CISPES Disputes Department of Justice Order, Denounces Possible Repeat of Illegal Harassment!

Tue Mar 11 11:04:08 EDT 2008

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Friends,

This is a very serious situation so please stay tuned for more information
and alerts about this case as we await response from the Department of
Justice.  In the meantime, please send this press release around and
encourage your contacts in the media to get the story out there.  It’s
important to expose their dirty tactics and thwart this throwback to illegal
FBI harassment of the solidarity movement in the 1980.  We can’t let the
Bush Administration intimidate CISPES, or other opposition groups working to
support grassroots, anti-imperialist struggles around the world!

Adelante,

The CISPES National Office

*********

For immediate release

March 11, 2008

Contact: Burke Stansbury, CISPES – 202 521 2510 ext. 205; burke at cispes.org 

Central American Solidarity Activists Dispute Department of Justice Order,
Denounce Possible Repeat of Illegal Harassment

Grassroots Group Accused of Being Foreign “Agent” of Leftist Political Party
in Lead-up to Contentious Salvadoran Presidential Elections

Washington DC: The Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador
(CISPES), illegally targeted in the 1980’s by the largest FBI Internal
Security investigation of the Reagan era, has in recent months again
received threatening communications from the U.S. Department of Justice.
Citing the Foreign Agents Registration Act of 1938, a letter sent to CISPES
in January questions the organization’s relationship with the leftist
Salvadoran political party known as the Farabundo Marti Front for National
Liberation, or FMLN.  CISPES received similar inquiries in the 1980s which
eventually led to an illegal FBI investigation into its activities.

The letter cites the organization’s website and an article published in the
Washington Post – which does not mention CISPES – following the December
2007 visit of the FMLN’s presidential candidate Mauricio Funes.  It states
that, “it has come to our attention
 that the FMLN, and/or possibly its
candidate for El Salvador’s 2009 presidential election, Mauricio Funes,
hired your organization for the purposes of conducting a public relations
media campaign to include political fundraising
”  The Department of Justice
gave no other evidence to back up the claim.

According to CISPES Executive Director Burke Stansbury, “CISPES has never
had a contractual agreement with the FMLN or Mr. Funes, nor have we taken
orders from the party to do publicity work in the U.S.  Rather, we have a
solidarity relationship based on shared political values that goes back to
the struggle for democracy and economic justice that the people of El
Salvador fought against a brutal U.S.-backed military regime in the 1980s.”
CISPES was founded in 1980 at the height of the civil war between the
US-backed Salvadoran government and the FMLN, at that time an
internationally recognized guerrilla force.

“That the Department of Justice would wrongly evoke the Foreign Agents
Registration Act (FARA) to target this organization at this particular
moment demonstrates the Administration's fear of progressive change sweeping
Latin America . It is an effort to intimidate and stifle solidarity groups
in the U.S. who oppose the Government's efforts to install puppet regimes
against the will of the people of Latin America,” said Mara
Verheyden-Hilliard, a lawyer from the Partnership for Civil Justice who is
part of the team of attorneys assisting CISPES in this matter.

The Salvadoran FMLN and its candidate Funes have gained broad support 12
months ahead of the 2009 election, in large part due to the failure of
U.S.-supported neoliberal policies like the U.S.-Central America Free Trade
Agreement (CAFTA).  

“This shows that the Bush Administration is terrified of another Latin
American country electing a Left party,” said Stansbury.  “People in the
region want fair and transparent elections, free of outside intervention,
and such actions by the Bush Administration show a dangerous tendency
towards once again disrupting the electoral process of a sovereign country.”
In 2004, the last time the FMLN had a chance to win the presidency, U.S.
government officials issued statements showing clear support for the
right-wing ARENA party and threatening to cut off money sent from
Salvadorans in the U.S. to their families should the FMLN win.  

In 1981 FBI investigated CISPES for allegedly acting as a foreign agent of
the FMLN.  When that claim proved baseless, the Department of Justice
launched a full-scale investigation based on the claim that CISPES was a
front for the “terrorist” FMLN. The FBI campaign of surveillance,
harassment, and intimidation of CISPES lasted until 1987 and ultimately
became a major embarrassment for the Bureau when CISPES and the Center for
Constitutional Rights forced the release of FBI files under the Freedom of
Information Act.  Subsequent Congressional hearings showed the FBI to have
conducted numerous illegal operations, led to an internal inquiry by the
Bureau, and curtailed the scope of domestic surveillance activities which
were later expanded again under the USA Patriot Act.

“In the 1980s the Department of Justice set out to intimidate and repress
the powerful Central America solidarity movement,” said Angela Sanbrano,
CISPES Executive Director during the FBI investigation of the1980s.  “That
infamous witch hunt was a complete failure, and yet the Bush Administration
has the nerve to return to the original tactics of using an ambiguous law –
FARA – to threaten CISPES again.”

CISPES has continued its work of supporting real democracy and human rights
in El Salvador by taking delegations of elections observers to El Salvador;
touring prominent Salvadoran labor leaders and human rights advocates in the
U.S.; and working to prevent a repeat of past U.S. political intervention.
CISPES has opposed the opening of the U.S.-sponsored International Law
Enforcement Academy (ILEA), claiming that it has served to export repressive
U.S. policing tactics – including harassment of political activists from
opposition groups – to Latin America.  

“It’s no coincidence that the Bush Administration is targeting CISPES now
for our solidarity with movements in El Salvador,” said Sha Grogan-Brown,
CISPES’s Development Director.  “As more and more progressive forces take
power in Latin America, the State Department is looking for ways to bolster
its few remaining allies and to thwart the rise of parties like the FMLN.
But their dirty tactics of harassment and intimidation will not stop our
solidarity work, as we refuse to submit to their pressure.” 

- Go here to view the <http://cispes.org/documents/Doj_CISPES_Page1.pdf>
Department of Justice letter to CISPES

- Go here to view <http://cispes.org/documents/Final_response_to_DOJ.pdf>
the CISPES response

- Go here
<http://www.cispes.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=355&Itemid=
75>  for an article on the history of FBI harassment targeting CISPES in the
1980s

**********

It's vital that CISPES continue its solidarity with El Salvador in the face
of this attack - go here to make your <https://chavez.mayfirst.org/cispes/>
tax-deductible contribution today! 

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© 2008 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

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