[Cispes-update] Brutal Government Attacks on Community of Cutumay Camones Continue

[CISPES National Office]

Brutal Government Attacks on Community of Cutumay Camones Continue

CISPES update

November 27, 2007



A young Salvadoran  is arrested by riot police after tear gas attacks in
Cutumay Camones (photo Diario de Hoy)

 

On November 22, the community of Cutumay Camones was again brutally attacked
by the Salvadoran riot police (UMO). The community, in their continuous
resistance to the construction of a garbage dump, blocked the entrance of
the construction site. Orlando Mena, Santa Ana’s mayor, joined with Police
Director Rodrigo Avila in sending more than 300 riot police to “dissolve the
protest”, attacking the community with tear gas fired from surrounding
helicopters. 

 

The attack on the community likely caused the death of 14-year old William
Alfredo Ventura who died from bronchitis and pneumonia complications
provoked by the tear gas. At the same time, 39 people, including children
under the age of 18, have been arrested and are under police custody.   The
community is demanding the immediate release of all community members
captured last week and continues to demand an end to the construction of the
garbage damp as well the end of police intervention on behalf of the private
company Presys.  

 

Given that the death of Ventura cold have been directly related to the use
of tear gas, Human Rights Ombudsman Oscar Luna called for an investigation
into his death.  “We are questioning the police abusive use of force, for
which there must be an investigation into the actions of the National
Civilian Police,” said Ombudsman Luna. Social organizations that make up the
Forum for the Defense and Sustainability of Water are joining in the demand
that the death of Ventura to be investigated. They are calling for
solidarity with the community against the repressive acts of the National
Civilian Police. Also, the Legislative Assembly called for Police Director
Rodrigo Avila to visit the Assembly on Wednesday November 28 to explain the
police procedure implemented in Cutumay Camones. 

 

Previously, social organizations such as the Water Workers Union SETA
organized an activity to accompany the community in their resistance against
the building of the garbage dump which will contaminate local water
resources.  Various communities in resistance gathered at the event to show
their support.  The case is similar to that of the community of Tacuba where
community leaders were targets of state repression for defending the
administration of water earlier this year.

 

Right-wing parties such as the PCN recently voted in favor of a resolution
in the Legislative Assembly which includes a series of recommendations on
the Cutumay Camones case. First, the resolution demands that the General
Attorney’s office investigate the series of irregularities in the concession
of construction and operating permits that the Environmental Ministry
awarded the private company Presys. Second, it asks the National Civilian
Police to stop intervention in the community, saying that a national
security entity cannot serve the interests of a private company, nor should
it be applying excessive force. Lastly, the resolution calls for the
suspension of the garbage dump.

 

Murder of Jesuit priests commemorated 

 

With an ecumenical act on November 16, the Central American University (UCA)
remembered the murder of six Jesuit priests who were assassinated on the
same date in 1989. It is publicly known that the orders to kill Jesuit
priest Ignacio Ellacuria came from the Salvadoran government and were
executed by members of the Battalion Atlacatl trained at the School of the
Americas in the United States.  To accomplish the mission, the military also
assassinated Jesuit priests Ignacio Martín-Baró, Segundo Montes, Juan Ramón
Moreno, Amando López, Joaquín López, as well as their housekeeper and her
daughter.  Students at the UCA protested against the impunity that still
reigns in El Salvador around these cases and many more that occurred during
and after the war. 

 

In the United States, CISPES joined over 20,000 people at the annual vigil
against the Army School of the Americas in Ft. Benning, Georgia.  Josefina
Lazo, a leader of the National Vendors Movement in El Salvador, spoke from
the stage about the atrocities committed by U.S. trained soldiers in El
Salvador, and about the increase in repression in El Salvador that she
linked to the opening of the International Law Enforcement Academy (ILEA).
Lazo joined Father Roy Bourgious and presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich
in leading the procession to the gates of the school.

 

FMLN denounces ARENA’s dirty campaign

 

In the lead-up to the FMLN’s 23rd National Convention on November 11, ARENA
created the “Permanent Forum for Freedom.” The group is composed of and
funded by ARENA members who become active during past electoral periods.
During the last couple of months they have paid for a series of ads relating
the FMLN with Venezuelan president Chavez, and warning the Salvadoran
population that the Venezuelan model of “dictatorship and evil” would be
imported to El Salvador if the FMLN were to win in 2009. After the
convention, president Saca continued the attacks against the FMLN saying
that “the relationship with the U.S. would be practically ruined” if the
FMLN wins the presidency in 2009. Furthermore, Saca said the FMLN is all
about “controlling prices, closing private companies which would end all
that this country has progressed in the last 20 years.”  The reference comes
after FMLN presidential candidate Mauricio Funes stated in his speech that
more state intervention will be needed in order to improve the economic and
reverse the social crisis which the country is mired in after 18 years of
ARENA governance.  FMLN Communications Secretary Sigfrido Reyes denounced
ARENA’s dirty campaign in a press conference last week, calling Saca to end
this fear mongering and stating that “this time around, fear will not defeat
the hope” for change expressed by most Salvadorans.  Even Honorary President
of ARENA Armando Calderon Sol admitted the advantage the FMLN currently has
over his party, stating that the outcome of the FMLN convention “forces
ARENA to start making decisions more quickly.” 

 

Meanwhile Mauricio Funes and his running mate Salvador Sanchez Ceren,
accompanied by other FMLN leaders, continue their visits to various
municipalities in El Salvador. This weekend Funes visited the Lower Lempa
region of the country, an area known for its economic and geographical
vulnerability to annual flooding. The visit is part of the FMLN’s Open
Social Dialogue initiative (or Dialogo Social Abierto) to create a
government platform with input from different sectors of society.  The Open
Dialogue will come to San Francisco, Los Angeles, Washington DC and New York
in the next week as a way of including Salvadorans living in the U.S. in the
party’s creation of a presidential platform.

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