For the first time ever, Reporters Without Borders is publishing a list of profiles of “100 information heroes” for World Press Freedom Day (3 May).Through their courageous work or activism, these “100 heroes” help to promote the freedom enshrined in article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the freedom to “to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.” They put their ideals in the service of...

San Salvador (AFP) - A former leftist guerrilla narrowly missed victory in El Salvador's presidency race Sunday, and will now face a run-off vote with a conservative rival, according to official results. With 81 percent of the vote counted, ruling leftist Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN) candidate Salvador Sanchez Ceren had nearly 49 percent of the vote, just missing the 50 percent needed to avoid a runoff. He will now face former San Salvador mayor Norman Quijano, 67, of the...

The presidential candidate from El Salvador's right-wing opposition Nationalist Republican Alliance (ARENA) party is extending his narrow lead in the race to win February's election, according to a poll released on Monday. ARENA candidate Norman Quijano has 35.5 percent of voters' support, while former guerilla commander Salvador Sanchez, candidate for the ruling Farabundo Marti Front for National Liberation, is close behind with 31.8 percent, according to the survey by polling firm Mitofsky....

During the Heritage Foundation's recent event Insecurity in Honduras and the Upcoming Elections: What's at Stake for Central America, panelists Ambassador Roger Noriega of Vision Americas, Eric Olson of the Woodrow Wilson Center, and Joseph Humire of the Center for a Secure Free Society laid out their concerns about the upcoming electoral processes in Honduras and El Salvador. Ambassador Noriega pointed to a "new strain" of Latin American populism that seeks the...

The presidential nomination of Elias Antonio (Tony) Saca in El Salvador seems to be aimed at improving the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front's (FMLN) prospects of extending their stay in power, rather than at returning Saca to the presidency, said his former party colleagues, who accuse the leader of participating in a leftist conspiracy to divide the Salvadoran right. Saca, who ruled the country between 2004 and 2009, is currently in the third place, with polls showing that around...

Salvadoran police say they have found a cache of more than 200 anti-tank grenades hidden in a rural carpenter's workshop, the BBC reported. Authorities believe the weapons may be connected with the Mexican drug cartel Los Zetas, which has been working to expand operations to El Salvador and other Central American countries. Police reportedly become suspicious in early August after residents of El Congo, a village 30 miles north of San Salvador, reported seeing a group of heavily armed men...

Iran's president on Tuesday lauded his country's newly launched Spanish-language satellite TV channel, saying it would deal a blow to "dominance seekers" - remarks that were an apparent jab at the U.S. and the West. The launch is Tehran's latest effort to reach out to friendly governments in Latin America and follows Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's four-nation tour of the region earlier in January, which included stops in Cuba and visits to Venezuela, Nicaragua and Ecuador. It also comes...

Government harassment and criminal violence are harming press freedom and weakening democracy, the Inter American Press Association (IAPA) concludes in a report presented at the closure of its 65th general assembly in Buenos Aires. IAPA expressed dismay over the excessive increase of violence against journalists. Sixteen reporters were killed in the last six months (eight in Mexico, three in Honduras, two each in Guatemala and Colombia and one in El Salvador), "the highest figure in...

El Salvador's attorney general should conduct a prompt, thorough, and impartial investigation of the murder of the community leader and environmental advocate Gustavo Marcelo Rivera Moreno, as well as subsequent threats against journalists and human rights defenders, Human Rights Watch said today. According to news reports, Rivera, director of the Association of Friends of San Isidro Cabañas (Asociación Amigos de San Isidro Cabañas, ASIC), disappeared in Ilobasco,...

Terrorist-sponsoring nation Iran is increasing its presence in Latin America, and Hezbollah, a terrorist organization it sponsors, is making inroads in drug trafficking in Colombia, according to Pentagon spokesperson Donna Miles in a press statement to the National Association of Chiefs of Police. During a recent congressional hearing, Navy Admiral James G. Stavridis told the House Armed Services Committee that he shares the concerns of Defense Secretary Robert Gates about Iranian activity...