[Cispes-update] Body of missing activist found with signs of torture; social organizations demand justice

[CISPES National Office]

Body of missing activist found with signs of torture; social organizations
demand justice

CISPES Update

July 17, 2009



 

Also in this update:

*	FMLN and ARENA spar over response to Honduran coup <> 
*	After two weeks of deadlock and vacancies in <>  Supreme Court,
consensus is reached
*	Funes announces  <> “House for Everyone” plan

 

On July 8, DNA tests confirmed that a body found in a well in the department
of Cabañas on June 30 is that of prominent community activist Gustavo
Marcelo Rivera. The body was found by community members who had organized a
search for Rivera, missing since June 18. Witnesses reported that the body
exhibited signs of torture techniques generally tied to targeted political
assassinations. However, initial reports coming from the National Civilian
Police (PNC) state that gang members were responsible for the murder.

 

The victim's brother, Miguel Rivera, dismissed the gang violence
explanation. “Saying that my brother died at the hands of gang members is an
unbelievable story and becomes a mockery for my family. My brother was
tortured. He was alive for nine days after his disappearance. His trachea
was broken by a nylon cord that strangled him, pushing his arm up to his
face. This is not an act of gang members. It is torture.”

 

Rivera was director of the Casa de Cultura in San Isidro, Cabañas, and was
active in social justice and environmental struggles. Friends and family
members report that he received many threats in response to his public
denunciations of San Isidro Mayor Ignacio Bautista of the ARENA party.
Rivera was vocal in his stance against attempted fraud in the municipal and
legislative elections of January 18, which led community members to shut
down the town's voting centers, forcing a make-up election to be held the
following week. Rivera was also active in the national movement against
mining projects that threaten El Salvador's principal watersheds.

 

Civil society organizations Coordination for Peace, Dignity, and Social
Justice (CPDJS), the Foundation for the Study of the Application of Law
(FESPAD), and the National Roundtable Against Metallic Mining all denounced
the murder as politically motivated, and called on the PNC and Attorney
General to carry out an exhaustive investigation to determine the
intellectual authors of the crime. In a joint press conference, the
institutions stated “Marcelo was being threatened by members of the ARENA
party in San Isidro and by those that impose death projects in the area [a
reference to the proposed mines], which Marcelo always opposed, and for this
he was defamed and denigrated.”

 

Social movement organizations argue that a thorough investigation in this
case is impeded by the ongoing vacancy in the office of Attorney General.
The Legislative Assembly has remained deadlocked on the question of
appointing an Attorney General since the outgoing official's term ended
three months ago. Adjunct Attorney General Astor Escalante has taken on the
responsibilities of the office, despite the Salvadoran Constitution’s
requirement that the Attorney General be elected with 56 votes in the
Assembly. Critics have denounced Escalante for usurping the position, and
worry that his close ties to the ARENA party make it likely he will carry on
the office’s history of allowing impunity for politically-motivated crimes.
Go here for more information and a video
<http://www.mediacoop.ca/video/1731>  of Marcelo’s funeral.

 


FMLN and ARENA spar over response to Honduran coup


 

On Sunday, July 5th, Honduran President Manuel Zelaya – deposed in a
military coup a week earlier – flew to El Salvador after the Honduran
military prevented his plane from landing at Tegucigalpa's airport. In El
Salvador, Zelaya met with fellow presidents Mauricio Funes of El Salvador,
Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner of Argentina, Rafael Correa of Ecuador, and
Fernando Lugo of Paraguay. José Insulza, Secretary General of the
Organization of American States (OAS), and Miguel D'Escoto, President of the
United Nations General Assembly, were also on hand. 

 

Earlier in the day, Zelaya attempted to return to Honduras to resume his
duties as president, but military vehicles and troops on the airport runway
prevented him from landing. Two Hondurans were killed and many others
wounded when the military opened fire on a peaceful demonstration welcoming
the President's return. A large crowd of well-wishers also greeted Zelaya
upon his arrival in El Salvador.

 

In a press conference at San Salvador's Comalapa Airport, President Funes
reiterated his support for Zelaya, saying the only possible outcome of the
situation is Zelaya’s unconditional reinstatement. Funes also condemned the
attacks on civilians by the Honduran military, acting under the orders of de
facto president Roberto Micheletti. Zelaya, for his part, appealed directly
to the Honduran soldiers, invoking the words of Monseñor Oscar Romero’s last
homily: “In the name of God and the people of Honduras, I demand of you, I
order of the soldiers, to stop repressing the people of Honduras.”

 

Funes’ party, the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN), released
an official denouncement of the coup, stating “The coup d’état in Honduras
was ordered and coordinated by those minds that understand democracy in a
totally restrictive sense, confined merely to electoral events, forgetting
that democracy is a concept far broader and far deeper that has to do with
human development and with citizen participation in the major decisions of a
society.” The FMLN’s statement concluded with three demands: The immediate
reinstatement of President Manuel Zelaya, the rejection of any government
that came to power through this institutional rupture, and respect for the
human rights and sovereignty of the people of Honduras.

