[Cispes-Alert] Call on Congress to sign letter rejecting U.S. intervention in Salvadoran Elections!

[CISPES National Office]

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February 23, 2009

 

Call on Congress to reject manipulation of U.S. foreign policy and defend
free and fair elections in El Salvador!

 

U.S. Representatives Raúl Grijalva (D-AZ) and Marcy Kaptur (D-OH) are
circulating a “Dear Colleague” letter to encourage other Representatives to
sign on to a letter to President Barack Obama calling for the U.S.
government to remain neutral in El Salvador's March 15 presidential race,
respect the election results, and work toward a positive relationship with
whichever party is elected. With less than a month remaining before election
day, this urgent letter is now open for all Members of Congress to sign.
(The deadline for signers is March 3; see below for the text of the letter
to Obama and the “Dear Colleague”.)

 

Call your U.S. Representative TODAY to insist that s/he add his or her name
to statement in defense of democracy in El Salvador by Rep. Grijalva and Rep
Kaptur!  Call the Congressional switchboard to be connected to your
Representative's office: (202) 244-3121. *Call script at the end of this
alert.

 

 BACKGROUND

Public statements made by high level U.S. officials in the weeks leading up
to El Salvador's last presidential election, in 2004, threatened Salvadoran
voters into re-electing the right wing ARENA party. Undersecretary of State
Roger Noriega traveled to El Salvador a month before the election to
publicly endorse ARENA candidate Antonio Saca and warn that relations with
the U.S. would deteriorate if the opposition FMLN party were elected. The
week before the election, Congressman Tom Tancredo (R-CO) threatened that
the U.S. would stop the flow of remittances sent home by Salvadorans living
in the U.S. in the case of an FMLN victory. 

 

The threats made in 2004 were widely reported by the Salvadoran media as
accurate statements of U.S. policy, and contributed to Saca's victory at the
polls. In recent months, right-wing campaign advertisements have sought to
resurrect these threats, claiming that the 2.5 million Salvadorans living in
the U.S., and the billions of dollars they send home every year, will be
placed in danger if the FMLN's candidate, Mauricio Funes, is elected in
March.

 

With a new administration in the White House, Salvadoran voters are awaiting
assurance that the U.S. will respect their right to elect their own
president, free from outside manipulation. Call on your Congressperson to
assert that the U.S. must respect the democratic will of the Salvadoran
people.

 

TAKE ACTION NOW!

 

1) Call the Congressional switchboard to be transferred to your
Representative's office: 

(202) 244-3121

 

2) Ask to speak to the staff person in charge of foreign policy. If that
person is not available, leave a voicemail.

 

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

 

Call Script for support to Grijalva’s Dear Colleague letter on El Salvador
elections 

 

You can use the following script to talk with the congressional aid of your
representative. If at any point you get cut off, be sure to make the final
statement – “I encourage Representative _____ to sign on to this important
letter in support of free and fair elections in El Salvador! 

 

Here's what to say (the first two paragraphs are the most important):

*	“My name is [your name] I am calling as a constituent to ask that
[Representative's name] sign on to a Congressional letter to President Obama
that has been initiated by Representative Raúl Grijalva [Gree-hall-vah].
This letter calls for U.S. neutrality with respect to the upcoming
presidential election in El Salvador, and pledges that Members of Congress
will seek a positive relationship with whichever party is elected.”
*	“To sign on to this letter, please contact Daniel Brito at
Representative Grijalva's office. His phone number is (202) 225-2435.”
*	“This statement is urgently important. During El Salvador's 2004
presidential campaign, Bush Administration officials and some Members of
Congress threatened to punish the people of El Salvador if they elected the
opposition party's candidate. Campaign ads being aired in El Salvador right
now are resurrecting those threats. President Obama and his administration
need to be made aware of this unfortunate precedent so they can chart a more
responsible, respectful foreign policy.”
*	“Furthermore, Salvadorans need to hear a clear message from Congress
that assures them they can vote according to their own free will, rather
than in response to threats and manipulation from the U.S. government.”
*	“Thank you for your time, and I encourage [Representative's name] to
sign on to this important statement in support of free and fair elections in
El Salvador.”

 

For more information on the upcoming elections in El Salvador:

 

-         CISPES elections blog: www.cispes.org/09electionsblog

-         January 2009 elections report: El Salvador Election Observation
Report, January 18 elections

-         The 2009 Salvadoran elections: Between Crisis and Change:
http://nacla.org/node/5445

 

 

Foreign Affairs, Immigration: Dear Colleague: Respect Salvadoran Elections

From: The Honorable Raul M. Grijalva
Sent By: daniel.brito at mail.house.gov
<mailto:daniel.brito at mail.house.gov?subject=RE:%20Foreign%20Affairs,%20Immig
ration:%20Dear%20Colleague:%20Respect%20Salvadoran%20Elections> 
Date: 2/23/2009

 

Respect Democracy in El Salvador:

Letter to President Obama Calling for Non-intervention in Presidential
Election

 

Dear Colleague:

 

Please join us in writing to President Obama to encourage him to fulfill a
historic opportunity to build a new relationship with our neighbors in the
Americas based on mutual respect.

 

The upcoming Presidential election in El Salvador, the first in the Americas
since President Obama was elected, is a chance for the United States to
demonstrate that it will respect the results of our neighbors’ elections,
and will not intervene in support of one party or candidate over another.

