[Cispes-update] Prisoners Face Deplorable Jail Conditions After Judge Allows Terrorism Charges to Move Forward

[CISPES National Office]

Prisoners Face Deplorable Jail Conditions After Judge Allows Terrorism
Charges to Move Forward

CISPES Update

July 17, 2007



Salvadoran organizations protest outside the womens' prison in Illopango

 

On July 7, Judge Ana Lucila Fuentes de Paz of the Special Tribunal of San
Salvador granted the government prosecutor's request and decided to send 13
of the 14 people charged with terrorism to 90 days of "preventative
imprisonment."  The prisoners were arrested on July 2 in a brutal police and
military attack on a peaceful protest against the privatization of water in
Suchitoto.   At this time, the prisoners have not been indicted under any
specific section of the anti-terrorism law, but are being held under charges
of terrorism in general.   One of the prisoners, Facundo Dolores Garcia was
released on July 13 as the judge declared that there is no evidence that
links him to acts of terrorism. 

 

One of the greatest concerns of family, friends, and the broader movement
right now is the conditions in which the prisoners are being held captive,
particularly the six female prisoners who are being held in deplorable
prison conditions, sleeping on the floor of the prison without so much as a
sheet, and failing to receive needed medical attention. According to a group
of FMLN deputies who was able to visit the prisoners they are suffering from
infections, rashes, lice, and other afflictions due to the unhygienic and
unsanitary conditions in the prison. Although most prisoners are allowed to
receive visits from family members, the women political prisoners have been
denied this right as well as the food and other items their families have
tried to give them. The women have also received threats from prison
employees.

 

The FMLN delegation to the prison was able to gain a few concessions for the
women, such as the ability to relocate to a slightly more comfortable part
of the jail during the day. This visit highlights the coordinated and
unified response of the FMLN and the social movement in El Salvador to this
situation. There has been extensive collaboration to monitor the status of
the case, the conditions of the prisoners, and exert pressure on the
government to release the prisoners. 

 

Families of the prisoners have organized demonstrations and mobilizations in
solidarity with their relatives, to denounce the prison conditions and to
demand their immediate release. The Families of the Political Prisoners
Committee held a demonstration on Saturday outside the women's prison to
denounce governmental repression.  Edgar Mejia, whose wife Beatriz Nuila is
one of the prisoners, stated this situation is "evidence that once more in
this country we are traveling down a dangerous road of repression and human
rights violations." This committee is preparing a hunger strike outside the
prison to accompany the political prisoner and create further pressure for
their release. 

 

Governmental response

Last week the new Salvadoran Human Rights Ombudsman Oscar Luna called for
revisions to the anti-terrorism law stating that "the application of the
anti-terrorism law at this time does not seem to me to be the most adequate
given the actions."  In response to his statements and to international
pressure, President Saca announced his supposed openness to a revision of
the anti-terrorism law, saying, "I think that.the law can be improved to
more clearly define terrorism." However, this lack of clarity is exactly
what the government is utilizing to hold the prisoners as "terrorists"
without charging them with any specific violation of the law. 

 

Saca has hurriedly asked ARENA deputies in the National Assembly to pass two
reforms to the penal code, which would drastically increment jail time for
"public disorder".  Currently, the jail time for such offenses is 6 months
to 2 years, while Saca wants the assembly to increase it to 8-15 years.
Cynically, ARENA officials are now stating there must be a separation
between terrorist acts and acts of vandalism, likely because of mounting
national and international pressure for having 13 people unjustly jailed for
being "terrorists".  In response to this most recent proposal of increased
jail time, FMLN deputy Walter Duran said that "from a technical perspective
it is inadmissible to try to establish such severe sentences.  The President
is showing that we are entering a time of civil dictatorship, announcing
that his government will continue to respond to the increasing protest with
more repression."  The Cambio Democratico Party has also criticized Saca's
desperate measures to silence social discontent, expressing the reforms Saca
wants to make to the penal code is simply his inability to admit that the
anti-terrorism charges are a major error on the part of the government. 

 

Solidarity Response

On Wednesday, July 11 CISPES and U.S.-El Salvador Sister Cities coordinated
a meeting with the U.S. Ambassador in El Salvador, Charles Glazer, to
pressure the embassy to make a public statement about the violation of civil
and human rights around the terrorism charges.  Ambassador Glazer himself
attended the meeting with two other embassy staff - a public affairs
official and a political affairs official in charge of the elaboration of
the embassy's human rights reports.  Despite CISPES members demonstrating
media documentation of U.S. Embassy intervention in sovereign matters - such
as former Ambassador Barclay urging assembly approval of a wire tapping law
and applauding the passage of the anti-terrorism law - Glazer refused to
make a public statement about the political prisoners and the dangers of
conflating protest with terrorism. 

 

Meanwhile, in the U.S. CISPES is working with other solidarity organizations
- Sister Cities, the SHARE Foundation, and Voices on the Border, among
others - to encourage U.S. Congressional Representatives to write a "Dear
Colleague" letter expressing deep concern for the political prisoners and
the violations of the freedom of speech and right to protest in El Salvador.
There will also be a protest action at the Salvadoran Consulate in Boston on
July 30.  For more information on how to support the campaign to release the
political prisoners, see www.cispes.org <http://www.cispes.org/> .

 

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