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Latest blog posts from Tim's El Salvador Blog

Avila and ARENA pick Zablah for vice president
The running mate of Rodrigo Avila in the 2009 elections will be a href="http://luterano.blogspot.com/2007/10/arturo-zablah-presidential-candidate.html"Arturo Zablah/a it wasa href="http://www.elecciones2009.elfaro.net/Noticias25.html" announced/a today. Zablah is a former Minister of the... Read more...
Published a day ago

New UCA poll regarding 2009 elections
The University of Central America's Public Opinion Institute has released a a href="http://www.uca.edu.sv/publica/iudop/Web/2008/Boletin3.pdf"new poll/a regarding the views of Salvadorans about the upcoming national elections in 2009. The press release with the poll results highlights these... Read more...
Published 2 days ago

Food prices and poverty rise together
A a href="http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=44148"new article/a by Raúl Gutiérrez of IPS focuses anew on how rising food costs have led to an increase in poverty in El Salvador:br /span class="texto1"blockquoteAccording to a World Food Programme (WFP) study, "a... Read more...
Published 3 days ago

Observe the 2009 elections
A number of US-based solidarity organizations are soliciting participation in delegations of election observers for the 2009 elections in El Salvador. Delegations are being organized both for the January 18 municipal and legislative elections as well as for the March 15 presidential elections.... Read more...
Published 7 days ago

New summary of gold mining issues
The website of span style="font-style:italic;"Ethical Corporation/span magazine has a a href="http://www.ethicalcorp.com/content.asp?ContentID=6119"good article summarizing the gold mining debate/a in El Salvador. Here's the introduction to the article:blockquoteExtractive firms struggling to... Read more...
Published a week ago

Election meddling
El Salvador's Minister of Foreign Affairs, Marisol Argueta, spoke on September 18, 2008 before the conservative American Enterprise Institute in Washington, D.C. You can watch or listen to her remarks at a href="http://www.aei.org/events/eventID.1794/event_detail.asp#"this link/a. Her speech... Read more...
Published a week ago

Is Funes' strength growing?
A new a href="http://www.angus-reid.com/polls/view/leftist_funes_leads/"university-sponsored poll/a shows a much larger Funes lead than a href="http://luterano.blogspot.com/2008/09/latest-polls-show-fmln-strength.html"previous polls/a:br /blockquotePublic support for Mauricio Funes of the... Read more...
Published 2 weeks ago

The US sneezes and El Salvador catches a cold
The growing financial crisis in the US could have major negative ramifications for El Salvador. "We are in the presence of a big hurricane and we don't know whether it will grow to a Category 5 or whether it will end as just a tropical storm" said economic analyst Carlos Acevedo a... Read more...
Published 2 weeks ago

TPS extended again
The US Customs and Immigration Service a href="http://www.uscis.gov/portal/site/uscis/menuitem.5af9bb95919f35e66f614176543f6d1a/?vgnextoid=0621fcca4e49c110VgnVCM1000004718190aRCRDvgnextchannel=68439c7755cb9010VgnVCM10000045f3d6a1RCRD"announced/a that TPS -- Temporary Protected Status -- has been... Read more...
Published 2 weeks ago

Organic farming in El Salvador
My friend Kelly Burns works with the a href="http://www.share-elsalvador.org"SHARE Foundation/a in El Salvador and recently posted on her blog "Guacamole Chronicles" an a href="http://avocadopress.blogspot.com/2008/09/semillas-de-esperanzaseeds-of-hope.html"essay/a she wrote about a project which... Read more...
Published 2 weeks ago

2009 Elections Blog
There is a new blog focused on monitoring the upcoming elections in El Salvador. Called the a href="http://freeandfairelections.wordpress.com/"Free and Fair Elections in El Salvador Blog/a, the blog is following developments in the election races with links to both the Salvadoran press and other... Read more...
Published 3 weeks ago

El Salvador's credit downgraded
US financial institutions were not the only entities getting downgraded by rating agencies last week. Standard Poor's revised the credit outlook for El Salvador to "negative" from "stable" with an overall rating of BB+. A lower rating implies higher risk and makes it more expensive for a... Read more...
Published 3 weeks ago