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<p class=MsoPlainText align=center style='text-align:center'><b><font size=4
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman";
font-weight:bold'>Salvadoran and US Governments Make Anti-gang Agreement<o:p></o:p></span></font></b></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText align=center style='text-align:center'><font size=3
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman"'>CISPES
<font color=navy><span style='color:navy'>U</span></font>pdate<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText align=center style='text-align:center'><font size=3
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman"'>February
9, 2007<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman"'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman"'>
U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales visited <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region
w:st="on">El Salvador</st1:country-region></st1:place> Monday for a meeting
with Salvadoran Attorney General Garrid Safie as well as President Saca and
Minister of Security Rene Figueroa. The meeting defined the mechanisms of
“cooperation” between the two countries against gangs. The
four main agreements from the meeting were for the FBI and the Salvadoran
National Civil Police (PNC) to set up a Transnational Anti-gangs Unit (TAG);
for the FBI to train the PNC on identifying and arresting the “worst
criminals” as defined by officials; the sharing of information including
fingerprints at the regional level; and that the FBI, Drug Enforcement Agency
(DEA) and other U.S. government agencies do evaluations of El Salvador’s
capacity in combating crime and preventing gang activity. For more
information on the conference check out <font color=navy><span
style='color:navy'><a href="http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/16640983.htm">http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/16640983.htm</a></span></font>.<i><span
style='font-style:italic'><o:p></o:p></span></i></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman"'>
According to a statement by Gonzales after the meeting, the <st1:country-region
w:st="on">United States</st1:country-region> has “increased its anti-gang
training in Central America, including efforts through the International Law
Enforcement Academy (ILEA) in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:City w:st="on">San
Salvador</st1:City></st1:place>.” The ILEA recently completed an
intensive anti-gang program (<font color=navy><span style='color:navy'><a
href="http://www.fletc.gov/about-fletc/locations/international-law-enforcement-academies-ileas/ilea-san-salvador/ilea-san-salvador-2007-proposed-training-schedule.html">the
full schedule of the ILEA for 2007 can be found here</a></span></font>.)
Meanwhile, the request of the U.S. District Attorney for <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region
w:st="on">El Salvador</st1:country-region></st1:place> to modify its
constitution for the creation of a new extradition law was put on hold for the
time being. Gonzales had declared the modifications necessary in order to
combat the “threat to <st1:country-region w:st="on">El Salvador</st1:country-region>”
of having Salvadorans who commit crimes in the <st1:country-region w:st="on">U.S.</st1:country-region>
return to <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">El Salvador</st1:country-region></st1:place>
for refuge. Despite talks of criminals and gangs, of the 1,479
Salvadorans deported from the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">U.S.</st1:country-region></st1:place>
in January, less than 200 had criminal records. Salvadoran officials have
announced the arrival of daily flights of deportees, and less than 20% of those
have criminal records. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><b><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman";font-weight:bold'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></b></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><b><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman";font-weight:bold'>ARENA
Proposes more Military Presence in Jails<o:p></o:p></span></font></b></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman"'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman"'>
The ARENA government is pressuring the Legislative Assembly, specifically FMLN
fraction, for the approval of a $100 million loan for national security that
would be used for strengthening the police force and the construction of more
prisons. ARENA’s proposal of combating crime and crisis in the
prison system is based primarily on the construction of more prisons, without a
real prevention and rehabilitation program. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman"'>
Additionally, Saca has recently proposed that military officials be
incorporated into the security program, in many cases as the directors of
prisons. Human Rights Ombudsperson Beatrice de Carrillo strongly rejected
Saca’s plan to install untrained and inexperienced military officers as
directors of prisons. “The idea is inauspicious, it is like an
ultra Iron Fist inside the jails, and this will never resolve the
problem”, stated Carrillo. For Carrillo, the situation in the jail
system is “catastrophic, repressive, barbaric and undemocratic”.
The crisis has also affected the youth detention centers – on February 5
there was an inmate-led riot in one youth detention center which resulted in
the death of 15-year old Jose Antonio de Paz. The youth destroyed
infrastructure and made public denouncements of both the precarious living
conditions in the center and of prison guards denying them certain rights, such
as receiving food from families.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman"'>
Three weeks after the massacre of 21 prisoners in the Apanteos prison,
government and prison officials have done nothing to clarify what exactly
happened or to punish those responsible. The human rights office of the
Catholic Church has investigated and released a report highly critical of the
prison officials’ actions. The report denounces the “unstoppable
chain of human rights violations in the prisons of <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region
w:st="on">El Salvador</st1:country-region></st1:place>” which occur
because of the political unwillingness of the Saca administration to apply the
constitutional laws which guarantee the right of inmates to be rehabilitated
and reinserted into society. For this reason, the Catholic human rights
office has presented formal legal accusations against four people for their
compliance and failure to intervene in the violence: Cesar Vilanova, Director
of the Salvadoran Prison System; Neftali Portillo, director of Apanteos prison;
Rene Figueroa, Minister of Security; and Rodrigo Avila, director of the PNC.
The report criticizes their inaction, stating over the course of 12 hours of
being present at the prison, and despite the screams for help from the victims,
the police and prison officials simply stood by and allowed for the massacre to
occur. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><b><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman";font-weight:bold'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></b></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><b><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman";font-weight:bold'>New <st1:place
w:st="on">Union</st1:place> Formed in Private Sector, Demands Legal Recognition<o:p></o:p></span></font></b></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><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=MsoPlainText><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman"'>
The Salvadoran union movement celebrated a victory this week when workers at
the Spanish company Calvo formed a union. The workers are pressuring the
Labor Ministry to recognize the union’s legal status, which is necessary
for the negotiations over improving working conditions to begin. The
Spanish company Calvo operates a tuna plant which carried out a massive firing
of some 600 workers and threatened to pull out of <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region
w:st="on">El Salvador</st1:country-region></st1:place> last June. The
workers were on strike because of the dangerous working conditions in the
plant.<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>
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