Executive Producer/host: Amy Browne
Contributing Producers: Meredith DeFrancesco, Carolyn Coe
Topic: A human rights crisis in El Salvador may be coming to a head next month as the courts there will once again have an opportunity to decide whether to go forward with terrorism charges leveled against several community member associated with the movement to protect water rights in the Salvadoran countryside.
As is the case around the world, there are efforts in El Salvador to privitize water services. Last summer as people in the impacted communities spoke out against those plans, the right-wing, Bush friendly Salvadoran government responded with violence and several arrests. Then, following in the footsteps of the Bush regime, they charged the protesters with “terrorism”, using a new law clearly designed to criminalize dissent.
WERU has followed the case of the Suchitoto 13—as the defendants have become known, over the past several months. As we await news from the hearing scheduled for February 8th, today we’re going to listen back over the past several months as the case, and the grassroots support, have unfolded. We start with a RadioActive program that originally aired in July of 2007, and then hear updates from the Radio Sumpul Sister Station reports that have aired since then.
FMI: www.elsalvadorsolidarity.org