Topic: El Salvador | VivirLatino

U.S. Street Orgs Going South of the Border (And Then Come Back)

Wed, 26 Dec 2007 10:26:15 -0500

It's not something you hear about often. How street organizations, aka gangs, move their industry to Latin America making them even bigger and transnational. What results is that neither the U.S. or Latin American nations are equipped to deal with the results. Personally, I know of a friend of mine who was recently killed by a gang member in El Salvador after being deported from the U.S.

Two gangs that originated on the streets here have grown so large in El Salvador that there are two prisons in that country devoted exclusively to their members, one for each gang, according to officials who traveled there recently to meet with the local authorities.

So what to do. No one wants crime, here or there and how to do it without resorting to racial profiling.

Sweep of Los Angeles Mara Salvatruchas

Fri, 16 Nov 2007 10:37:02 -0500

A joint effort between the Los Angeles Police Department, Salvadorian authorities and the FBI led what is being called one of the biggest street gang crackdowns in Los Angeles.

Seized during the search for 60 suspects: guns, drugs and $40,000 in cash. But the biggest catch of all: "Oscar Chacon." Though the name is likely an alias, the FBI identifies him as the shot-caller for the notorious Mara Salvatrucha gang, known as "MS-13."
Chacon's street name: "Little Man," a Salvadoran national who had been deported at least once, but returned illegally. He was one of dozens taken into custody Thursday morning at five locations.Recent sweeps have targeted MS-13 members in North Hollywood, Rampart District, and Pico-Union.

While some in the Los Angeles area say they are sleeping safer tonight, the LAPD seeks other allged gang members. Previous crackdowns against suspected members of the MS-13 in other states often led to accusations of racial profiling against Latino youths.

Via / ABC 7 and Despierta America Univision

Ambassador caught with his pants down

Mon, 12 Mar 2007 14:00:40 -0500

This piece of news kind of lives up to what I've always thought of Consuls and Ambassadors sent to places where their role isn't of the utmost importance. I've seen the Consul of a certain European country here in San Francisco eternally drunk, and in Barcelona the Consul of another European country eternally drunk or eternally unavailable. The Israeli Ambassador to El Salvador seems to have similar problems, as he was recently found bound, naked and drunk in the streets of San Salvador:

Tzuriel Rafael has been made to return to Israel after being found drunk and naked after participating in a sadomasochistic party, says local media and sources from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Mother and daughter reunited after 24 years

Tue, 06 Mar 2007 18:09:09 -0500

El Salvador's bloody civil war separated countless families, some of which have never been reunited. But at least one mother and one daughter have found each other again -- 24 years later:

It was 1983 when Francisca Quinteros, who lived in the La Cruz section of the town of Jucuarán, some 150 km southeast of San Salvador, left her daughter in the care of other people, due to the danger she faced as a young woman in a war zone.

"The war was so dangerous that I couldn't care for my daughter, that's why I asked some people to take care of her for me. After a while, they thought I had died, so when I came back they told me they had given her up to a family for adoption," says Quinteros, now 40.

10 Year Old Son of Legal Immigrant Could be Deported

Tue, 12 Sep 2006 13:01:13 -0500

It's the opposite of the Elvira Arellano case. Jonathan Martínez came from El Salvador at age 8 with a teenage cousin into the United States without papers. According to Univision, Jonathan came in search of his mother, whom he had not seen in 4 years. When he was caught by United States Border Patrol, Jonathan was turned over to his mother, who lives and works in the United States legally. That was two years ago. Jonathan now is enrolled in the fifth grade, speaking English and playing along with his classmates. On Monday a judge may send Jonathan back to El Salvador, without his mother.

Is Sending Money Back Home Bad ?

Mon, 20 Mar 2006 09:18:37 -0500

Every day immigrants send millions of dollars back home, to where they came from and families they left behind. In the words of Martha Stewart, it's a good thing. Or is it? An article posted today at AlterNet calls takes a really interesting look at some of the negative consequences of remesas. For example is the dinero that is being sent back home and being pooled to provide infrastructure development letting foreign governments off the hook from providing services they are responsible for providing like clean water? On a more global scale, do so called First World governments like the U.S. take into account the amount of money being sent back home when developing foreign aid packages? This article takes the issue to a different level I know I personally never have reached when passing the countless money transfer locations here in New York City.

Via/ AlterNet

San Salvador gets an "alcaldesa" after much drama

Fri, 17 Mar 2006 18:06:37 -0500

History was made today in El Salvador as the capital city of San Salvador elected its first female mayor, Violeta Menjivar, who claimed victory by a margin of just 61 votes. Menjivar belongs to the FMLN party.

Tim's El Salvador Blog offers coverage and interesting comments from people who were present on election day and witness to the violence that broke out before Menjivar's victory was declared. It seems that the recount people were taking too long, and many began to suspect fraud.

According to another blogger in El Salvador (in Spanish) the newly elected mayor claimed that members of her party had marched on the hotel Radisson, where the recount was taking place, in a pacific manner. The blogger himself disagrees and describes what sounds like an angry mob situation. Elsalvador.com describes a similar scene.

La alcadesa herself says "get over it!":

The FMLN organizers set up a march to the Hotel Radisson. Did you like the outcome of that march?

What I didn't like was that the police hurt seven people. Because in all parts of the world there are marches when institutions don't work. What's wrong with a group of people being worried about dragging out the recognition of victory? I think the police went too far. Maybe the march wasn't necessary, I don't know, but I don't think we need to make drama out of it.

A Latin American election without drama just wouldn't be a Latin American election.

Via / Sources listed above

Keeping it real back in the motherland

Tue, 07 Mar 2006 14:16:06 -0500

The story is a common one: a person immigrates to the United States out of necessity, but vows to return for the rest of his or her family. The promise is kept and the family also leaves for the States. The new vow is to return home one day, when things get better. This doesn't usually happen. Sucked up by the daily strife of just making it in a country as daunting as the U.S., that dream is easily erased for some.

Fortunately, that isn't the case of a group of Salvadoreños from Houston. Not only are they helping their pueblo, Olomega, solve some very basic infrastructure issues such as the building of bridges and roads, they are taking it one step further: they plan to make their pueblo a destination, and hopes that tourists begin to see it for the beauty it as for them:

Standing on the shore of the serene Lake Olomega, Nora Pineda envisions passenger boats cruising its surface, amateur fishermen lining its edges and musicians serenading tourists along a boardwalk.

She said hundreds of tourists could visit Olomega on weekends if restaurants, hostels and fishing spots are built near the water.