Cispes-update Update: Salvadoran and US Governments Make Anti-Gang Agreement

[CISPES National Office]

Salvadoran and US Governments Make Anti-gang Agreement

CISPES Update

February 9, 2007

 

            U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales visited El Salvador
Monday for a meeting with Salvadoran Attorney General Garrid Safie as well
as President Saca and Minister of Security Rene Figueroa. The meeting
defined the mechanisms of "cooperation" between the two countries against
gangs.  The four main agreements from the meeting were for the FBI and the
Salvadoran National Civil Police (PNC) to set up a Transnational Anti-gangs
Unit (TAG); for the FBI to train the PNC on identifying and arresting the
"worst criminals" as defined by officials; the sharing of information
including fingerprints at the regional level; and that the FBI, Drug
Enforcement Agency (DEA) and other U.S. government agencies do evaluations
of El Salvador's capacity in combating crime and preventing gang activity.
For more information on the conference check out
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/16640983.htm.

            According to a statement by Gonzales after the meeting, the
United States has "increased its anti-gang training in Central America,
including efforts through the International Law Enforcement Academy (ILEA)
in San Salvador."  The ILEA recently completed an intensive anti-gang
program (the
<http://www.fletc.gov/about-fletc/locations/international-law-enforcement-ac
ademies-ileas/ilea-san-salvador/ilea-san-salvador-2007-proposed-training-sch
edule.html>  full schedule of the ILEA for 2007 can be found here.)
Meanwhile, the request of the U.S. District Attorney for El Salvador to
modify its constitution for the creation of a new extradition law was put on
hold for the time being.  Gonzales had declared the modifications necessary
in order to combat the "threat to El Salvador" of having Salvadorans who
commit crimes in the U.S. return to El Salvador for refuge.  Despite talks
of criminals and gangs, of the 1,479 Salvadorans deported from the U.S. in
January, less than 200 had criminal records.  Salvadoran officials have
announced the arrival of daily flights of deportees, and less than 20% of
those have criminal records.  

 

ARENA Proposes more Military Presence in Jails

 

            The ARENA government is pressuring the Legislative Assembly,
specifically FMLN fraction, for the approval of a $100 million loan for
national security that would be used for strengthening the police force and
the construction of more prisons.  ARENA's proposal of combating crime and
crisis in the prison system is based primarily on the construction of more
prisons, without a real prevention and rehabilitation program.  

            Additionally, Saca has recently proposed that military officials
be incorporated into the security program, in many cases as the directors of
prisons.  Human Rights Ombudsperson Beatrice de Carrillo strongly rejected
Saca's plan to install untrained and inexperienced military officers as
directors of prisons.  "The idea is inauspicious, it is like an ultra Iron
Fist inside the jails, and this will never resolve the problem", stated
Carrillo.  For Carrillo, the situation in the jail system is "catastrophic,
repressive, barbaric and undemocratic". The crisis has also affected the
youth detention centers - on February 5 there was an inmate-led riot in one
youth detention center which resulted in the death of 15-year old Jose
Antonio de Paz.  The youth destroyed infrastructure and made public
denouncements of both the precarious living conditions in the center and of
prison guards denying them certain rights, such as receiving food from
families.

            Three weeks after the massacre of 21 prisoners in the Apanteos
prison, government and prison officials have done nothing to clarify what
exactly happened or to punish those responsible.  The human rights office of
the Catholic Church has investigated and released a report highly critical
of the prison officials' actions. The report denounces the "unstoppable
chain of human rights violations in the prisons of El Salvador" which occur
because of the political unwillingness of the Saca administration to apply
the constitutional laws which guarantee the right of inmates to be
rehabilitated and reinserted into society.  For this reason, the Catholic
human rights office has presented formal legal accusations against four
people for their compliance and failure to intervene in the violence: Cesar
Vilanova, Director of the Salvadoran Prison System; Neftali Portillo,
director of Apanteos prison; Rene Figueroa, Minister of Security; and
Rodrigo Avila, director of the PNC. The report criticizes their inaction,
stating over the course of 12 hours of being present at the prison, and
despite the screams for help from the victims, the police and prison
officials simply stood by and allowed for the massacre to occur. 

 

New Union Formed in Private Sector, Demands Legal Recognition

 

            The Salvadoran union movement celebrated a victory this week
when workers at the Spanish company Calvo formed a union.  The workers are
pressuring the Labor Ministry to recognize the union's legal status, which
is necessary for the negotiations over improving working conditions to
begin.  The Spanish company Calvo operates a tuna plant which carried out a
massive firing of some 600 workers and threatened to pull out of El Salvador
last June.  The workers were on strike because of the dangerous working
conditions in the plant.

 

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