President Mauricio Funes has vetoed the legislative decree suspending the charging of $18 for non-intrusive inspections at customs offices in the country.
From a statement issued by the presidency of El Salvador:
The President, Mauricio Funes vetoed today, after considering it inconvenient, the six-month suspension of the collection of a few for the service of nonintrusive inspection at customs office, which deputies approved by Legislative Decree no. 629.
Salvadoran exporters and importers will continue to pay the $18 fee per load and only goods passing through will be exempt from the fee.
The authentic interpretation of the decree eliminating a charge of $18 for the non-intrusive inspection services at Salvadoran Customs offices was vetoed by President Mauricio Funes. Salvadoran exporters and importers will continue to pay the $18 fee per load and only goods passing through will be exempt from the fee.
President Funes has asked Congress to suspend for 180 days the fee charged for inspecting goods in transit using scanners.
From a press release issued by the Presidency of El Salvador:
The President, Mauricio Funes, today appealed to the Legislature, through a project for a proposed temporary decree, to suspend the collection of $18 for non-intrusive inspections in the case of goods going through customs offices which are destined to go out of the country, an issue which has generated a dispute at the borders.
The Central Council of Transport has announced a three-day strike in protest against El Salvador levying a tax on freight carriers of between $35 and $250.
Laprensa.com.ni reports that "the measure will affect all regional trade, because the rest of the international freight carriers from the isthmus will join the strike 'in solidarity' in order to send a message to other governments who have created new taxes on trade merchandise ... ".
At a meeting in Honduras, the region's heads of state agreed to discuss the decriminalization of drugs.
The initiative was proposed by Otto Perez Molina, president of Guatemala, who emphasized the need to seek "alternative mechanisms" to combat drug trafficking.
The leaders of Panama, El Salvador and Honduras said they were against decriminalization, but were open to discussing the issue.
Funes and Martinelli have maintained high levels of approval from their countrymen, while Ortega is recovering, Colom and Lobo are still low and Chinchilla is still falling.
With the first few years of presidency behind them, Mauricio Funes and Ricardo Martinelli are the leaders in the area with the most approval from their citizens: The first for having faced difficult opposition, and for his education, personality and charisma.
From El Salvador, the US president offered the funds for regional security projects.
Regarding distribution of funds, the president said Central American countries will be the ones deciding how to invest the funds according to their particular needs.
Laprensagrafica.com reported statements from Barack Obama, "It will be a program designed and led by Central American governments in the region ...
The Salvadoran president has a 72% approval rating, while Martinelli has 65%, Lobo 51%, Chinchilla 45%, Colom 41% and Ortega 40%.
Mauricio Funes, although still in second place in Latin America, falls three percentage points from a previous survey and now has 72% approval rating, topping the list of presidents in Central America with high evaluation.
New regulations in El Salvador to tackle gang violence foster the development of regional measures to control and proscribe local gangs.
In order to prevent gang members from fleeing the country to avoid jail, especially to Guatemala and Honduras, these countries has activated extra security measures at their borders.
President Funes asked Guatemala and Honduras to join the fight against organized crime, which has been growing as drugs cartels associate with local gangs.
The presidents of 5 Central American nations supported the readmission of Honduras into the Central American Integration System (SICA).
The “Special Declaration on Honduras”, signed by the presidents, also proposes speeding up Honduras’ return to the Organization of American States (OAS) and calls on the country to respect the basic rights of its citizens.
Mauricio Funes has an approval rating of 76%; he is followed by Ricardo Martinelli (66%), Laura Chinchilla (64%), Porfirio Lobo (60%), Alvaro Colom (50%) and Daniel Ortega (38%).
CID-Gallup unveiled its Central American public opinion poll for July 2010. It remarks that Funes remains the president with the highest approval ratings, and that Honduran president Lobo slipped from the third to the fourth spot, mainly because he is disliked by opposition and unregistered voters.
The Summit of the Central American Integration System (SICA) has started in El Salvador; its participants will discuss regional integration and security topics.
The presidents of Guatemala, Panama, Costa Rica, Honduras and El Salvador will take part in the activity.
“During the summit, officials will discuss how to strengthen the region’s democratic institutions, joint policies to mitigate natural disasters and reactivate the regional economy”, reported Prensa Latina, adding that “they will also push for social policies to address poverty and crime”.
El Salvador and Costa Rica say NO. Panama and Nicaragua say YES. Guatemala and Honduras are expected to decide soon.
Gold and copper prices are on the rise, and investors are eager to put money in extraction projects all over Central America.
But the governments of Central America have different opinions over this industry. While these projects are welcomed and authorized In Panama and Nicaragua, informal and formal moratoriums to the activity are being decreed in Costa Rica and El Salvador, stopping mining concessions under pressure from environmentalist groups. Meanwhile, in Guatemala and Honduras new projects are awaiting rules and regulations that will likely toughen environmental regulations for the mining industry.
In El Salvador, the debate over the advantages and disadvantages of dollarization has been reignited, as the government is in need of resources for funding its programs.
President Funes has regretted that Dollarization has limited El Salvador from taking actions to combat the economic crisis. However, Augusto De la Torre, chief economist for Latin America and the Caribbean at the World Bank, repeated that dollarization is not an obstacle, and that in the case of Panama and El Salvador it has been key to relieve them from external pressures and exchange rate volatility.