How far will Bush go to hold El Salvador in 2008? And what is CISPES doing about it?!?

Tue Dec 18 09:58:18 EST 2007

go to our webpage www.cispes.org/get_involved.php if you're having trouble reading this email

 <http://www.cispes.org> www.cispes.org | 202 521-2510|  <http://lists.people-link.net/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/cispes-ern> subscribe| suscribir  <https://lists.mayfirst.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/cispes-hechos> en español

Dear Friend ,

Was 2007 the year the right-wing lost its grip?  That’s what we’re hearing from our allies in El Salvador.  And that’s why at CISPES we’re celebrating this holiday season with hope and excitement... for more victories in 2008 against right-wing attacks and U.S. intervention!  Please help support those victories by making a generous <https://chavez.mayfirst.org/cispes/>  year-end-donation to CISPES.

 <https://chavez.mayfirst.org/cispes/> 

Our Salvadoran partners point to rising public anger at the social devastation brought on by the ARENA party’s economic program.  And despite the Right’s desperate and dangerous schemes to hold on to power in El Salvador, despite Bush’s green-lighting their attacks on the popular movement, in 2007 Salvadoran social organizations won key victories against repression and neoliberal economic ploys.  Of course, CISPES solidarity was there at each step of the way.

You’ve heard about the anti-terrorism law that the right-wing ARENA recently rammed through the National Assembly in order to intimidate social justice activists with possible 60 year prison terms.  CISPES has been fighting this tooth and nail, as well as taking on the US-sponsored International Law Enforcement Academy (ILEA) through protests and congressional pressure.  Now our campaign to shine the spotlight on repression is paying off!  Check out at this recent analysis in the Nation Magazine about the U.S. support for repression in El Salvador through the anti-terrorism law and the ILEA: “GWOT: El Salvador” <http://www.thenation.com/doc/20071231/enzinna>  by Wes Enzinna.  

This year more than one Salvadoran compañero has told us that the CISPES anti-repression campaign has played a key role in meeting ARENA’s attack head-on . After 28 street vendors arrested under the anti-terrorism law went free, movement leader Josefina Lazo said, “this is your victory as well as ours.”

We’ve said all along that ARENA’s attacks, although dangerous, are a sign of weakness not strength. Put plainly, they know people reject their program and they fear losing the elections in 2009. In fact, the leftist FMLN recently announced its Presidential ticket: widely respected journalist Mauricio Funes for President and historic FMLN leader Salvador Sanchez Ceren as his running mate.  Social movement organizations and Salvadorans in the U.S. greeted the FMLN’s <http://www.cispes.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=326&Itemid=60>  announcement with acclaim and it threw ARENA into disarray.  

In 2007 CISPES again led the U.S. movement in standing with the Salvadoran people.  Here are some highlights:

*	This spring CISPES ramped up our pressure campaign on the U.S. Congress to close the ILEA, the School of the Americas-style police training facility run by the U.S. in El Salvador.  Check <http://www.cispes.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=204&Itemid=60>  out an article about the ILEA here. 

*	In May, 20 <http://www.cispes.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=205&Itemid=60>  CISPES delegates represented U.S. solidarity as they marched in San Salvador’s massive May Day parade.

*	In July and again in October we led weeks of action demanding the release of 13 activists facing terrorism charges for non-violently defending the Salvadoran people’s right to water.  You can see various media <http://www.cispes.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=295&Itemid=29>  reports on the October week of action here, or watch a video <http://www.cispes.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=257&Itemid=89>  from the July action here. 

*	Our Fall “Organizing is Democracy” tour brought the eye-witness testimony of two Salvadoran movement activists to students, trade unionists, Latino leaders and congressional offices in 11 US cities and to the gates of Fort Benning as part of the November mobilization to close the School of the Americas.  Read <http://www.cispes.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=327&Itemid=60>  an article about the tour from our most recent El Salvador Watch newsletter here.  

*	We were one of the lead organizers of the 4th Latin America Solidarity Conference “Alternatives to Empire” in Chicago last spring and also brought a delegation to the first-ever U.S. Social Forum in July. 

*	CISPES and the Stop CAFTA Coalition kept the pressure on against CAFTA on by releasing a monitoring report and helping to organize a delegation for the controversial CAFTA referendum in Costa Rica last October.  Learn <http://www.cispes.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=278&Itemid=29>  more about our CAFTA work here. 

And if that weren’t enough, we still had the energy to hold a successful national convention from July 27-29 in Boston and move <http://www.cispes.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=331&Itemid=60>  our national office from New York to Washington DC in August!

 Now is not the time to be complacent—but we can be hopeful.  More than that we have to insure that, as the Salvadoran people begin to turn the tide towards social justice, we don’t let up our accompaniment of their struggle!

At our July Convention CISPES renewed our commitment to stand with El Salvador in the next 2 years, by making U.S. support for repression a major issue and demanding that Congress cut funds for the ILEA, by bringing together people and organizations in the U.S. to demand State Department neutrality in the Salvadoran elections, and by supporting a victorious FMLN campaign!

The Salvadoran people are constructing an alternative to the “savage capitalism” that has held Latin America in a stranglehold for a generation.  ARENA and Bush want to turn the clock back to the time when the neoliberals could boast that there is no alternative.  Can we count on your continued support?  Click here to make a secure <https://chavez.mayfirst.org/cispes/>  online donation today!

Happy holidays and please keep up your own work and solidarity with struggles all over the world! 

Burke Stansbury, CISPES director

PS: Here are some other ways to get involved:

**Contact your local <http://www.cispes.org/index.php?option=com_contact&catid=59&Itemid=3>  committee to volunteer 

**sign up for our emergency response network by filling out the form on the right sidebar of our website at www.cispes.org <http://www.cispes.org/index.php> 

**to make a stock donation contact Sha Grogan-Brown at sha at cispes.org

**Go here to <http://www.cispes.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=127>  donate frequent flyer miles (national and international organizing requires a lot of travel!)

**email Elizabeth at elizabeth at cispes.org to find out more about CISPES’s 2008 delegation

** forward this email to all your friends!

If you no longer wish to receive our emails, you may unsubscibe <http://lists.people-link.net/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/cispes-ern>  here

© 2007 CISPES - The Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador
CISPES National Office | ph. 202-521-2510 | 1525 Newton St. NW, Wash. DC 20010| cispes at cispes.org

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.people-link.net/pipermail/cispes-ern/attachments/20071218/648e8419/attachment-0001.htm 
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 5176 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://lists.people-link.net/pipermail/cispes-ern/attachments/20071218/648e8419/attachment-0002.jpeg 
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: image/gif
Size: 574 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://lists.people-link.net/pipermail/cispes-ern/attachments/20071218/648e8419/attachment-0002.gif 
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: image/gif
Size: 73 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://lists.people-link.net/pipermail/cispes-ern/attachments/20071218/648e8419/attachment-0003.gif 
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 21685 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://lists.people-link.net/pipermail/cispes-ern/attachments/20071218/648e8419/attachment-0003.jpeg 