August is a typical vacation month throughout El Salvador. However, Juan Carlos Sura Amaya of Sura's Way [es] laments the large number of deaths around this time due to alcohol-related traffic accidents and drownings.

El Salvador: Decline in Remittances from Abroad

Eduardo Avila — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 23:33:01 +0000

The decline in remittances from Salvadorans living abroad which has been making up 1/6 of the country's economy is a big threat writes Tim Muth.

Americas: Looking Forward to Central America Free Software Festival

Renata Avila — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 02:31:41 +0000

The Central American Free Software Festival [es] (ECSL09 for its initials in Spanish) will take place on June 17-21 in Estelí, Nicaragua. This will be the first opportunity for many enthusiasts of open-source and free software from across Central America to come together to share experiences, promote their projects, establish common objectives, and to find ways to work together. The schedule of events [es] includes workshops and panels where different members from communities will lead and participate in these activities. There will also be a “rapid-development” tournament, where participants will need to design and program an application in a short period of time, with the only stipulations are that it must be developed using free tools and available under a free license.

The event's logo

Many participants are looking forward to the event and to visit the city of Estelí. Leandro Gómez describes the location of the festival in his home country:

Estelí is a city in northern Nicaragua, near to the border of Honduras, 150 kms. from capital city Managua, and the official venue of the First Central American Free Software Summit.

The city of Estelí, known as the Diamond of the Segovias, will also host the first international meeting of Ubuntu community leaders in Central America, with the participation of members from the Ubuntu Local Community Teams in Nicaragua, El Salvador, Honduras, Panamá, Costa Rica, Guatemala, and special guests from other communities in Latin America.

From neighboring Honduras, Diego Turcios writes about the different communities that will be attending the event [es]:

De nuestro bello pais Honduras, asistiran 9 o 10 personas. De las cuales son representates de las comunindades linuxeras del pais.Las cuales son: GULTGU, Linux Maya, Comunidad GNU/Linux del Progreso y Ubuntu Honduras LocalTeam.

From our beautiful country of Honduras, 9 or 10 people will be attending the event, representing the Linux communities from the country: GULTGU, Linux Maya, Comunidad GNU/Linux del Progreso and Ubuntu Honduras Local Team.

Events like these are usually heavily attended by males, but there will be a strong presence from female members of open-source software communities. Victoria Zeledón, one of the few members of “Centroamericanas” a network of female Central Americans working in the field of free software welcomes everyone to Estelí adding:

A pocos días de conocer a mucha gente ya estoy emocionada por la experiencia a vivir. Además las Mujeres Centroamercianas que trabajamos por el software libre haremos presencia al igual que muchas personalidades que harán que este encuentro sea de mucho provecho.

In few days I will meet a lot of people, I am already excited for the experience. Besides the Central American Women that are working for open-source software, there will also be many personalities who will make the encounter something worthwhile.

In addition, she recommends this link to learn more about Estelí and its nightlife.

ECSL09 has its own blog, and provides updates and logistical information for participating groups. Among the groups from across the region include Asociacion de Usuarios GNU/Linux El Salvador , Debian Costa Rica , Debian Nicaragua , Debian Panamá , DebianSV , and El Salvador Ubuntu Team, just to a name a few. A complete list can be found on the blog's sidebar.

Even though many of these communities have been part of the planning of or have known about the event for quite some time, there are some who believe that it is important to share information using social networking tools. Rodrigo Peñalba of Nicaragua writes that this promotion can help attract attention and media support for the event, despite some resistance because Twitter and other sites are not free software [es].

The excitement for this event is showing. MMGC84 of the GNU/Linux community of Nicaragua thanks the organizers for this opportunity and posts the image of the receipt for the registration payment saying, “I'm almost in Estelímar!”

El Salvador: A Broke Government for Funds

Eduardo Avila — Sun, 10 May 2009 11:21:12 +0000

When incoming president-elect Mauricio Funes takes office in the beginning of June, he will inherit a Salvadoran government without any money writes JJmar of Hunnapuh [es].

El Salvador: The Death Penalty as the Only Solution

Eduardo Avila — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 04:14:44 +0000

The only solution to halt the wave of violent crime in El Salvador is to restore the death penalty writes MPITES [es] and does not think that human rights groups have a right to provide their opinion because they are not the ones caught in the middle of “the daily terror of so much crime and extortion.”

