The Real News – Past is Present in Latin America
April 25, 2009
Latin American leaders, born out of US backed repression, demand an end to 50 year-old US-Cuba standoff
Last weekend, the leaders of the Americas met with US President Barack Obama for the first time as a group. While no major agreements were signed, long-time Latin America observer Larry Birns believes that the atmospherics were of a nature never before seen in the hemisphere. Signs of improvement in relations between the White House and Cuba, after 50 years of embargo and intervention. The leaders of Latin America have made it clear to Obama that any future progress in relations will require a drastic shift in his government’s policy toward Cuba, and there are signs that Obama will be willing to do so. Until that time, an entire hemisphere lies in wait.
El Salvador’s Left Wins Historic Election
March 19, 2009
By Mark Weisbrot, The Guardian, March 18, 2009
"If we were able to unite, the future would be beautiful and near." -Che Guevara
But the FMLN’s victory in El Salvador has a special significance for this hemisphere.
Central America and the Caribbean have long been the United States’ “back yard” more than anywhere else. The people of the region have paid a terrible price – in blood, poverty, and underdevelopment – for their geographical and political proximity to the United States. The list of U.S. interventions in the area would take the rest of this column, stretching from the 19th century (Cuba, in 1898) to the 21st, with the overthrow of Haiti’s democratically elected president Jean-Bertrand Aristide (for the second time) in 2004. Read the rest of this entry »
El Salvador could leave US orbit on Sunday
March 13, 2009
Mauricio Funes, presidential candidate of FMLN, holds up a painting depicting leftist Archbishop Oscar Romero during a rally in San Salvador Wednesday. Romero was gunned down on March 24, 1980, a day after calling on the US-armed military to halt its repressive tactics.
By ALEXANDRA OLSON, March 12, 2009, Associated Press
SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (AP) — A former television journalist who has compared himself to President Barack Obama has given El Salvador’s former guerrillas their best chance to win the presidency since a bloody civil war ended in 1992.
If Mauricio Funes wins Sunday’s election, he would extend a string of leftist victories in Latin America and uproot two decades of conservative Salvadoran governments that have been steadfast U.S. allies. He would also be the first leftist Latin American leader elected since Obama took office, giving him a unique opportunity to build relations on a fresh note.
TWO EL SALVADOR ACTIVITIES IN MILWAUKEE JULY 9:
August 21, 2008
[Progressive Students regrets to inform you that the below two events have been canceled. Brenv Massiel was unexpectedly awarded a top post in the new FMLN government and will be unable to do the tour so soon after her appointment. A similar tour & protest will be organized in the near future. We apologize for any inconvenience. Please be sure to check back often for more upcoming events, and we hope to see you July 10th at the Milw. stop of the Pastors for Peace Caravan to Cuba!)
El Salvador 2009 Victory Tour
Featuring Breny Massiel Herrera
FMLN Women’s Secretariat
Click here for the PDF Flyer
July 9, 2009, 7pm
Voces de la Frontera Workers’ Ctr.
1027 S. 5th Street
[Biografía de Breny Massiel Herrera en Español]
(see below for Breny’s biography)
Celebrate the triumph of democracy in El Salvador!
After centuries of violent inequality and repression, a dozen years of armed struggle against a brutal, U.S.-backed military, and two decades of rule by the right-wing ARENA party, the Salvadoran people elected the first progressive president in their country’s history on March 15th, 2009. President Mauricio Funes of the FMLN took office on June 1, bringing El Salvador into a growing community of Latin American nations seeking to chart an independent economic and political course. Join us to learn about the platform, plans, and strategy of the new FMLN government… … and what WE can do in the U.S. to support the strengthening of REAL democracy in El Salvador!
