El Salvador and Guatemala Links

Some interesting reads from the last few weeks. None of them are particularly optimistic about the situations in Guatemala or El Salvador.

The International Crisis Group has Learning to Walk without a Crutch: The International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala. Here's the press release. I’m still not optimistic about CICIG. 

I thought that the commission should have pressed for a stronger commitment from the Colom administration and the presidential contenders before extending the commission’s mandate for another two years. It’s possible that they got private reassurances, but it’s more than likely that the commission had its mandate extended so that if some unsavory character somehow won the 2011 election, the commission would already be in place.

Two articles at Upside Down World take on the irresponsible approach to environmental challenges in Guatemala and El Salvador. Emma Volonté (Translation by Alex Cachinero-Gorman) has a critical piece entitled Guatemala: Oil Companies and the Subservience of the Government and Angel Maria Ibarra Turcios, an environmentalist and President of Unidad Ecológica Salvadoreña, has The March Toward Unsustainability in El Salvador Gains Speed. 

Mary Bellman describes the danger involved in union activism in Workers paying the ultimate price in Guatemala. Union organizing has always been dangerous in Guatemala and there's no sign that things are getting better.

Edgardo Ayala describes the perilous situation of independent journalists in El Salvador in Radio Station under Threat in Mining Region. Several journalists have received deaths threats or have been killed because of their coverage of local politics and anti-mining activism.