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<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'><b><font size=4
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-weight:bold'>FMLN
Kicks off 26<sup>th</sup> Anniversary with Presentation of Alternative Proposal
on Crime Prevention<o:p></o:p></span></font></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'><font size=3
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>CISPES Update<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'><font size=3
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>October 10, 2006<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>Tens of thousands of people from across <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region
w:st="on">El Salvador</st1:country-region></st1:place> converged at the <i><span
style='font-style:italic'>Cuscatlán </span></i>stadium this past Saturday to
participate in the FMLN’s “Festival for Peace, Security and Social
Justice” as the start to the week-long celebration of the guerilla
organization-turned-political party’s 26<sup>th</sup> anniversary.
The enthusiastic crowds listened to bands from across the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region
w:st="on">Americas</st1:country-region></st1:place> play new and historic
revolutionary music and heard speeches by prominent FMLN leaders. The
centerpiece of the festival was the presentation of the party’s
alternative proposal to address the levels of crime in <st1:country-region
w:st="on">El Salvador</st1:country-region>, which are now the highest in all of
<st1:place w:st="on">Latin America</st1:place>. While all of
ARENA’s “Iron Fist” approach to fighting crime has led to
increased repression, the FMLN’s proposal centers around crime prevention
and an overall policy that addresses all levels of government functioning. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>Medardo Gonzalez, the FMLN General Coordinator, called on everyone to
be active in the effort to make communities safer. <span class=pn-normal>“We
all need to come together in this effort to lift this country out of the
insecurity that the governments of ARENA have submitted it to. Municipal
governments, Congress people, and all FMLN officials from their positions
should work to create jobs and preventive security. Communities need to
organize to overcome this crisis,” he said. </span>The FMLN
proposal is based on the respect for human rights, the defense of the
constitution, and the promotion of democracy as established in the 1992 Peace
Accords. It addresses violence and crime through an integral approach,
taking into consideration its structural causes like unemployment,
marginalization, lack of opportunities (especially for youth), family
disintegration and institutional inefficiency. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>At the local level, the proposal aims to transform municipalities into
what the FMLN is calling “safe cities” by creating municipal
committees to plan and implement crime prevention, citizen education and
training, and sports and recreational programs for youth. Simultaneously,
the proposal recommends re-directing the work of institutions like the Attorney
General’s Office, the Judicial System, and the National Civilian Police
to end impunity and focus on social reinsertion, and simultaneously seeks to
strengthen them by allocating adequate resources to these institutions.
The FMLN’s proposal also includes gun control, an issue ARENA has been
unwilling to touch because of its party members’ profits from the arms
importing business.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-weight:bold'>US pushes for further militarization
of public security at hemispheric Defense Ministerial<o:p></o:p></span></font></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy;font-weight:bold'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>The Seventh Western Hemisphere Defense Ministerial was held last week
in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:City w:st="on">Managua</st1:City>, <st1:country-region
w:st="on">Nicaragua</st1:country-region></st1:place>, which brought together
the Defense Ministers of over 30 Latin American nations to discuss issues of
security and proposals for cooperation. U.S. Defense Secretary Donald
Rumsfeld again used the occasion to push the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region
w:st="on">U.S.</st1:country-region></st1:place>’s agenda for creating a
regional security strategy and coordinating military and security efforts in
fighting drug-trafficking, terrorism gang violence, and other
“threats” to the region. <st1:country-region w:st="on">Venezuela</st1:country-region>
has been critical of the <st1:country-region w:st="on">U.S.</st1:country-region>’s
military interventionist history, and has put forward a counter-proposal for
regional integration led by Latin American nations, not by the <st1:place
w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">U.S.</st1:country-region></st1:place><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>The Ministerial took place in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:City w:st="on">Managua</st1:City></st1:place>
just one month before the country’s contested presidential elections
scheduled for November 5<sup>th</sup>. This is the first time a Central
American country hosts the Ministerial, since its inception in 1994. In
light of recent US attempts to influence the Nicaraguan elections, holding the
Ministerial in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">Nicaragua</st1:country-region></st1:place>
is seen as a backing to the current right-wing government. Opposition
political parties in <st1:country-region w:st="on">Nicaragua</st1:country-region>
have also pointed to ARENA election official’s presence in <st1:place
w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">Nicaragua</st1:country-region></st1:place>
right before the elections, and their technical support to the right-wing
party, as illegal intervention in the elections. Opposition candidates
say they suspect that ARENA officials are helping the Nicaraguan right-wing
prepare election fraud, based on their experience in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region
w:st="on">El Salvador</st1:country-region></st1:place>.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-weight:bold'>Major mobilizing in preparation for
October 17<sup>th</sup> protests against water privatization<o:p></o:p></span></font></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>Preparations are underway for next week’s anti-water
privatization protest. The “National Forum for the Defense of the
Sustainability and the Right to Water,” an alliance made up of 37
different social organizations, will make its first public statement that same
day against water privatization as a showing of national unity around the
issue. October 17<sup>th</sup> was chosen as the day for action because
it is also the National Day of ANDA (National Water Administration)
Workers. CISPES plans on publishing an open letter to President Saca in <st1:place
w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">El Salvador</st1:country-region></st1:place>’s
major newspaper that day to accompany the action and back organizing against
privatization in the face of an increasingly repressive government. The
letter calls on Saca to respect the right to organize and to show the
government’s commitment to human rights by investigating recent threats
and attacks on unionists and other social movement leaders. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><i><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-style:italic'>To review the letter and sign on,
see www.cispes.org<o:p></o:p></span></font></i></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
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