San Salvador, El Salvador – Protesters gathered in front of the Israeli embassy in San Salvador on July 11 to express solidarity with the Palestinian people, and to protest against Israel's military assault on Gaza. The protesters waved Palestinian flags and held signs condemning the attack on Palestine. This was the second protest in front of the Israeli embassy here this week.

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San Salvador, El Salvador – Salvador Sanchez Ceren, Marxist leader, former guerrilla commander, teacher and trade unionist, won the March 9 presidential run-off elections by a narrow 6634 votes of the nearly 3 million cast, over the right-wing candidate, Norman Quijano.

Thunder Bay, ON – On Nov. 1, Joe Callahan’s trial on immigration charges here in the Ontario Court of Justice ended in victory for Callahan and the movement. During the two-day trial, 30 members of the Joe Callahan Support Committee from Minneapolis and Saint Paul, Minnesota and Thunder Bay, along with Callahan’s family members, packed the court room.

San Salvador, El Salvador – El 30 de julio marcharon mas de 2,000 personas para conmemorar el 36 aniversario de un masacre de estudiantes salvadoreños el 30 de julio 1975. La marcha salió de la Universidad de El Salvador (UES) y marchó hacia el puente donde en 1975 los cuerpos de seguridad y del ejército reprimieron una manifestación pacifica en que los estudiantes marcharon para exigir sus derechos y defender la UES que en este tiempo sufrió represión constante de las fuerzas militares y policiales.

San Salvador, El Salvador – On July 30 more than 2000 people marched here to commemorate the 36th anniversary of a massacre of Salvadoran students on July 30, 1975. The march started at the University of El Salvador (UES) and marched to the bridge where in 1975 the security forces and military violently repressed a peaceful protest where students were marching to demand their rights and to defend the UES. At that time the UES suffered from constant repression from the military and police.

Chicago, IL – Gathering in front of the Colombian Consulate here, 60 protesters took on the job of getting out the truth about the situation in Colombia, March 6. One of speakers from Colombia spoke about the death of five innocent family members by paramilitaries who all went unpunished for their crimes. One of the Ecuadorian speakers talked about meeting many Colombians that had to leave their homes due to paramilitary violence.

San Salvador, El Salvador – Participants from over twenty countries met here for the International Gathering in Solidarity and for Peace in Colombia and Latin America, July 20-22. People from across Latin America, Europe, Canada and the United States came together for three days, giving their solidarity to the popular movement and rebel forces of Colombia. Speakers included revolutionary leaders, union activists, indigenous activists, academics, and leftist politicians.

On Sept. 29, an important demonstration will take place in Washington D.C. In conjunction with the protests surrounding the meeting of the International Monetary Fund, thousands will raise their voices against U.S. intervention in Latin America and the Caribbean. What follows is a reprint of the call to the protest. We urge the readers of Fight Back! to build for, and attend the demonstration.

San Salvador, El Salvador – In an historic day here, June 1, Mauricio Funes and Salvador Sanchez Ceren were sworn in as the new president and vice-president of El Salvador. Funes and Sanchez Ceren are members of the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN), a leftist political party which was formerly a guerrilla movement that fought against the U.S.-backed right wing dictatorship in El Salvador in the 1980s. Funes and Sanchez Ceren won election on March 15, marking the first time there will be a leftist government in El Salvador’s history.

St. Paul, MN – The Salvadoran community and supporters gathered here on the evening of March 15 to watch election results and celebrate a historic victory for the left in El Salvador. On March 15, Mauricio Funes and Salvador Sanchez-Ceren were elected president and vice-president of the small Central American country. Funes and Sanchez-Ceren are from the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN), the leftist political party that led an armed liberation struggle in the 1980s, and became an electoral political party after the Peace Accords ended El Salvador's civil war in 1992.

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In recent months the U.S. Department of Justice has sent threatening letters to the Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador (CISPES), which works in solidarity with grassroots social justice movements and the left in El Salvador. The government is accusing CISPES of being an 'agent of a foreign power' – specifically of the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN), the leftist political party in El Salvador. This echoes the FBI's groundless accusations against CISPES in the 1980s, which led to a seven-year campaign of illegal U.S. government harassment against CISPES that the FBI later had to apologize for.

San Salvador, El Salvador – About 20,000 people marched in San Salvador on Saturday, July 7 protesting against the arrest and detention of 13 political activists in Suchitoto, a town in El Salvador’s rural department of Cuzcatlán.

Fight Back News Service is circulating the following letter of solidarity from the Salvadoran Labor Front, a federation made up of 27 trade unions, to striking members of the Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association. We urge other unions in the United States and internationally to offer similar support.

Less than a week after the U.S. elections, labor leader Gilberto Soto was assassinated in Usulutan, El Salvador. Soto, a Salvadoran who emigrated to the U.S. in 1975, was a Teamster organizer in New Jersey, an activist with CISPES – the Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador – and a long-time member of the FMLN, El Salvador’s left political party. The FMLN has actively opposed the Central American Free Trade Agreement, both in the legislature, where they hold a plurality of the seats, and in the streets, where they have led tens of thousands of people marching against CAFTA and against the war in Iraq.

San Salvador, El Salvador – Cerca de 20,000 personas marcharon en San Salvador el sábado 7 de julio protestando en contra del arresto y detención de 13 activistas políticos en Suchitoto, departamento de Cuzcatlán en la zona rural de El Salvador.