Search Results for el salvador

RadioActive 10/25/18

Producer/Host: Meredith DeFrancesco

Migrant Caravan from Central America: Root Causes and Human Rights

Key Discussion Points:

a) As thousands of migrants from Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala travel in a caravan through Mexico towards the US, we speak with Patricia Montes, executive director od the immigrant rights organization Centro Presente, in East Boston.

b) We look at the root causes, and connections to the United States policies, including poverty, unemployment, gang violence and political repression, including following the US backed coup in Honduras in 2009.

c) We also look at human rights impacts, as the Trump Administration seizes on the caravan to inflame knee jerk, anti-immigrant sentiment during the mid-term election, now saying he will “call up the US military and close our southern border.”

Guest: Patricia Montes, executive director, Centro Presente , www.cpresente.org/

RadioActive 10/18/18

Producer/Host: Meredith DeFrancesco

Environmental and Social Justice: El Salvador Social Movement

Key Discussion Points:

a) We sat down with two members of the Salvadoran social movement, Bernardo Belloso of CRIPDES and Zulma Tobar of US El Salvador Sister Cities, to talk about some of the issues confronting the organized rural communities in El Salvador.

b) These include the growth of the sugar cane industry and the impacts on health from agrochemicals and excessive use of water, national efforts to privatize water and climate change. In 2016, El Salvador became the first country to ban metallic mining, a result of massive social movement efforts.

c) Since 1991, Bangor, through local organization PICA (www.pica.ws/) and US El Salvador Sister Cities, has had a sistering relationship with the Salvadoran community Carasque, one of the 300 rural communities organized through CRIPDES. MOFGA (Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association is sistered with the Salvadoran sustainable agricultural organization, CORDES. (www.mofga.org/Publications/The-Maine-Organic-Farmer-Gardener/Spring-2015/Sustainable-Agriculture-in-El-Salvador). WERU Community Radio is sistered with community radio station Radio Sumpul in the organized community Guarjilla. (www.radiosumpul.org/)

Guests:
Zulma Tobar, US El Salvador Sister Cities www.elsalvadorsolidarity.org/
Bernardo Belloso, CRIPDES www.cripdes.net/ www.elsalvadorsolidarity.org/cripdes/

Thanks to Andrea Mercardo for translation.

RadioActive 1/11/18 (rebroadcast 1/18/18)

Producer: Meredith DeFrancesco

Trump Administration’s Rescinding of TPS for El Salvador and other Immigration Policies

-Today we look at a number of the Trump Administration’s hostile immigration stances and policies.

-This week, the Trump Administration’s Department of Homeland Security announced it would end Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for 200,000 Salvadorans in the United States, adding to the list of countries already struck from the humanitarian program, including Haiti, Nicaragua and Sudan.

-We look at the rescinding of TPS and the impacts it would have on Salvadorans in the US and in El Salvador. And we look at the realities of so-called “chain migration” and other programs the Trump administration has vilified.

Guests:
Rachel Reyes, Center for Migration Studies in New York City cmsny.org/
cmsny.org/publications/jmhs-tps-elsalvador-honduras-haiti/
Dennis Chinoy, US El Salvador Sister Cities and PICA (Power in Community Alliances), in Bangor, ME
www.elsalvadorsolidarity.org/
www.pica.ws/

Common Ground Radio 3/3/17

Producer/Host: C.J. Walke
Engineer: Amy Browne

Issue: Organic Food and Farming in Maine

Program Topic: MOFGA – El Salvador Sistering Committee

Key Discussion Points:
a) History of committee and work over past 20+ years
b) Changes in agricultural activities over the years
c) Environmental and social impacts of sugar cane production

Guests:
Jean English, MOFGA
Karen Volckhausen, Happy Town Farm, Orland, ME
Paul Volckhausen, Happy Town Farm, Orland, ME
Willie Marquart, WERU

Maine Currents 10/19/16

Producer/Host: Amy Browne

“Rights At Risk” panel discussion featuring Andrea Irwin, JD, Executive Director of Mabel Wadsworth Center and Eliza Townsend, Executive Director of the Maine Women’s Lobby, discussing the impacts of court decisions on women’s reproductive rights here in Maine and across the country. Judy Kahrl of Grandmothers for Reproductive Rights facilitated. Recorded at the Bangor Public Library on September 29th, 2016.

We also have a report on Friday’s announcement that a mining company’s lawsuit against the country of El Salvador was dismissed after 7 years of struggle.

