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<div class=Section1>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face=Times><span style='font-size:12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=5 color=navy face=Times><span style='font-size:
18.0pt;color:navy'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<h1 align=center style='text-align:center'><b><font size=5 face=Times><span
style='font-size:18.0pt'>President Funes Asks for State Pardon on 30<sup>th</sup>
Anniversary of Romero Assassination<o:p></o:p></span></font></b></h1>
<h1 align=center style='text-align:center'><b><font size=2 color=navy
face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></b></h1>
<h1 align=center style='text-align:center'><b><font size=2 color=navy
face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></b></h1>
<h1 align=center style='text-align:center'><b><font size=2 color=navy
face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'><img
width=308 height=240 id="_x0000_i1061" src="cid:image002.jpg@01CAD1A3.0FE96970"><o:p></o:p></span></font></b></h1>
<h1 align=center style='text-align:center'><b><font size=2
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman";
font-weight:normal'>“If they kill me, I will be reborn in my people’s
struggle.”<o:p></o:p></span></font></b></h1>
<h1 align=center style='text-align:center'><b><font size=2 color=navy
face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy;
font-weight:normal'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></b></h1>
<h1 align=center style='text-align:center'><b><font size=2 color=navy
face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy;
font-weight:normal'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></b></h1>
<h1 align=center style='text-align:center'><b><font size=4 color=navy
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman";
color:navy;font-weight:normal'><a href="http://www.cispes.org/">CISPES</a></span></font></b><font
size=4 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman";
font-weight:normal'> Update<o:p></o:p></span></font></h1>
<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'><font size=4
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman"'>April
1, 2010<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'><font size=2
face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><i><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial;font-weight:bold;font-style:italic'>Included in this update:<font
color=navy><span style='color:navy'><o:p></o:p></span></font></span></font></i></b></p>
<h1><b><font size=3 face=Times><span style='font-size:12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></b></h1>
<ul style='margin-top:0in' type=disc>
<li class=MsoNormal style='mso-list:l2 level1 lfo4'><i><font size=2
face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;font-style:
italic'><a href="#_Impunity_Reigns_in">Impunity Reigns in Trial over
Murdered Environmental Activist</a> <o:p></o:p></span></font></i></li>
<li class=MsoNormal style='mso-list:l2 level1 lfo4'><i><font size=2
face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;font-style:
italic'><a href="#_National_University_Opens">National University Re-opens
after Two-week Student Occupation</a><o:p></o:p></span></font></i></li>
</ul>
<p class=MsoNormal><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=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman"'>For the first time ever on Wednesday,
March 24, the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:PlaceName w:st="on">Salvadoran</st1:PlaceName>
<st1:PlaceType w:st="on">State</st1:PlaceType></st1:place>, represented by the
country’s first leftist president Mauricio Funes, honored the life of
Monseñor Oscar Arnulfo Romero and apologized for its role in his murder on the
30th anniversary of his assassination by State-linked death squad agents.
Monseñor Romero, Archbishop of San Salvador, is revered by Salvadorans for his
ministry, his unflinching advocacy for <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">El Salvador</st1:place></st1:country-region>’s poor majority
and open condemnation of US-funded repression by the right wing Salvadoran
government, which resulted in his assassination on March 24, 1980 (listen to a
BBC segment on Romero’s life and memory <a
href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p006lyl2">here</a>). <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><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=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman"'>President Funes apologized for <a
href="http://www.elfaro.net/es/201003/noticias/1416/">the government’s
role in Romero’s martyrdom</a> at a public ceremony to unveil a new mural
dedicated to Romero at the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:PlaceName w:st="on">Comalapa</st1:PlaceName>
<st1:PlaceType w:st="on">Airport</st1:PlaceType></st1:place>. "I ask
forgiveness in the name of the Salvadoran State for this assassination,
perpetrated 30 years ago, firstly from his family, secondly from the Salvadoran
people and thirdly from the Catholic Church and religious organizations,”
declared Funes. Monseñor Romero’s brother, Gaspar Romero, formally accepted
the long-awaited government apology responding, “With humility, love and
gratitude, I accept this request for pardon, even though it comes 30 years
later.” The President also announced plans for additional “moral
and symbolic” State reparations for Romero’s assassination,
including a video about Romero’s life and work, constructing a plaza in
his name and promoting March 24 as National Monseñor Romero Day, officially
instituted as a national holiday by Legislative Assembly vote this past March.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><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=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman"'>In addition to the State-sponsored
events, civil society coalitions organized a number of activities including an
all-night vigil, a “pilgrimage” and a demonstration. On Saturday,
March 20, thousands of Salvadorans and internationals converged on the Metropolitan
Cathedral in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:City w:st="on">San Salvador</st1:City></st1:place>
for an overnight vigil in honor of Romero, a celebration full of music, dance
and personal testimony. On March 24, in addition to the massive pilgrimage in
honor of Romero that wound through <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:City w:st="on">San
Salvador</st1:City></st1:place>, people demonstrated at the statue of Major
Roberto D’Aubuisson - the intellectual author of Romero’s
assassination and founder of the right wing ARENA party (the Nationalist
Republican Alliance). Demonstrators threw shoes at the statue, painted the
word “murderer” on it and drew dead bodies on the ground surrounding
the monument. This act of protest was intended to highlight the violent roots
of the ARENA party and the lack of justice for the victims of State-sponsored
repression.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<h1><b><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman"'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></b></h1>
