by the El Reportero staff
Long live the Independence! At center, the four Central American consuls in San Francisco: L-R: Rafael Vanegas, of Honduras, Rafael Carballo, of El Salvador, Denis Galeano, of Nicaragua and Ana Patricia Ramírez, of Guatemala, listen to Nicaraguan National Anthen. (photo by Marvin J. Ramirez)
Four of the five countries of the isthmus said: Viva the Independence of Central America! on Monday, Sept. 17 in the city of San Francisco in a reception lounge at the Consulate of Nicaragua’s building. Costa Rica was absent.
In years past, the Central American consuls celebrants of the independence of their respective countries from Spain on Sept. 15, 1821, carried out a reception at some lounge at an elegant restaurant with special guests from the private enterprise and members of the community.
With new Central American consuls adjusting to their new job, with the exception of El Salvador, the tradition got almost interrupted. Nevertheless, considering the emergency situation in which the Republic of Nicaragua lives, the Consul of Nicaragua invited his colleagues of the other Central American countries to join for a patriotic toast, and to remember the importance of the Central American unit for the preservation of peace after years of war.
Nicaragua lives moments of sadness after the destruction caused by hurricane Félix on the Atlantic Coast recently, which left more than one hundred dead, a signifi cant number of injured people, and al- most an entire destruction of the infrastructure of the autonomous Atlantic zone.
The small, but cozy event, gave the opportunity to every consular representative to express his or her desire to continue in the way of understanding, peace and prosperity.
The Consul of El Salvador Rafael Carballo invoked the need to behold the Central American fl ag in high esteem, while the Honduran diplomat, Francisco Vanegas, alluded to the worthy of Central American independence Francisco Morazán, for “that we could fi ght in block ”, he said, while emphasizing the suffering through that Nicaragua is living now from the hurricane.
The diplomatic host of the event, Nicaraguan Consul Denis Galeano, only one ex-guerrilla direct combatant of the armed confl icts that affected Central America in the 80s and 90s, extolled the peace that now darkens the war events that left hundreds of thousands of dead and that stepped back decades to Centro América economically.
The previous Saturday, the United States of Mexico carried out the traditional Grito de Dolores’s, which sealed the independence of the Aztec country. The event tood place at the Civic Center of San Francisco, where mariachi music and folkloric ballet dancers played and danced respectively, before a multitude.