Milwaukee event:
Free & open to the public
PROTEST – MILWAUKEE CORPORATION SUING IMPOVERISHED EL SALVADOR
Protest & press conference – noon, July 9,
CGC Headquarters, 6001 N. 91st St. (91st & Fond Du Lac)
Commerce Group Corp. (CGC), based here in Milwaukee, makes its profits from gold and silver mining in El Salvador. Communities across El Salvador are protesting metallic mining because of the environmental degradation and economic injustice caused by transnational mining companies like CGC. In 2006 and in 2008, the mining permits for CGC were revoked by El Salvador’s Minister of the Environment. In March 2009, they announced their intent to sue the government of El Salvador for $100 million in “lost profits” under the notorious Central American Free Trade Agreement.
If you think El Salvador has the right to determine its own economic and environmental policy, join us for a press conference and demonstration at noon on July 9th, 2009, at CGC Headquarters, 6001 N. 91st St. (91st & Fond Du Lac). Demand that Commerce Group drop the lawsuit against El Salvador!
Sponsored by: Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador (CISPES); Latin America Solidarity Committee Milw.; Voces de la Frontera, www.vdlf.org; Milwaukee Students for a Democratic Society; and Progressive Students of Milwaukee.
For more information, see www.cispes.org
Biography of Breny Massiel Herrera
Breny Herrera began her political life in 1981 when her family was exiled due to political repression in Nicaragua—where the Sandinista revolution had just triumphed. She began contributing to the Popular Sandinista Militias, the Sandinista Youth, and later joined the youth of the Communist Party of El Salvador.
After living in exile for six years, she returned to El Salvador and began working with the Federation of Secondary Students (FES). At 16 years of age, she joined the Communist Party of El Salvador—one of the five organizations that conformed the FMLN—where her mentor was renowned FMLN leader Shafick Handal. In addition to her work with the FES, she was also an urban guerrilla combatant.
When the Peace Accords were signed in 1992 Ms. Herrera became active in the FMLNYouth, working on their radio program and informative magazine. In 1994, when Handal ran for Mayor of San Salvador, she participated helped lead the campaign team and has since participated in all of the electoral processes.
In 2003, Ms. Herrera was elected as Handal’s substitute in the Legislative Assembly. Again in 2006 she was elected as a substitute Legislative deputy—this time for Blanca Flor Bonilla. During her legislative work, she was part of the Women, Family, and Children Commissions and participated in the implementation of many legal projects that benefited women and children. In 2005, Ms Herrera worked in the area of communications for the San Salvador mayoral campaign of Dr. Violeta Menjívar. She was named Chief of Gender Policy in Dr. Menjívar’s municipal government and served in this position from 2006-2009.
Breny Massiel Herrera became active in the FMLN’s National Women’s Secretariat in 2006 and is now part of the coordination. The Women’s Secretariat has the primary objective of developing and strengthening female leadership within the party. The FMLN is the only political party in the country with a gender policy and the Women’s Secretariat advises on the content and implementation of the policy. As part of the coordination, Ms. Herrera organizes and conducts workshops for women holding office and organizing for the FMLN.
The Women’s Secretariat also played an instrumental role in the 2009 legislative, municipal, and presidential elections in El Salvador. Ms. Herrera organized Women’s Brigades that went door to door and visited maquilas (sweatshop textile factories) to educate women on election issues and the 20 years of failed policy towards women that the right-wing ARENA party had carried out. Ms. Herrera was also the sub-Chief of a Voting Center in San Salvador, organizing all of the FMLN poll workers at the center.
She also founded a feminist organization named for her mother Norma Virginia Guirola de Herrera, who was murdered by the Salvadoran Army on November 11, 1989. Ms. Herrera is currently coordinating a project for the United Nation’s UNIFEM to implement a program of prevention of violence against women and children in El Salvador.
Ms. Herrera will be touring the East Coast and Midwest of the United States from July 5-19 (visiting Minneapolis, Madison, Milwaukee, Chicago, Boston, New York and Washington DC,) to share the story of the FMLN’s victory in the 2009 presidential elections. She will speak about the broad coalition of unions, feminists, and students that came together with the FMLN to oust 20 years of extreme right-wing rule in El Salvador. She will provide a first hand account of how the people mobilized and organized to overcome a dirty fear campaign backed up by the threats of US Republican Congressional Representatives and defend their votes against an institutionalized system of electoral fraud.
