Maine Currents 5/29/24: Checking in with our sisters in El Salvador

Producer/Host: Amy Browne
Other credits: Audio segment contributed by John and Katie Greenman.

This part of Maine has strong connections with El Salvador dating back several decades.  Bangor has a sister city there, Carasque; MOFGA has a sister farming community organization, CCR; and WERU has a sister station, Radio Sumpul in El Salvador. Many people from this area have traveled to El Salvador on delegations coordinated by Sister Cities, PICA and MOFGA over the years, including today’s guests (and the host). Members of the most recent delegation talk about what they witnessed earlier this year, and the shift in the country under an authoritarian president.

Guests:
Karen and Paul Volkhausen, Katie Greenman and Willie Marquart

FMI:

Sister Cities: www.elsalvadorsolidarity.org/

PICA:  www.pica.ws/  or www.facebook.com/PICAinMaine

Maine Organic Farmers and Gardener’s Sister Organizations:  Association of Communities for the Development of Chalatenango (CCR), and the Foundation for Cooperation and Development (CORDES). These organizations foster a unique relationship, exchanging information and methods of farming, in addition to facilitating conversations about agricultural globalization and fair trade: www.mofga.org/mofgas-el-salvador-sistering-committee/

WERU’s Sister Station Radio Sumpul:

www.facebook.com/asociacion.Acopsumpul

radiosumpul.org/

weru.org/about/radio-sumpul-werus-sister-station-in-el-salvador/

Organizations working in/with El Salvador:

www.elsalvadorsolidarity.org/cripdes/

www.equipomaiz.org.sv/

Legal support organization, human rights violations including arbitrary arrests, inhumane treatment in detention centers: www.tutelalegalmariajh.org.sv/

Museo de La Palabra y Imagen (Museum of the Word and Image)  for the preservation of historic memory: www.museo.com.sv

Online Resources News Media   (Latin America):

www.wola.org/

elfaro.net/en/202405/el_salvador/27420/us-tries-not-to-offend-bukele-in-annual-human-rights-report

reportfortheworld.org/

gatoencerrado.news/

Books recommended by today’s guests:
robertolovato.com/unforgetting/

uwpress.wisc.edu/books/5754.htm#pk

 

About the Host:

Amy Browne started out at WERU as a volunteer news & public affairs producer in 2000, co-hosting/co-producing RadioActive with Meredith DeFrancesco. She joined the team of Voices producers a few years later, and has been WERU’s News & Public Affairs Manager since January, 2006. In addition to RadioActive, Voices and Maine Currents, she also produced and hosted the WERU News Report for several years. She has produced segments for national programs including Free Speech Radio News, This Way Out, Making Contact, Workers Independent News, Pacifica PeaceWatch, and Live Wire News, and has contributed to Democracy Now and the WBAI News Report. She is the recipient of the 2014 Excellence in Environmental Journalism Award from the Sierra Club of Maine, and the First Place 2017 Radio News Award from the Maine Association of Broadcasters.

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