Cuba, Trinidad & Tobago: At the Summit

Janine Mendes-Franco — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 18:38:08 +0000

“It seems far-fetched to think that the summit’s news coverage would be dominated by the one country in the region that is absent from the event” - but The Cuban Triangle thinks that “two factors – a no-news summit agenda, and a vocal regional consensus calling on President Obama to change his Cuba policy – could combine to produce just that result” during the upcoming Summit of the Americas in Trinidad and Tobago.

El Salvador: Blogger and Twitter Gathering

Eduardo Avila — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 01:16:03 +0000

Bloggers and users of Twitter from El Salvador are planning a get-together called Twittblogs on March 29 in El Salvador writes Queith [es]. The event strives to be inclusive of “those users of Twitter that don't have blogs and the bloggers that don't use Twitter.”

El Salvador: More Blogger Reflections on the Election of Funes

Tim Muth — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 18:29:55 +0000

Salvadoran voters elected their first leftist president in elections on Sunday, March 15. Mauricio Funes, a former television journalist, succeeded as the candidate of the FMLN, the former guerrilla faction in the country's 12 year civil war. His victory came 17 years after the signing of the peace accords which ended that war and turned the former combatants into political parties. Here are more reactions from local bloggers.

David Mejia was part of live coverage [es] given to the elections and the tallying of the votes by the Salvadoran blogosphere. He reflected on the importance [es] of the internet and the election results:

Esta vez me atrevo a decir con propiedad, el internet ha sido muy importante esta vez en las elecciones, debido a que el público joven, lo ha utilizado en vez de los medios tradicionales, y quiero felicitar a los partidos políticos por habernos tomado en cuenta en muchas ocasiones.

No hay que olvidar que El Salvador esta vez tiene que estar más unido, dejar las diferencias, aferrarse a Dios para poder tener un mejor país, ya que todos unidos lo podremos lograr, y así poder lograr el verdadero CAMBIO, no solo cambio de gobierno, sino cambio de actitud.

This time I dare say with propriety, the internet has been very important in the election this time because the young audience used the internet instead of the traditional media, and I congratulate the parties for having taken that into account on many occasions.

Do not forget that this time El Salvador has to be more united, leaving behind the differences, clinging to God in order to have a better country, because all together we will be able to achieve and can achieve real change, not just a change of government but change of attitude.

Juan Martel, active in Salvadoran politics and a writer at the Hunnapuh blog [es] found that the day had gone according to a fabulous script:

A las 5 PM terminó la votación en todo el país, votaron los que ya estaban en las filas, luego se comenzó a contar los votos y a llenar las actas de JRV. Millones de salvadoreños vimos a través de la Televisión como se contaban nuestros votos, lo hacían con eficiencia y mucho respeto, hubo algunas discusiones sobre la valides de algún voto, pero al final arreglaron. ¡Todo de película!…

El FMLN ganaba 17 años después de firmada la paz, el objetivo de los acuerdos de paz se cumplen por fin, el pueblo hizo posible esta victoria. ¡De película!

Los salvadoreños, nos ganamos varios Oscares por nuestra actuación este día.

At 5 PM the voting ended across the country, those who were in line voted, then the votes began to be counted and the reports of each voting table completed. Millions of Salvadorans saw on television as our votes are counted, it was done efficiently and with much respect, there was some discussion on the validity of a vote, but ultimately it was resolved. As great as a movie! …

The FMLN won 17 years after signing of the peace, the goal of peace agreements are fulfilled at last, the people made this victory possible. What a movie!

Salvadoreans, we won several Oscars for our performance today.

The dean of Salvadoran bloggers, Ernesto Rivas-Gallont, a former ambassador from El Salvador to the United States during its civil war, looked towards the future:

Estamos frente a un cambio profundo no solo de estilo de gobierno sino que de política gubernamental. Solo esperamos que el cambio no sacuda la estructura fundamental del país y que se respete la institucionalidad. La gobernabilidad debe ser la primera prioridad del gobierno de Mauricio Funes.

Por nuestra parte le reiteramos al presidente electo nuestras felicitaciones y le deseamos éxito en la difícil tarea que tiene por delante.

We are facing a profound change not only in style of government but of government policy. We only hope that the change will not shake the fundamental structure of the country and that institutions are respected. Governance should be the first priority of the government of Mauricio Funes.

For our part, we reiterate our congratulations to President-elect and wish him success in the difficult task ahead.

