Victories for the Salvadoran left?
It's been a rather exciting week for those on the left in El Salvador as there has been a great deal of movement on issues typically held dear by those on the left. It is possible that these accomplishments will benefit the left in next year's legislative and municipal elections.
First, lawmakers voted on a ban to prohibit the mining of gold and other metals. There had been a de facto ban on mining since Tony Saca's (ARENA) administration - now it's law. The Catholic Church has been very supportive of these efforts.
Second, Nina Lakhani reports that momentum is gaining on a bill that would loosen restrictions on abortion. El Salvador is one of the few countries in the region with an absolute prohibition on abortion. The country's laws have also been used to imprison women for having abortions when the evidence seems to indicate that they had instead suffered miscarriages. Religious groups, physicians, lawyers, and ethicists have been working to make the country's abortion laws more sensible ever since the original passage of the laws banning and criminalizing abortion.
Finally, a Salvadoran court has notified seven former high-level military leaders that they are under investigation for their alleged roles in the 1981 El Mozote massacre. See also Sarah Esther Maslin's The Salvadoran Town That Can’t Forget. The Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice invalidated the country's 1993 amnesty law last summer.
Now it's not all victories for the FMLN - just the left (and some on the right). Grassroots groups have pressured parties from across the political spectrum to reshape their views on water, the environment, and reproductive rights. And when it comes to transitional justice, the FMLN is not necessarily in favor of trials and prosecutions. President Salvador Sanchez Ceren and the FMLN and now looking for alternatives to the security that had been provided by the 1993 amnesty law, especially to make it more difficult for those who committed human rights abuses to serve jail time for their crimes.
Transitional justice will only move forward in El Salvador over the objections of the FMLN.
First, lawmakers voted on a ban to prohibit the mining of gold and other metals. There had been a de facto ban on mining since Tony Saca's (ARENA) administration - now it's law. The Catholic Church has been very supportive of these efforts.
Second, Nina Lakhani reports that momentum is gaining on a bill that would loosen restrictions on abortion. El Salvador is one of the few countries in the region with an absolute prohibition on abortion. The country's laws have also been used to imprison women for having abortions when the evidence seems to indicate that they had instead suffered miscarriages. Religious groups, physicians, lawyers, and ethicists have been working to make the country's abortion laws more sensible ever since the original passage of the laws banning and criminalizing abortion.
Finally, a Salvadoran court has notified seven former high-level military leaders that they are under investigation for their alleged roles in the 1981 El Mozote massacre. See also Sarah Esther Maslin's The Salvadoran Town That Can’t Forget. The Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice invalidated the country's 1993 amnesty law last summer.
Now it's not all victories for the FMLN - just the left (and some on the right). Grassroots groups have pressured parties from across the political spectrum to reshape their views on water, the environment, and reproductive rights. And when it comes to transitional justice, the FMLN is not necessarily in favor of trials and prosecutions. President Salvador Sanchez Ceren and the FMLN and now looking for alternatives to the security that had been provided by the 1993 amnesty law, especially to make it more difficult for those who committed human rights abuses to serve jail time for their crimes.
Transitional justice will only move forward in El Salvador over the objections of the FMLN.
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