Former Maryland Lieutenant Governor Kathleen Kennedy Townsend
to Lead international delegation
to El Salvador sponsored by the center for international policy  

Washington, DC. October 1ST 2007: Former Maryland Lieutenant Governor Kathleen Kennedy Townsend will lead an international delegation to San Salvador to support the Women’s March for Water on the morning of October 5th. Joining the delegation will be Maryland State Delegate Ana Sol Gutierrez; President of Prosperity and Democracy, Allen Andersson; and former Ambassador to El Salvador and current President of the Center for International Policy President, Robert E. White.

Salvadorans from all over the country will gather in San Salvador and march to the National Congress to urge the government to make access to water a priority on the national agenda.

According to Ambassador White, “El Salvador, along with Haiti, owns the worst record in the western hemisphere in access to safe, clean drinking water.  Women and children, particularly those in rural areas, are some of the most affected by the problem. They are forced to spend hours a day hauling heavy buckets back and forth.

Salvadoran-born MD State Delegate Ana Sol Gutiérrez said, “I am proud to join CIP and the brave women and children who oppose the privatization of basic, life-sustaining resources –especially water. We must all fight misguided government proposals that deepen extreme poverty for the many, while concentrating more wealth in the hands of a few.”

The delegation is sponsored by the Center for International Policy, and is part of the official launch of the Blue Democracy Campaign, an initiative carried out in close coordination with two Salvadoran non-governmental organizations, the Center for Consumer Defense, and Salvadorans for Ecological Unity. More than 120 Salvadoran civil society organizations will participate.

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