A group of bloggers at the spirited-leftist blog El Trompudo [es] reflected on what the moment meant for them:

No es momento de revanchismos políticos. Momentos difíciles se avecinan. El cielo es sombrío, amenazador. Momentos difíciles esperan al mundo, y en particular a países frágiles como el nuestro. Felizmente, hay un rayo de luz que ilumina nuestra patria. Finalmente, después de casi dos siglos de sometimiento del pueblo.

Presidente Funes gobernará para todos. Seamos humildes en la victoria, ponderados, amistosos, conciliantes. A El Salvador no lo podemos salvar la mitad más uno. No. Lo salvaremos TODOS!

Emociones fuertes impiden que seamos ponderados y, quizá, hasta equilibrados en estos momentos. Hasta ahí dejaremos nuestra reflexión. Iremos a celebrar este triunfo con todas las fuerzas de nuestros corazones. Lo merecemos. Y celebraremos en nombre de nosotros, de nuestros hijos y de todos aquellos salvadorenos que ya no están con nosotros : los que murieron y los que partieron para huir sufrimientos y persecusiones.

This is no time for political revenge. Difficult times lie ahead. The sky is dark, threatening. Difficult times await the world, particularly fragile countries like ours. Fortunately, there is a ray of light that illuminates our homeland. Finally, after nearly two centuries of subjugation of the people.

President Funes will govern for all. Let us be humble in victory, high-minded, friendly, conciliatory. In El Salvador, we can not save just one half plus one. No, we will save all!

Strong emotions prevent us from being high-minded and perhaps even balanced at the moment. So we are going to leave off on our reflections. We're going to celebrate this victory with all the forces in our hearts. We deserve it. And we will celebrate on behalf of ourselves, our children and all those Salvadorans who are no longer with us: those who died and those who left to escape suffering and persecution.

The journalist blogger Solava looked for constructive engagement from those who participate in the blogosphere [es] and elsewhere as the new government moves forward and not blind party loyalty:

El papel del ciudadano en una sociedad democrática no encuentra su mejor expresión en la participación militante en un partido, sino en una interacción crítica hacia el gobierno, incluso si ese gobierno es del partido por el que se votó. Lo que un ciudadano no debe olvidar nunca es que las personas electas para una posición pública son servidores públicos. Están ahí, en sus puestos, para obedecer a la ciudadanía y no al revés.

The role of the citizen in a democratic society is not best expressed in the participation of the party militant, but in interaction critical towards the government, even if that government is from the party for which they voted. What a citizen should not forget is that people elected to a public office are public servants. They are there, at their posts, to obey the public and not vice versa.

El Salvador: Blogger Reactions to Mauricio Funes Victory

Eduardo Avila — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 18:37:30 +0000

Editor's Note: This is part-one of a translation of a blog post written by Hunnapuh and published with permission.

After the post-electoral hangover, various blogs from El Salvador posted their reactions to the news of the victory by FMLN candidate Mauricio Funes, who defeated ARENA candidate Rodrigo Ávila in the March 15 Presidential election with 51% of the vote. Funes, a former television journalist, ends nearly two decades of rule by the ARENA party and brings FMLN into power, which is a party that was built by former guerrilla fighters after a peace deal ended armed conflict in that country.

The blogs El Trompudo [es] and El-Salvador [es] present the same post published by POCOTE, who asked for the essay to be reprinted and shared, which praised Funes' message that he gave on Sunday night when he proclaimed himself the winner of the presidential elections.

Este mensaje del primer presidente de un partido de izquierda electo libremente por voluntad popular, es, seguramente, el discurso más esperado por los salvadoreños en muchos años.

This message from the first president from a leftist party and elected freely by popular decision is, surely, the most anticipated speech by Salvadorans in a long time.

Emphasis was made that the new government would give preference to the classes of the have-nots and will change the exclusionary model of governing to one that has the political Constitution as a reference, expressing their profound satisfaction.

The blogger Atlacatl takes the opportunity to add “a bit of salt in the wound [es],” expressing his repudiation by the “coverage” from the Salvadoran Telecorporation (TCS). Atlacatl writes that during the election night TCS started to change its tone and went from arrogance to submissive conciliation.

The blogs Chichicaste [es] and the Blog de Sura [es] written by Carlos Sura, a disabled blogger with a very dynamic and frequently updated blog, publishes video and the text of the speech by Funes proclaiming his victory and offering reconciliation to the country.

