Salvadoran festivals
December 11th, 2007A few new festivals were added to the El Salvador festivals page, Holy Week and La Fiesta de las flores de Panchimalco. There are loads of festivals all over El Salvador throughout the year. Soon we are coming up on the big celebrations on Christmas Eve (Navidad) and New Year’s Eve where Salvadorans stay up all night to celebrate and light up firecrackers. Fun for the whole family.
The official currency of El Salvador and the dollar’s decline
December 11th, 2007The Wall Street Journal has an article today about what European firms are doing to tackle the “dollar problem” referring to the ever weakening dollar compared to currencies like the euro. The article also mentions that some people are taking advantage of this by moving operations to economies that operate in the US dollar. What does this have to do with El Salvador? Well, the United States isn’t the only country in the world that officially uses American dollars. Many merchants across the world accept dollars and other stable currencies (like the Japanese yen in many Asian countries and increasingly the euro). But El Salvador is one of the countries that relies exclusively on the US dollar. That means that El Salvador’s currency is the dollar and the value of El Salvador’s currency goes up and down as the dollar goes up and down. Ecuador is in a similar situation using the US dollar as their official currency. Elsewhere in Central America Belize, while having their own currency, pegs the Belizean dollar to the US dollar. That means that the exchange rate between one Belize dollar and one US dollar remains constant and as the dollar weakens so does the Belizean dollar relative to other currencies. And that’s what’s happening. Over the past five years or so the US dollar has weakened compared to all the major currencies like the Japanese yen, euro, and even the Canadian dollar and Australian dollar.
Thinking about traveling to El Salvador? Then this is good news for just about everyone. Travelers to El Salvador from the United States will be happy to learn that there money goes just as far as it always has in the country whereas if they were to travel to Europe or even Canada or Mexico, Americans would find that their money buys much less than it did just a few years ago. I’m talking 25 to 50% less. But, inflation aside, everything in El Salvador costs as little as it ever did to American consumers. For travelers coming from Japan or Europe to visit El Salvador (or Ecuador) they will be pleasantly surprised at how cheap everything is. And this is really only the case in those Latin American countries whose currencies are pegged to the dollar. Brazil’s economy is going strong and Argentina has recovered since there currency collapsed just a few years ago. The Mexican peso is up against the US dollar. So visitors from just about anywhere in the world can benefit from great deals in El Salvador, whether it be hotels, fine dining, entertainment, resorts, or goods to take home.
Salvadoran cooperation
December 10th, 2007Is it good for El Salvador or is it only good for the United States? Leaders from both countries want to convey the belief that it’s good for both.
El Salvador Leader Visits Brazil
San Salvador, Dec 4 (Prensa Latina) El Salvador President Elias Antonio Saca begins a three-day official visit to Brazil Tuesday, accompanied by Foreign Minister Francisco Lainez, and other officials.
A presidential spokesperson announced Saca and his counterpart, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, will meet Wednesday at the Planalto Palace, to discuss issues of common interest such as the setting up in El Salvador of a plant to produce ethanol from sugar cane.
[via Prensa Latina]
US, El Salvador tout CAFTA benefits
SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (AP) - A free trade agreement between El Salvador and the United States is boosting economic growth in the Central American country, Salvadoran and U.S. officials said Wednesday.
El Salvador’s economy grew 4 percent since it joined the Central American Free Trade Act, or CAFTA-DR, last year, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Daniel Sullivan said.
[via ABCmoney.co.uk]
CAFTA said boosting El Salvador growth
El Salvador’s economy grew 4 percent since it joined the Central American Free Trade Act, or CAFTA-DR, last year, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Daniel Sullivan said.
“This hadn’t happened in more than 10 years,” Sullivan told reporters while visiting a San Salvador factory that manufactures pupusas — thick, stuffed corn tortillas served with pickled cabbage — to sell in cities throughout the U.S.
[via BusinessWeek]
Salvadoran gangs becoming more of a problem in the US
December 10th, 2007That’s right. We’re talking about MS-13. They are more of a problem in the United States than in their home country of El Salvador.
Bureau sets up El Salvador office targeting notorious MS-13
EDITOR’S NOTE: WND staff reporter Jerome R. Corsi recently conducted an exclusive interview with Robert B. Loosle, Special Agent in Charge of the Criminal Division in the FBI’s Los Angeles Field Office.
Corsi previously interviewed Loosle in El Salvador at an international anti-gang conference co-sponsored by the El Salvadoran national police force for two separate articles published here and here.
[via WorldNetDaily]
San Salvador mayor seeks help with gangs on San Francisco visit
Salvadoran community leaders welcomed the mayor of San Salvador to San Francisco on Tuesday in hope of establishing a sister city relationship that could go beyond the usual trade delegations and cultural exchanges and tackle a grittier issue: an escalating transnational gang problem.
“Gang violence in San Salvador now impacts our youth,” said Ana Prez, director of the Central American Resource Center, a 22-year-old family service organization in San Francisco. “If our kids get deported, they end up in a world of extreme violence there. … And now we have youths fleeing from El Salvador because of the gangs,” who wind up as the street-level dealers for the same syndicates in San Francisco.
[via San Francisco Chronicle]
Salvadorians Demand Justice for Monsignor Romero
December 10th, 2007Some 25 organizations that make up Concertacion por la Paz y la Justicia Social rejected the president’s refusal to derogate a General Amnesty Act, by virtue of which the charges against war criminals were dropped.
[via Prensa Latina]
Salvador President denies plans to severe ties with Venezuela
December 10th, 2007“At the present time we are not considering the possibility to break diplomatic relations with Venezuela,” Saca said when asked about recent statements by a lawmaker and the Minister of Security and Justice Rene Figueroa.
[via El Universal]
AIDS in El Salvador
December 10th, 2007In El Salvador more people are getting tested for HIV but more people are also testing positive.
WORLD AIDS DAY-EL SALVADOR: More People Testing Positive
SAN SALVADOR, Nov 30 (IPS) - The rise in new HIV/AIDS cases in El Salvador shows either that the government strategy to combat the epidemic is failing, or that a larger proportion of the population is being tested, depending on the respective viewpoints of non-governmental organisations and local authorities.
Mara de la Paz was diagnosed HIV-positive in March 2004. At first “it was very difficult; I didnt want to accept that I had the virus. I went through a phase when I was stigmatised and discriminated against by my partners family, and for weeks I just wanted the earth to swallow me up.”
[via IPS]
El Salvador Hits 1000+ New HIV Cases
San Salvador, Nov 23 (Prensa Latina) El Salvador reported 1,135 new HIV AIDS cases in the first half of 2007, the chapter of the UN Joint AIDS Program (UNAIDS) in this Central American country informed.
The pandemic worldwide spread since the late 20th Century has somewhat stabilized in the territory after affecting 0.8 percent of the population, noted UNAIDS Representative Herbert Betancourt.
[via Prensa Latina]
