Good News About US Neutrality in the Local Elections

Image by Michael R. Swigart via Flickr

According to a posting on Tim's El Salvador Blog today, the US seems to have done a decent job of remaining neutral and not interfering in the local elections of El Salvador last month.

My own observation is that the US did a reasonably good job so far in the 2009 elections in staying on the sidelines and not taking a public stance which would influence the outcome of the elections. A press release issued today by the Council on Hemispheric Affairs, which attempts to portray the FMLN as winning the municipal and legislative elections despite massive US intervention, is no more than an anti-US diatribe based on events which took place in 2004 and earlier. Although the ARENA government pleaded for the US to jump into the fray on the side of ARENA, the US and Ambassador Glazer did not. Hopefully that will continue to be US policy under the new administration.

This, to me, is good news of two fronts. First, it is good news for the future and the people of El Salvador that they were in a better position to have a more open and democratic process in the past without us in the north interfering. Secondarily, it is good to hear that the popular impression that the US is only an imperialistic, power hungry country may be fading.

There is another round of elections in March for National Offices including President. Let's continue to pray for peace and a smooth electoral process including no interference from the US or other countries.

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• Ex-guerrilla group wins the most seats in El Salvador legislature (cnn.com)

Sweet Honey and Sufficiency

These are stacks of bee hives waiting to be delivered to towns and villages in El Salvador. They are made and delivered by Miguel Ventura's group. I mentioned Miguel before in a post about the work he has done in El Barial.

I am thinking about these hives today as we are finishing up the last of the sweet honey we had purchased in Alegria, El Salvador. The honey there is dark. It is colored and flavored by the pollen the bees pick up from the coffee that also grows here. Coffee is not the only thing that grows in this mountain town. Alegria is also known as the flower capital of El Salvador. It is town that God has blessed with a great natural beauty and gentleness.

I have enjoyed the honey since we got home in August and I am sad to be near the end of my supply. The coffee was wonderful for many of the same reasons but it is long gone. For me, it is not just about the exquisite flavor of the honey (the best I've ever had), or the rich, earthy, mellow taste of the coffee. There is something else going on when I ingest these El Salvadoran goodies.

I am always aware of swallowing a little bit of that country and having it be alive in me on a cellular level. To know that I am taking something into my body that was nourished by land that has seen so much emotion, dedication, healing and hope among it's people is humbling to me. When I consider that this honey and this coffee were grown, tended and harvested by individuals and not a multi-national corporation is inspiring to me. To taste the goodness that can come from such a land and such a people makes me long to return. To know that in some way, the process that God uses to make honey (earth, sun, seed, flower, pollen, bee, hive, colony, honey, farmer) actually runs through us and back to the earth makes me feel deeply and personally connected to the country of El Salvador.

It helps me to see that I am part of the cycle of sufficiency that God designed into the world. He created a system that can sustain itself when we allow it to. Not only can it sustain itself, but it also connects us all.

I will miss the honey as I miss the country of El Salvador. My prayer is that the taste and lessons of both remain in my mouth forever.

Case of Six Murdered Jesuit Priests Re-examined!

I have been reading multiple reports on this story from all over the Internet. Sources focused on human rights, international law and justice, faith based groups, groups with a focus on Latin American history and just plain folks who report, blog and post about world news generally have all been writing about this piece of news!

Charges have been filed by two Human Rights Organizations in Spain against former Salvadoran president Alfredo Cristiani and 14 members of the army in connection with the 1989 slaughter of six Jesuit priests, their housekeeper and her teenage daughter.

According to an article at the Global News Blog:

The Spanish Association for Human Rights (APDHE) and the San Francisco-based Centre for Justice and Accountability (CJA) filed a criminal case in the Spanish high court against former president Cristiani (1989-1994), accusing him of protecting the murderers and obstructing the subsequent investigation, and against 14 officers and soldiers of the Salvadoran army for their direct involvement in the massacre and in covering up the crime.

Read the whole story here. More information can be found on blogs and news sources all over the web if you do a quick search.

I find this to be amazing news because when we visited the sight of the murders at University of Central America last August, our tour guide was hesitant to identify those responsible even to us, a group of church folk from the US. The answer we received to the question of "who was responsible for this atrocity, the Government or some rogue members of the Army?" was a rather short and vague, "the person responsible was the only one who could have given such an order". We were all immediately struck by the fear in this answer. She obviously felt unable to tell us, even after 19 years, her thoughts on the perpetrator(s).

May the hearing of this case bring justice in this case and more importantly, may it help eliminate more fear from this country.

More links about this story:
New York Times
Irish Times
LA Times