FMI:
www.mabelwadsworth.org/
www.mainewomen.org/
www.grandmothersforreproductiverights.org/
www.stopesmining.org/
www.elsalvadorsolidarity.org/

Maine Currents 10/5/16

Producer/Host: Amy Browne
Studio Engineer: John Greenman

Today we welcome visitors from El Salvador and local residents who are working together through US-El Salvador Sister Cities. The right wing death squads in El Salvador’s civil war (1980-1992) were funded and trained by the US government, so alliances between citizens of these two countries may seem unlikely – but our guests explain how they are strong and mutually beneficial. We also look at some of the issues facing El Salvador today, and hear what Salvadorans are saying about the US presidential elections.

Guests:
Zulma Tobar, US-El Salvador Sister Cities staff, based in El Salvador
Carly Roach, Volunteer with US-El Salvador Sister Cities, based in El Salvador
Dennis Chinoy, PICA and City of Bangor Sister City Committee (with Carasque, El Salvador)
Karen Volckhausen, Maine farmer and member of the MOFGA committee that has a sistering relationship with CCR, a rural communities organization in El Salvador
Willie Marquart, WERU Finance Manager and former Sister Cities staff member- has worked with MOFGA committee and the sister stations WERU and Radio Sumpul in El Salvador

Maine Currents is a weekly show featuring independent local news, views and culture. Catch us on WERU-FM every Wednesday at 4pm. Send story ideas, suggestions and comments to [email protected]

FMI:
www.elsalvadorsolidarity.org/
www.pica.ws/
www.mofga.org/Programs/MOFGAElSalvadorSisteringProject/tabid/371/Default.aspx
weru.org/radio-sumpul

Past WERU reporting on El Salvador may be found here: archives.weru.org/?s=el+salvador

RadioActive 12/4/14

Producer/Host: Meredith DeFrancesco

Issue: Environmental and Social Justice

Program Topic: Solidarity Rallies for Fast Food Workers Day of Action and Black Friday Protests at Walmart; Second El Salvador Municipality Bans Mining

Key Discussion Points:
a) The Community Union of Ellsworth and Hancock County talk about local rallies in support of national movements to raise the standar of living for low wage workers. Black Friday demonstrations focused on Walmart workers,and December 4th was a day of action with fast food workers.
b) The Community Union also speaks to the importance of supporting the striking Fairpoint workers, who have no financial safety net, and who continue their daily pickets.
c) Salvadoran activist speaks at the Penobscot Nation’s River Justice event on the importance of organizing to protect the environment.

Guests:
A) John Curtis, Community Union of Ellsworth and Hancock County, ph: 667-
B) Edith Portillo, CRIPDES, stopesmining,org
C) Cori Ring-Martinez, translator, US El Salvador Sister Cities elsalvadorsolidarity.org/

RadioActive 3/13/14

Producer/Host: Meredith DeFrancesco

Issue: Environmental and Social Justice

Program Topic: FMLN Candidate Declared Winner in El Salvador; Creating Local Economies in Maine; Action in Solidarity with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers

Key Discussion Points:
a) Today, FMLN candidate Salvador Sanchez-Cerran was declared the winner in El Salvador’s presidential elections. We speak with a social movement leader about the elections unprecedented transparency and the issues the Salvadoran social movement hopes will be the focus of the Sanchez Cerran.
b) We preview a conference titled “Creating and Sustaining Vibrant Local Economies”. This includes looking at definitions of economy and alternative models, including cooperatives.
c) The Community Union of Ellsworth speaks on their upcoming demonstration in solidarity with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers. Demonstrators will call on Wendy’s to join the other top five fast food chains in signing onto the Fair Food Program, committing them to pay farmworkers a penny per pound more for Florida’s winter tomatoes and to buy from growers adhering to a fair labor code of conduct.

Guests:
A) Marcos Galvez, director of CRIPDES ( Association for the Development of El Salvador ) www.cripdes.com/
B) Cori Ring-Martinez, US El Salvador Sister Cities, election observer www.elsalvadorsolidarity.org
C)Larry Dansinger, Resources for Organizing and Social Change (ROSC) mainelocaleconomies.org/
D)Jane Livingston, Cooperative Maine, cooperativemaine.wordpress.com/
E) John Curtis, Community Union of Ellsworth, www.facebook.com/communityunionofellsworth?ref=stream