CDA Releases Book on El Salvador President's First Year in Office

USA - English

• Latin America - español

WASHINGTON, Sept. 22 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ --  In "Expectations for Change and the Challenges of Governance," the Center for Democracy in the Americas (CDA) examines accomplishments and unfinished business as President Mauricio Funes completes his first year as El Salvador's president.

"El Salvador commands our attention as a country addressing its pressing economic and security challenges and as a nation whose foreign policy encompasses both ties with Cuba and a very close relationship with the United States," said Sarah Stephens, CDA's executive director.  "How El Salvador and President Funes succeed – on issues ranging from combating poverty to criminal gangs – will say a lot about the stability of Central America and our relationships with the people of the region going forward."

The book is published with Spanish and English translations in the same volume.

Congressman James P. McGovern (MA-3), active on U.S. policy toward El Salvador for decades, and co-chairman of the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission, wrote the preface.

This publication culminates more than a year of research and reporting on events in El Salvador since the March 2009 election of Mauricio Funes.   It reflects information gathered from a diverse range of sources in ninety-eight meetings with more than 70 key actors during six trips to El Salvador by the CDA.

Physical copies of the book – featuring photographs and graphics – can be obtained from the Center for Democracy in the Americas.

An electronic version of the book along with expanded access to our notes and interviews can be obtained on-line.  

The book was written by Linda Garrett, edited by Sarah Stephens, Kendra Seymour and Patricio Zamorano, and translated by Patricio Zamorano and Ines Yanez.  

The Center for Democracy in the Americas (CDA) is devoted to changing U.S. policy toward the countries of the Americas by basing our relations on mutual respect, fostering dialogue with those governments and movements with which U.S. policy is at odds, and recognizing positive trends in democracy and governance.

SOURCE The Center for Democracy in the Americas