Salvadoran Civil War Survivors Demand Restorative Justice

A choked-up Mercedes Alfaro told the fourth session of the International Restorative Justice Tribunal in El Salvador how she lost seven members of her family in a 1982 massacre.

Locals Don’t Want Cell Phone Towers Next to See-saws in El Salvador

"You see? That's where they were going to put the antenna," says Alicia Suncín, pointing to a spot in the middle of a park in the Salvadoran capital where a private company was planning to erect a cell phone tower, 10 metres away from swings and see-saws where children play.

Schoolchildren and Teachers Under Fire in El Salvador

Wilber Geovany Hernández was gunned down as he left his night classes at a school in the capital of El Salvador. He was the 11th murder victim among the country's schoolchildren since the school year began on Jan. 23.

EL SALVADOR: Military Commission to Investigate Army Abuses

“It’s awful to see people who are criminals treated as heroes,” said Dorila Márquez, one of the survivors of the El Mozote massacre committed by Salvadoran army troops in December 1981.

Former Combatants in El Salvador Demand a Place in Society

Sporting an olive green combat jacket and a beret, civil war veteran Carlos Hernández prays at the tomb of slain Archbishop Oscar Arnulfo Romero at the Metropolitan Cathedral of El Salvador, which a score of former guerrillas have occupied to demand assistance to help them out of poverty.

Environmental Courts Still a Distant Dream in El Salvador

A lack of funds and political will has blocked the setting up of environmental courts in El Salvador, which were approved by law in 1998 with the aim of addressing the serious environmental problems facing this country.

EL SALVADOR: Gangs May Be Scapegoat for Soaring Murder Rate

El Salvador is one of the most violent countries in the world, with one of the highest murder rates. But the authorities cannot agree on whether or not most of the killings should be laid at the door of the youth gangs known as "maras".

EL SALVADOR: Twenty Years of Peace Fail to Bring Prosperity

Two decades after the signing of the Peace Accords, together with the social commitments they contained, El Salvador's levels of poverty and violence are so high that academic and social leaders are proposing new accords to overcome the crisis.

EL SALVADOR: Pesticides Fill Graveyards in Rural Villages

Sitting in the shade under a tree at a careful distance, Francisco Sosa watches his son prepare the land for planting by spraying the weeds with an herbicide from a tank carried on his back.

CLIMATE CHANGE: Clean, Efficient Wood Stoves Good for People and the Planet

In his quest to make the most efficient possible use of energy generated through wood combustion, Salvadoran René Núñez developed a simple but highly efficient wood stove that produces no smoke and reduces greenhouse gas emissions by 95 percent.

Salvadoran Poet Roque Dalton’s Murder – Case Closed

It was the first time that a Salvadoran judge was holding a hearing to decide whether the case of Roque Dalton, a poet murdered 36 years ago, should go to trial. But the hopes of his family were dashed.

EL SALVADOR: Women Demand to Be Included in Climate Solutions

Some 100 rural women in El Salvador demanded that the government halt mining and hydroelectric projects that are harming their communities and establish specific programmes with a gender perspective for combating climate change.

EL SALVADOR: Giving Young Slum Dwellers a Chance

In a country where hard-line policies have failed to make a dent in soaring levels of violent crime, Salesian priest José María Moratalla has produced good results by offering educational and vocational opportunities to juvenile offenders and young people at risk of falling into crime.

EL SALVADOR: Water Bill Stagnates in Congress

A bill for protection, recovery and use of water resources in El Salvador, drafted by a platform of about 100 social, religious and academic organisations, has been bogged down in parliament for the past five years in spite of the country's water crisis.

EL SALVADOR: Small-Scale Fishers Want a Slice of the Sea

For the third time in 10 years, small-scale fishers in El Salvador are trying to get Congress to modify the country's fishing law, to create a five-mile exclusion zone along the coast where the industrial fleet would be banned from fishing.

Seasonal Bans Not Enough to Save Pacific Tuna

The countries that fish for tuna in the Eastern Pacific Ocean see seasonal bans as a form of responsible fishing, but environmentalists argue that they are not enough to ensure the survival of a resource that is threatened around the world.