News stories by Edgardo Ayala, page 6

SAN SALVADOR, Nov 08 (IPS) - Central America is an impoverished region rife with gang violence and human trafficking - the third largest crime industry in the world - as a major source of migrants heading towards the United States.

USPANTÁN, Guatemala, Jul 03 (IPS) - Because the government has never provided them with electricity, indigenous communities in the mountains of northwest Guatemala had no choice but to generate their own energy.

USPANTÁN, Guatemala, Apr 23 (IPS) - In the stifling heat, Diego Matom takes the bread trays out of the oven and carefully places them on wooden shelves, happy that his business has prospered since his village in northwest Guatemala began to generate its own electricity.

SAN CARLOS LEMPA, El Salvador, Mar 27 (IPS) - For nearly three decades, several communities in southeastern El Salvador have collectively and efficiently managed the water they consume, but monoculture production and climate change put their water at risk.

SAN SALVADOR, Feb 19 (IPS) - Like an octopus, metals mining has been spreading its tentacles throughout Central America and dealing a blow to the region's agriculture and natural ecosystems, according to affected villagers, activists and a new report on the problem.

Feb 08 (IPS) - Salvadoran farmer Lorena Mejía opens an incubator and monitors the temperature of the eggs, which will soon provide her with more birds and eggs as the chickens hatch and grow up.

CANDELARIA DE LA FRONTERA, El Salvador, Jan 02 (IPS) - As he milks his cow, Salvadoran Gilberto Gomez laments that poor harvests, due to excessive rain or drought, practically forced his three children to leave the country and undertake the risky journey, as undocumented migrants, to the United States.

SAN SALVADOR, Nov 02 (IPS) - Disconsolate, Alberto Flores piles up on the edge of a road the few bunches of plantains that he managed to save from a crop spoiled by heavy rains that completely flooded his farm in central El Salvador.

Joya de Talchiga, EL SALVADOR, Oct 08 (IPS) - In Lilian Gómez's house, nestled in the mountains of eastern El Salvador, the darkness of the night was barely relieved by the faint, trembling flames of a pair of candles, just like in the houses of her neighbours. Until now.

SAN SALVADOR, Jul 02 (IPS) - After three hours of paperwork, Katy Rodriguez from El Salvador, who was deported from the United States, finally exited the government's immigration facilities together with her young son and embraced family members who were waiting outside.