Forgotten El Salvador / Ignored Colombia

A bit like Honduras and Haiti that most had apparently forgotten had existed before mainstream media jumped up and down, El Salvador continues to languish in poverty and class violence. Upside Down World just released a press brief on El Salvador and conditions in the FTZ's for workers along with an update about the assassination of union leader Victoriano Abel Vega (an update that essentially says that nothing has been done).

Meanwhile, Colombia has announced a program to turn college students into informants for "intelligence" organizations. Our partner for peace and democracy in the region seems to be taking a page from Joe Lieberman and Joe Stalin on creating citizen spy networks. Very Sadaam Hussein of them. I suppose with all the coverage of snow in the mid atlantic states there wasn't enough room on the Americas pages for such silly stories in the English language press.