 

El Salvador’s other major party, the right-wing Nationalist Republican
Alliance (ARENA), released its own statement on July 7th in a
paid-advertisement in the La Prensa Gráfica newspaper. The statement
declares “If it is true that an error was committed in the forcible removal
of President Zelaya, an action that we must condemn, it is also true that
President Zelaya committed grave constitutional violations.” ARENA also
condemned the FMLN’s response, saying “We lament that the FMLN, following
the lead of directors outside of Central America, are intervening and
running over the sovereignty of the Honduran people.” 

 

Salvadoran social movements have been organizing regular marches and
demonstrations at the Honduran Embassy in San Salvador and at the border
between the two countries to express their solidarity with Hondurans who are
condemning the coup and calling for Zelaya's return. “This was a military
coup, plain and simple,” said community organizer Laura Soriano. “The only
conceivable solution is the return of Mel Zelaya, who was elected by the
people of Honduras. The [Salvadoran] right’s response to the coup is truly
troubling because, even though they aren’t saying it exactly, they are
essentially recognizing the coup-plotter government. It scares you about
what they might think they can get away with here in El Salvador.”

 


After two weeks of deadlock and vacancies in Supreme Court, consensus is
reached


 

For over two weeks, El Salvador's Supreme Court of Justice (CSJ) had been
without 5 of its 15 magistrates, including the court's president, as the
right and left-wing factions in the legislature struggled to find consensus
on the election of new magistrates. The Salvadoran Constitution dictates
that new magistrates must be elected with 56 votes, a two-thirds majority
that neither bloc has on its own.  After weeks of negotiations, mediated by
President Mauricio Funes, the Legislative Assembly finally came to an
agreement on the 5 magistrates on Thursday, July 16.

 

The tense negotiations finally found a resolution in the election of the
lawyer José Belarmino Jaime as the court’s president.  Jaime, a financial
lawyer, is associated with the right politically but does not have public
ties to any party.  Medardo Gonzalez, General Coordinator of the FMLN and
president of the FMLN fraction in the Legislative Assembly explained, “No,
[Jaime] wasn’t the FMLN choice, it’s clear that it wasn’t our choice, but
the result is that he is a lawyer with recognized credentials in the legal
world, and he has a clean record as far as we know, and we were able to
reach consensus, allowing us to move on [to other topics].”

 

During the 16 days of vacancy in the CSJ, several of the remaining
magistrates had taken it upon themselves to rearrange the court, with
Magistrate Nestor Castaneda having named himself acting-President.  This
decision had caused controversy among the magistrates, and a meeting called
by Castaneda ended when four magistrates abruptly left due to disagreements
about whether the court itself could appoint magistrates to new positions.
The FMLN faction in the Legislative Assembly introduced legislation
reaffirming that the Assembly is the only body with the authority to elect
CSJ magistrates and appointing the court's president. The proposed bill was
met with opposition from the ARENA party, which classified it as legislative
intervention in the powers of the Court.

 

According to FMLN Legislative Deputy Ricardo González, the right-wing was
attempting to continue governing in a de facto form “through adjuncts, as in
the case of the Attorney General and PGR [General Ombudsperson of the
Republic], or by changing magistrates from one chamber to another in the
Court.” Both the Attorney General’s office and the PGR have been taken over
by adjunct officials linked to the ARENA party while the Assembly attempts
to find consensus on who to name to these offices. “ARENA has not recognized
that it lost the elections
 it must understand that the institutions need to
change,” Gonzalez asserted.

 

Now that the magistrates to the CSJ have been named, negotiations will begin
to name the new Attorney General.  President Funes plans to continue
mediating in this negotiation.

 


Funes announces “House for Everyone” plan


 

Thursday, July 16, President Mauricio Funes announced the implementation of
his “House for Everyone” (“Casa para todos”) plan in a televised address to
the people of El Salvador.  The plan is expected to benefit 27,947 rural and
urban families in the poorest municipalities of the country and generate
41,886 jobs directly and at least 60,855 jobs indirectly.  The financing of
the project will come from both the State’s Social Housing Fund as well as
the private sector and will amount to an investment of $232.5 million.

 

Two additional programs were also announced.  The “Floor and Roof” program
will provide building materials to families living in homes with dirt floors
and damaged roofs and benefit over 20,000 families with a total investment
of $5 million.  The other program, “Integral Improvement of At-risk Urban
Settlements,” will begin a series of public works to protect communities
that are in danger of destruction do to mudslides, flooding, and
earthquakes.  It is anticipated that 3,079 public works projects will be
undertaken, totaling an investment of $11 million.

 

Funes finished his public address by calling on the people of El Salvador to
participate in the process of change.  “It will not be this president alone
that will change from night to morning a reality as dramatic as the one we
live in; nor will the group of men and women who accompany me do it.  It
will require the invincible force of the people prepared to advance towards
a future of dignity, peace, and union in order to close the wounds of the
past and overcome the miseries that are causing us pain,” he stated.

 

 

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