News stories by Edgardo Ayala, page 12

SAN SALVADOR, Dic 26 (IPS) - Salvadoran youth gang leaders have accepted a proposal to declare 10 municipalities free of violence – a bold plan that has run up against the mistrust of vast segments of society with regard to the gangs and their aim of reinsertion in society.

SAN SALVADOR, Dic 04 (IPS) - Brenda Salazar has her sights set on two things: a good organic cacao harvest for the cooperative she belongs to in northern Nicaragua, and for the governments of Central America to heed the ideas of peasant farmers who have organised to fight climate change.

SAN SALVADOR, Oct 23 (IPS) - The parliaments of El Salvador and Guatemala are debating bills aimed at halting abusive loans and high credit card costs. But the initiatives have run up against strong opposition from the financial sector.

SAN NICOLÁS LEMPA, El Salvador, Oct 17 (IPS) - Armed with chainsaws, machetes and shovels, local residents of El Salvador’s Lower Lempa River Basin, near the Pacific Ocean, are unblocking the flow of rivers and pruning the branches of trees on riverbanks to keep them from falling into the chocolate-colored water.

SAN SALVADOR, Oct 01 (IPS) - For many undocumented child migrants from Central America, Mexico is the end of the road in their endeavour to reach the United States, driven by economic reasons, gang violence and domestic violence.

ISLA LA PIRRAYA, Usulután, El Salvador, Sep 11 (IPS) - El Salvador’s Jiquilisco Bay, a tiny hidden corner of the Pacific Ocean, is becoming a haven for endangered sea turtles.

SAN SALVADOR, Aug 25 (IPS) - The two main youth gangs in El Salvador and the government have exchanged the main points they would like to discuss in talks aimed at bringing to an end to two decades of spiraling criminal violence. But the media, legislators and the public at large remain hostile to the possible start of negotiations.

SAN SALVADOR, Aug 02 (IPS) - Civil society organisations are asking the World Bank to reject the Salvadoran government's proposal to join a programme for reducing greenhouse gas emissions linked to deforestation, on the argument that it will actually harm the environment.

Amanda Menjívar is moved by the sight of the 16 sewing machines donated to help a group of local women set up a sewing centre to get over the devastating effects of the disaster caused by Hurricane Ida in the Salvadoran town of Verapaz.

Persecution of trade unionists remains a problem in El Salvador, in spite of the fact that the country is governed by a left-wing party that advocates labour rights, union leaders say.