<h1><a name="_Impunity_Reigns_in"></a><b><font size=4 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:13.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman"'>Impunity Reigns in Trial
over Murdered Environmental Activist <o:p></o:p></span></font></b></h1>
<p class=MsoNormal><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=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman"'>On March 15<sup>th</sup> the <st1:Street
w:st="on"><st1:address w:st="on">Sensuntepeque Sentencing Court</st1:address></st1:Street>,
in the department of Cabañas, absolved Oscar Menjívar of all charges in
connection to the attempted murder of anti-mining activist Ramiro Rivera. The
ruling was made while members of the Cabañas Environmental Committee (CAC) rallied
for justice outside the courthouse (read the <a
href="http://esnomineria.blogspot.com/2010/03/comunicado-de-prensa.html">statement
by the National Roundtable against Metallic Mining</a> on the ruling). The trial
addressed a murder attempt that took place in August of 2009 when Ramiro
Rivera, Vice President of the CAC, was shot 8 times in the back and survived. Rivera
identified his attacker as Oscar Menjívar whom community members say worked as
a paid promoter for the Canadian mining company <st1:place w:st="on">Pacific
Rim</st1:place>. Four months later <a
href="http://www.cispes.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=648&Itemid=27">Rivera
was murdered by gunmen</a> on his way home from fishing.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><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=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman"'>People who attended the trial noted serious
irregularities in the process. Menjívar, known by his neighbors to have
limited financial resources, was represented by a team of lawyers from <st1:place
w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">El Salvador</st1:country-region></st1:place>’s
four most prestigious law firms – raising the question of who was
financing his defense. Witnesses also report that one of the tribunal judges
slept through a significant portion of the trial. According to the Rivera
family’s lawyer, the tribunal recognized that there was significant
evidence pointing to Menjívar’s guilt, but it ruled “not
guilty” because the principal eyewitness – Rivera himself, murdered
last December – was not present to testify against Menjívar.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><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=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman"'>The CAC has denounced the ruling as an
act of impunity, declaring, “In Sensuntepeque it is not strange that the
innocent [who are poor] are put in prison and the criminals that are supported
[financially] or that have money go free…This is a great challenge for
those of us that live in the threatened communities, threatened first by the
mining projects and also by the supporters of this mining company called
Pacific Rim.”<b><span style='font-weight:bold'><o:p></o:p></span></b></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><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>
<h1><a name="_National_University_Opens"></a><st1:place w:st="on"><st1:PlaceName
w:st="on"><b><font size=4 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:13.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman"'>National</span></font></b></st1:PlaceName><font
size=4 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:13.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman"'>
<st1:PlaceType w:st="on">University</st1:PlaceType></span></font></st1:place><font
size=4 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:13.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman"'>
Opens after Two-week Student Occupation<o:p></o:p></span></font></h1>
<p class=MsoNormal><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=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman"'>On Wednesday, March 3, a group of high
school students who were denied admission to the University of El Salvador
(UES) shut down the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:City w:st="on">San Salvador</st1:City></st1:place>
campus and demanded over 500 new slots for the incoming class. University Dean
Rufino Quezada announced that he would “not negotiate with masked
students” and called for police to unchain the gates and arrest the aspiring
university students, an act that would directly violate the legal autonomy of
the UES. Minister of Security Manuel Melgar refused the dean’s request
and encouraged the university administration to exhaust all avenues of
negotiation. After almost 2 weeks, the occupation ended on March 16 following mediation
by Human Rights Ombudsman Oscar Luna between the aspiring students and the
administration, and without police intervention.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><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=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman"'>The problem of limited space for incoming
students has been a source of increasing conflict at the UES since 2000. The
organized student movement considers the general problem of accessibility to be
in violation of the constitutional right to education. However, this year’s
conflict divided the university movement into two blocks: one block of 5
student organizations supporting the occupation of the UES and the demand for
mass admission; and a second block of 20+ organizations (including the Roque
Dalton University Front, FURD) that consider the issue of university access to
be a question of funding and resources, which must be first addressed before
increasing student admission numbers in a responsible fashion. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><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=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman"'>After Quezada called for police
intervention, the second university block held peaceful demonstrations outside
the UES, calling on the occupying students to re-open the campus while also demanding
that the police refrain from entering the university. According to members of
the FURD, this second block negotiated with the administration during the
occupation and eventually reached an agreement that every university department,
in cooperation with students, would admit more students based on departmental capacity
and that the UES administration would create a permanent table of dialogue to
address this issue. These are the same terms that aspiring students and the
administration agreed to on March 16. Members of the FURD went on to
compliment the Funes Administration and Minister Melgar on managing the
occupation prudently.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><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=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face=Times><span style='font-size:12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
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