 

Before El Salvador’s 2004 presidential election, US officials attempted to
sway the vote by suggesting that in the event of a victory by the opposition
party, the legal status of Salvadoran immigrants living in the U.S. would be
jeopardized and remittances sent to El Salvador by family members in the
U.S. could be outlawed.

 

Remittances are believed to comprise roughly 20% of El Salvador’s GDP, and
consequently these threats were widely covered in the Salvadoran press and
had an enormous impact that lingers to this day. 

 

We believe that the proper position of the U.S. Congress and government is
one of neutrality and respect for El Salvador’s independent democratic
process, allowing the Salvadoran people to make a free choice of personal
conscience, a choice which can only be done in the absence of coercion and
threats.

 

Please join us in calling on President Obama to affirm this position,
prevent a recurrence of the events of 2004, and bring real change to our
relationship with Latin America.

 

Sincerely,

 

/s                                                                /s 

Raul M. Grijalva                                      Marcy Kaptur

Member of Congress                             Member of Congress

 

 

Dear President Obama:

 

As Members of Congress who have been disappointed by many of our nation's
foreign policy decisions over the past eight years, we write to extend our
support for your vision of a more respectful, less confrontational
relationship with our neighbors in the Americas. We also believe that the
March 2009 presidential election in El Salvador – the first such contest in
the Western Hemisphere since your election in November, will provide a
critical opportunity to realize this vision.

 

We wish to express our support for free and fair elections in El Salvador.
To that end, we request your assurance that your administration will join us
in honoring and respecting the will of the Salvadoran people when they go to
the polls on March 15. Furthermore, we call upon all U.S. government
officials and Members of Congress to refrain from any attempt, at any point
during the campaign, to influence the decision of Salvadoran voters.

 

Intervention in the El Salvador's 2004 election took the form of public
statements, made in the days and weeks leading up to the election,
suggesting that U.S.-Salvadoran relations would be severely damaged in the
event of a victory by the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN),
the opposition party whose candidate is now leading in the polls for 2009.
Specific threats made by U.S. officials in 2004 alleged that the legal
status of Salvadoran immigrants living in the U.S. would be jeopardized and
remittances sent to El Salvador by family members in the U.S. could be
outlawed if ARENA's candidate were not elected. 

 

Documentation attached as an addendum to this letter highlights many of
statements made by U.S. officials during El Salvador's 2004 campaign, and
the coverage they received in the Salvadoran press.

 

El Salvador uses the U.S. dollar as its official currency, and the U.S. is
by far the country's most important trade partner. Nearly 25% of El
Salvador’s population lives in the United States, and the remittances that
these immigrants send home comprise roughly 20% of El Salvador’s GDP.

 

In light of these facts and circumstances, threats made by US officials are
widely covered in the Salvadoran press and can have an impact that is hard
to overstate.

 

El Salvador uses the U.S. dollar as its official currency, and the U.S. is
by far the country's most important trade partner. Nearly 25% of El
Salvador’s population lives in the United States, and the remittances that
these immigrants send home comprise roughly 20% of El Salvador’s GDP.

 

The interventionist statements and actions of 2004 had a serious, coercive
effect on the choices made by the Salvadoran electorate and, even today
linger in the minds of Salvadoran voters, as US Embassy staff in San
Salvador admitted to a visiting delegation.

 

The governing party has encouraged the U.S. government to repeat its
intervention in the 2009 campaign. I a September 2008 speech in Washington,
Salvadoran Foreign Minister Marisol Argueta, called for the U.S. government
to again tip the scales toward ARENA.

 

Pro-ARENA television advertisements recapitulating the claim that an
opposition victory at the polls will cause the U.S. government to outlaw
remittances from Salvadoran immigrants are nearly ubiquitous. Similar
advertisements and television reports have made use of statements by an
adviser to the Obama campaign, Dan Restrepo, identifying him as an actual
official in the Obama Administration, to suggest that your administration is
averse to an election result favoring the FMLN.

 

These claims and distortions will continue to resonate until they are
refuted by words and actions.

 

As Members of Congress, we reject the threats of 2004 and any effort to
instigate another US intervention in Salvadoran politics. We feel that U.S.
immigration policy should not be made into a political instrument used to
influence foreign elections. Similarly, we reject the suggestion that the US
government would seek to financially punish Salvadorans, in this country or
in El Salvador, for exercising their right to elect a government of their
choosing. As members of Congress, we will not support any such measure.

 

We believe that the proper position of the U.S. Congress and government is
one of neutrality and respect for El Salvador’s independent democratic
process, thus allowing the Salvadoran people to make a free choice of
personal conscience, a choice which can only be done in the absence of
coercion and threats.

 

We believe it is essential that the United States seize this quickly
approaching opportunity to demonstrate that we will not seek to undermine
democracy in El Salvador and Latin America. This is an invaluable, historic
opportunity to make a clean break with the past and move with our neighbors
into a relationship based on mutual respect.

 

No matter the results of El Salvador's 2009 elections, we look forward to
working with the Salvadoran people and their elected representatives to seek
a future that holds peace and shared prosperity for both of our countries.
We trust that your administration will join us in these efforts.

 

Sincerely,

 

 


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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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