[Cispes-Alert] Salvadoran Government Threatens to Jail Movement Leaders on Trumped Up Terrorism Charges

Tue Jun 12 20:50:30 UTC 2007

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CISPES ACTION ALERT

June 12, 2007

Salvadoran Government Threatens to Jail Movement Leaders on Trumped Up
Terrorism Charges

Take Action to Stop U.S. Support for the Repression in El Salvador

The Salvadoran National Vendors Movement is facing increased political
persecution from President Saca’s government through the National Civil
Police (PNC) and the Ministry of Security.  The vendors are being charged
with “terrorism” for their organizing and face decades of imprisonment.  On
May 30 the Security Minister Rene Figueroa and the director of the PNC
arrested 11 people and announced a list of about 90 others they plan to
arrest for supposed participation in a May 12 vendor protest.  Others on the
“black list” that have not yet been arrested include the Vendors’ Movement
leaders Martin Montoya and Sandra Henriquez.

The repression against the Vendors Movement has occurred since the
organization was founded over a year ago, but it has gotten significantly
worse since May 12.  On that day, the police carried out a massive and
violent confiscation of the vendors’ goods and arrested 14 people – 9 of
whom they charged with terrorism.  With the May 12 and May 30 arrests, there
are now 22 people in jail – some organized vendors and others unaffiliated
individuals, and most are facing charges of terrorism.  This is the first
time that the new law will be used against the social movement. (for more
information go to www.cispes.org/alerts)

When Security Minister Figueroa announced their intentions of arresting
“vandals and terrorists” within the organized movement, people heard the
threat echo the style of Roberto D’Aubuisson, founder of the death-squads
and ARENA party.  During the war he would go to the media and announce lists
of people involved in the struggle, many of whom would be found dead the
next day. The government’s terror tactics against the vendors’ movement and
the social movement today is increasing and has temporarily succeeded in
curbing vendor organizing at the national level, given that the priority of
the movement now is to evade capture and arrest.

Join the Salvadoran social movement and the FMLN in calling for an end to
these acts of political persecution against the Vendors’ Movement leadership
and its members by dropping the charges of Anti-Terrorism and Anti-organized
Crime laws!  Join the international call to stop the U.S.’s role in backing
these tactics by working to shut down the U.S.’s support for the PNC through
the ILEA! 

Take Action!

1. Fax and email President Saca and Minister of Security Figueroa to demand
that they drop the charges of terrorism and stop the political persecution
of the Vendors’ Movement leaders.  See below for sample letters and fax
numbers. 

2. Contact your local Congressional Representative’s office about the U.S.’s
role in backing this repression especially by closely collaborating with the
National Civilian Police (PNC) through the International Law Enforcement
Academy (ILEA).  Rep. Lynn Woolsey has committed to putting forward an
amendment to CUT the funding for the ILEA.  Please set up a meeting THIS
WEEK with your Rep’s local staff -  and participate in the June 19 national
ILEA call-in day - 19 to ask your Representative to support the amendment to
close the ILEA.  Call the Capitol Hill switchboard at 202-224-3121 to get a
hold of your Representative. See below for talking points, and see CISPES’s
report on our visit to the ILEA this May, and other outreach and lobby
materials at www.cispes.org/ilea)

President Antonio Saca

Casa Presidencial

San Salvador, El Salvador

Fax: 011.503.243.9947

OR

Minister of Security Rene Figueroa

Fax: 011.503.2281.5959

Carlos.bonilla at seguridad.gob.sv

12 de Junio, 2007

Sr. Presidente Saca y Sr. Ministro de Seguridad Rene Figueroa

Conozco el caso de los vendedores encarcelados a quienes su gobierno acusa
de actos de terrorismo, y me causa gran preocupacion.  Los y las vendedoras
de CD/DVD en El Salvador a duras penas están sobreviviendo en el sector
informal por no hallar trabajo formal.  Su organización y trabajo por
mejorar sus condiciones de trabajo NO es terrorismo. 

En vez de estar buscando y creando verdaderas soluciones ante tan cruel
realidad de miles de personas, la violencia de la Policia Nacional Civil y
luego los arrestos el 12 y 30 de mayo – mas las amenazas de arrestar a
docenas de vendedores mas – demuestran que la única “solución” que ofrece su
gobierno es más y más represión, incluyendo el decomiso violento de la única
forma de subsistencia para estas personas.   

De nuevo, la protesta y el luchar por sobrevivir no es terrorismo.  Aun esas
personas que no forman parte del movimiento organizado de vendedores y
quienes cometieron actos de vandalismo NO son terroristas.  Por lo tanto, le
pido que libere los vendedores inocentes arrestados el 12 y 30 de mayo, que
retire todos cargos de terrorismo y crimen organizado en contra de las
personas que fueron arrestadas, y que ya no siga amenazando con mas
arrestos.