The Blog from the Movement of Professionals, Technicians and Intellectuals (M.P.T.I.E.S. for its initials in Spanish) salutes the president-elect in their blog with the post “Your Honor, Mr. President Funes, It was Worth It! [es]” with these words:

DIOS JAMAS DESAMPARA A LOS AFLIGIDOS!

Contra viento y marea, contra un poder acumulado en unas cuantas manos, contra los medios de comunicación capitalistas, contra la manipulación del tribunal Supremo Electoral, contra empresarios que atemorizaron a cientos de miles de trabajadores, contra seudo analistas lanzando desprestigio, contra la mayor campaña viciada, cínica y descarada, contra una Fiscalía y Corte Suprema Suprema inclinada a la violación de la Constitución de la Republica, contra el Alto mando de la Fuerza Armada y la Policía Nacional Civil, contra personajes importados de Venezuela, Cuba y Nicaragua pagados por el Coena……….”

GOD WOULD NEVER ABANDON THE AFFLICTED!

Against wind and rising tide, against the power accumulated in a few hands, against the capitalistic media, against the manipulation of the Supreme Electoral tribunal, against businesspersons that terrorize hundred of thousands of workers, against pseudo-analysts trying to discredit, against the most foul, cynical, and shameless campaign, against attorneys and the Supreme Court inclined towards the violation of the Constitution, against the high command of the Armed Forces and National Police, against people imported from Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua paid by the National Executive Council of ARENA (Coena)….

Carlos Abrego of Bloguero de Cosas Tan Pasajeras [es] salutes what he considers to be a historical day and highlights that major significance that a person who is openly leftists to be the president of El Salvador:

Arena fué derrotada. El miedo fue vencido. La esperanza puede comenzar a alentar nuestros ánimos. El cambio ahora si que se ha vuelto posible. Hagámoslo realidad.

Arena was defeated. Fear was defeated. Hope can now begin to lift our spirits. Change is possible once again, let's make it a reality.

El Tenampa [es], another blog was one of the first to take “photos of the ARENA's vote” for those workers and laborers who had been reportedly threatened and had to “demonstrate” that they voted for ARENA and writes “Change is Here,” even when it was in the middle of the vote count. The blog La Verdad Siempre Saldá al Aire [es] written by Rojo Bender writes that the people voted with wisdom [es].

The blog Dulce Limón Partido [es] shows her painted finger indicating her recent vote and writes that there are more than a million dreams as a result of the vote:

Ayer, por primera vez en mi vida, sentí que valía la pena ser salvadoreña, haber nacido en estos casi 21,000 kilómetros cuadrados por fin tomaron sentido. No me caben las palabras para expresar toda la emoción que experimenté en todo el día, pasé pegada a la radio, no dormí la noche del sábado, ni mis padres, pasé en el patio, mirando al cielo que estaba nublado y de vez en vez dejaba ver las estrellas. Con los ojos “chilosos” fui a votar, nos llevamos hasta a mi abuelita, Soyapango se pintaba de rojo, y a las 8.30 am ya había caos vehicular. Viví 20 de mis 24 años de edad, bajo un régimen que desde que tengo uso de razón nunca comprendí y nunca estuve a gusto, ni me tragué los engaños de el sistema. Siempre me pregunté, por qué si la gente estaba tan mal, seguía eligiendo a las mismas personas para que las gobernaran. Ayer el pueblo dio lección, y le recordó al gobierno, que nosotros, los que queríamos cambiar, para bien o para mal, somos más y unidos doblegamos cualquier máquina de hacer dinero y poder.

Yesterday for the first time in my life, I felt that it was worth being Salvadoran, being born in this 21,000 square kilometer area finally made sense. There are no words to express the emotions that I felt all day spent glued to the radio, I didn't sleep at all on Saturday night, neither did my parents, I spent time on the patio looking at the cloudy sky and from time to time I stopped seeing the stars. With my “watery” eyes, I went to vote taking my grandmother. Soyapango was painted red and at 8:30 am there was vehicular chaos. I lived 20 of my 24 years living under a regime that I never understood and never felt right with, and I didn't swallow the deceits of the system. I always asked, why were people in a bad situation, and kept electing the same people to govern. Yesterday the people gave a lesson, and reminded the government and us that we want change for better or for worse, we are more and more united overtaking any machine out to make money or to control power.

El Salvador: Funes' Acceptance Speech

Eduardo Avila — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 18:56:47 +0000

Salvapress [es] publishes the text of Salvadoran president-elect Mauricio Funes victory speech.