Radical Roots delegation

In June 2010, CISPES sponsored a delegation of eight Salvadoran youth on a trip back to El Salvador. This delegation was designed to re/connect young Salvadorans raised abroad with their Salvadoran history, culture, and with El Salvador’s current social and political realities.  Video produced by Nicola Chávez-Courtright. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y9j92mG_Mis

FMLN, Mauricio Funes, win 2009 elections

from the CISPES 2009 elections blog

Late in the evening of March 15, 2009, Mauricio Funes, presidential candidate of the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN), pronounced himself President-elect of El Salvador—the very first leftist head of state in the country’s history.

The historical significance of this shift in power cannot be understated in light of the repressive rule that the Salvadoran right-wing has exerted over the people since the massacre of nearly 30,000 indigenous campesinos in 1932. In electing the FMLN, the political party formed in 1980 as an alliance of popular armed forces that fought back against widespread state repression, the Salvadoran people have created an opportunity to realize the goals of social and economic justice. Furthermore, in rejecting the ARENA party, one of Washington’s closest and longest-standing allies in Latin America, Salvadorans have dealt another blow to the Washington Consensus and to the United State’s presumption of free reign throughout the Americas.

CISPES prepares to defend the vote in the 2009 elections

“Unidos por el Cambio” was a CISPES promotional video (produced by Jason Wallach) in the lead-up to the 2009 elections in El Salvador.  CISPES was on it’s way to bringing one of the largest elections observing delegations since 1994 to El Salvador for the March presidential elections, and this video captured the energy in CISPES’s campaign to stop US intervention and support the Salvadoran social movement in defending the vote.

Don White Presente!

DON WHITE, 1937-2008  Check out the Don White memorial blog here

Watch a wonderful video of Don here.

Don White, long time CISPES activist in Los Angeles, passed away at his home in Los Angeles on June 19, 2008. He will be missed, not only by his family, but by literally hundreds of friends and associates of the many organizations in which he was so passionately involved over the past three decades.

To see more pictures of Don go here