Atentamente,

______________ (name)

______________ (city, state, country)

Translation of letter:

Dear President Saca (or Minster of Security Rene Figueroa),

I have heard about the cases of the jailed vendors who your government is
charging with terrorism, and I am deeply concerned about these cases.   The
CD/DVD vendors in El Salvador are people who have searched for formal
employment but have only found the informal sector as a place to find basic
survival.  Their organizing to improve their work conditions is NOT
terrorism.

Instead of looking for real solutions to the harsh reality for tens of
thousands of people, the police violence on May 12 and the arrests of May 12
and May 30 – and the threats to arrest dozens more – show that your
government’s only “solution” is more and more repression, including
violently confiscating people’s only means of sustenance.

Once again, protest and struggling for survival is not terrorism.  Even
those individuals, unaffiliated with the organized vendors’ movement, who
committed acts of vandalism are NOT terrorists.  Therefore, I urge you to
release the innocent vendors and drop all charges of terrorism and organized
crime against all those who were apprehended on May 12 and May 30, and to
drop the threats of arrest against movement leaders..

Sincerely,

ILEA Talking Points – more information at www.cispes.org/ilea 

* Resurgence of death squad-style threats and murders: In early May 2007 the
Archbishop’s Legal Aid and Human Rights Defense Office (Tutela Legal)
released a report implicating the Salvadoran National Police (PNC) in eight
death squad style assassinations in 2006 alone. CISPES has published a list
of recent repression beginning with the July 2006 murder of the Manzanares
couple, the parents of long-time activist “Mariposa”. In many of these
cases, the evidence leads us to believe that the police and/or death squads
were involved in their disappearances; meanwhile, the calls of family
members for investigation have fallen on deaf ears. The ILEA does nothing to
remedy the central problem of the high-up corruption and links to death
squads within the Salvadoran police. 

* The Salvadoran government is militarizing the police, which is a direct
violation of the Peace Accords. The separation between police and military
in El Salvador has declined dramatically since originally established by
Peace Accords in El Salvador. It is now common to have groups of soldiers
“patrolling” rural and urban neighborhoods in El Salvador.  El Salvador’s
National Civilian Police (PNC) was created by the 1992 Peace Accords to do
the work of law enforcement in El Salvador. However, the PNC has
increasingly been used to violently repress protests in El Salvador,
especially the protests against CAFTA, such as those led by market vendors
struggling under new-CAFTA imposed intellectual property laws.  The addition
of the military to these repressive policing tactics violates the Peace
Accords and the U.S. government, through the ILEA, should not be
collaborating so closely with a police that violates the Peace Accords. 

* Salvadoran Government using anti-terrorism law to target social movement
organizing: The Salvadoran right wing passed an “anti-terrorism” law in
September 2006, followed by an “anti-organized crime” law later that year.
The language in these new laws is very vague, leaving them open to
interpretation and a wide variety of applications. The anti-terrorism law is
similar to the Patriot Act in that it threatens civil liberties supposedly
protected by the constitution of El Salvador. The laws criminalize and
labels terrorist – with long jail sentences – protest tactics commonly used
by Salvadorans.  The US Ambassador to El Salvador even expressed explicit
support for this law in a speech, condoning the use of police force in
protecting US trade interests.  Similarly, the stated purpose of the ILEA is
also to protect U.S. interests and this is not the kind of training
Salvadoran police need. 

* El Salvador has become the satellite for U.S. military and police training
in Latin America, despite its poor human rights record: El Salvador is
already the second largest recipient of military training in Central
America, is the host of a U.S. military base and an FBI office. The ILEA has
the capacity to train 1500 students per year, more than the current Western
Hemisphere Institute for Security and Cooperation, also known as the SOA.
Salvadorans fear a return to the sort of torture and repression practices
used by the graduates of that US-sponsored school in the 1980s. Meanwhile,
U.S. officials refuse to acknowledge the corruption, misconduct and human
rights violations committed by the PNC, and continue to support the
Salvadoran police, both through explicit statements and by sponsoring the
ILEA in El Salvador.

* ILEA has a lack of oversight and transparency: Congress has not been given
sufficient information about the ILEA and its activities, and human rights
groups that have sought to monitor it have been denied basic documentation,
such as course descriptions and names of students and instructors.  Though
backers of the ILEA promise that only civilians would be trained there, in
fact the agreement leaves the possibility of military training open. Such
lack of transparency is especially alarming given that the ILEA would offer
immunity to all foreign officials involved in designing the curriculum and
teaching the courses. 

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© 2006 CISPES - The Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador
CISPES National Office | ph. 212-465-8115 | P.O. Box 8560, NY, NY 10116 |
cispes at cispes.org

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