[Cispes-alert] Stand up against intervention in El Salvador!

[CISPES National Office]

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**

	
*ACTION ALERT*
October 2008
*
*
*Stand up against intervention in El Salvador*
/*Salvadoran Foreign Minister calls for more U.S. involvement in Latin 
America*/

El Salvador's Minister of Foreign Affairs, Marisol Argueta, has publicly 
urged the U.S. government to help prevent the leftist FMLN party from 
winning next year's presidential election in El Salvador. Act now to 
ensure that the U.S. does not repeat its electoral intervention of 2004.

Call your Congressional Representatives TODAY to insist they make a 
commitment to free and fair elections in El Salvador. Congress must 
refute the ruling ARENA party's call for intervention by declaring its 
neutrality and willingness to maintain a positive relationship with any 
government freely elected by the Salvadoran people. Marisol Argueta

In a speech on September 18 at the American Enterprise Institute, a 
right-wing think tank in Washington, D.C., Argueta called on the U.S. 
government to be more active in Latin America, lest countries such as El 
Salvador elect "dangerous populists" in upcoming elections. Along with 
her open-ended exhortation for the U.S. to "do more" to prevent an 
opposition government from being elected, she specifically lobbied for 
the U.S. to pass immigration reform legislation and to increase its 
funding for El Salvador's police. /For a summary of Argueta's speech, go 
here: http://www.aei.org/events/filter.,eventID.1794/summary.asp 
<http://www.aei.org/events/filter.,eventID.1794/summary.asp>/

The panel discussion in which Argueta took part was moderated by Roger 
Noriega, who himself perpetrated electoral intervention in El Salvador 
while serving as Assistant Secretary of State in 2004. At the time, 
Noriega publicly threatened that U.S. relations with El Salvador would 
be ruptured in the case of an FMLN victory at the polls. Such threats 
led many Salvadorans to fear that their relatives in the U.S. -- whose 
remittances make up nearly 20% of the Salvadoran economy -- would be 
deported if the FMLN were elected.

/*TAKE ACTION!*/

1)    Call your Congressional Representative using the following number 
and ask to be connected to your Representative's office: (202) 224-3121. 
/See below for sample script./

2)    Sign the petition calling upon Salvadoran President Saca to ensure 
that government employees do not use their positions to influence the 
results of upcoming elections: http://www.share-elsalvador.org/

3)    Sign onto CISPES' "People's Pledge to Defend Free & Fair Elections 
in El Salvador" and accompany the Salvadoran people by standing in 
solidarity with them during their struggle for REAL democracy. Go to 
www.cispes.org/pledge2009 <http://www.cispes.org/pledge2009>

-----------------------------------

You can use the following script to talk to your Congressional 
Representative.  Call (202) 224-3121.

1.    I am calling to urge Representative ___________ to publicly 
support democracy in El Salvador by declaring that Congress will not 
seek to influence the results of the 2009 elections.

2.    In speech on September 18, El Salvador's Minister of Foreign 
Affairs called upon the U.S. to help ensure that the opposition FMLN 
party does not win the country's March 2009 presidential election.

3.    In 2004, officials from the Bush Administration and some Members 
of Congress publicly threatened that the election the FMLN's 
presidential candidate would jeopardize the relationship between the 
U.S. and El Salvador. In one glaring example, Congressman Tom Tancredo 
threatened that the U.S. would restrict the money that Salvadoran 
immigrants living in the U.S. send home, but only if the FMLN's 
candidate were to be elected.
 
4.    This statement, among others, caused many Salvadorans to vote out 
of fear of U.S. retaliation, rather than as their own convictions led 
them. As someone who believes in democracy, I want to make sure the U.S. 
does not intervene in El Salvador's elections again in 2009.

5.    It is extremely important that Members of Congress stand up for 
the Salvadoran people's right to freely elect their government, without 
foreign manipulation. I am calling on Representative ____________ to 
declare neutrality toward the 2009 Salvadoran elections, and to assert 
that Congress is willing to seek a positive relationship with any 
government freely elected by the Salvadoran people.  We are also 
interested in having your office co-sponsor a letter to Secretary of 
State Condoleezza Rice U.S. calling for neutrality in the Salvadoran 
elections. 
**
*NOTE:*
* *
*If your representative's office agrees to make a statement or 
co-sponsor the letter, *ask for the contact information of the person 
that the letter should be sent to*.  *Then contact Burke Stansbury at 
burke at cispes.org <mailto:burke at cispes.org> to pass on the contact 
information and Representative's name. We will follow up with that 
Representative. 

More background information about past US intervention can be found here 
<http://www.cispes.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=422&Itemid=29>

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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 <mailto:cispes at cispes.org>

 

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