Cinquera, Still Organizing Despite Numerous Attacks: February 27, 2009

The past three months have been tense in the municipality of Cinquera, as community organizers face numerous threats to their daily work. Known as one of the most calm and safe municipalities in the country, it has become a target by a Right Wing campaign to degrade the community and provoke violence.

 

December 2008: Organizers accused of being “Armed and Dangerous”

In December, Rodolfo Sosa, the candidate for mayor for the right wing ARENA party publicly stated that he had written a list of 60 community organizers who he considered  “armed and dangerous.”  He included on the list the social security number and address of each of the persons listed and sent the list to the head of the Armed Forces. The list included every organizer from the Association for Reconstruction and Municipal Development (ARDM). Sosa provided no evidence for why he considered any of the 60 people listed to be dangerous.

Weeks after Sosa sent the list to the Armed Forces, he accused the FMLN mayor and the municipal council for shooting at his car while driving through the municipality, although every person he accused was far from the incident, and the charges were dropped. Many people wonder if, because he had listed community members as armed and dangerous before the shooting, Sosa had set up the shooting in order to blame FMLN supporters in the community.

 

January 2009: Aggression toward FMLN supporters after ARENA win
In January, Rodolfo Sosa won as mayor of Cinquera, although International Observers denounced the participation of a number of voters from outside the municipality.

Since the election, organizers from ARDM have documented verbal and physical harassment toward community organizers and FMLN supporters in the municipality on the part of ARENA party members. This abuse has includes sexual harassment towards women and physical abuse toward a female organizer. The ARDM believes that the verbal and physical harassment is a strategy to provoke violence and unrest in the community.

 

February 2009: Press degrades students as part of political campaign
In February, Cinquera was brought to the attention of national media when the presidential candidate for the ARENA party, accompanied by riot police, held an event near the high school in the municipality during class hours. When the noise was too loud for classes to continue, the teachers canceled classes and asked the students to return to their homes. Some students, upon leaving the school, decided to participate in an FMLN rally next to the ARENA rally.  ARENA supporters at the rally yelled obscenities at these youth, and some of these youth responded by yelling back.

The press documented only the FMLN youth at the event. That evening, the news reported that teachers in Cinquera had ordered their students to participate in the protest, and that these teachers would be removed from the school.

Press manipulation of the event was explicit. While the press accused the FMLN of involving students and children in a political campaign, the same day ARENA t-shirts had been given to children in the community. While the press publicized a photo of a child waving an FMLN flag, the child’s mother denounced the fact that a journalist had handed her daughter the flag before filming her. While the events were not violent, the press denounced violence perpetrated by the FMLN in the municipality.

Mari Alvarenge teacher in Cinquera and representative of the ARDM said, “The press doesn’t report that Cinquera is a municipality without gangs. We have worked as teachers and also as a community to make sure our children and youth are far from gangs, from delinquency, from alcoholism and drug addiction. All of this they want to throw down, the image of the children, of the youth, of Cinquera in general. We feel that it is an insult to the dignity of the population of Cinquera.”

The community of Cinquera has been actively denouncing the manipulation and abuse of youth and adults in the community for political motives. They continue to denounce these issues to El Salvador’s Ombudsman for Human Rights Office and other legal and human rights institutions.

 

SISTER CITIES STANDS IN SOLIDARITY WITH CINQUERA AND DENOUNCES ALL VIOLENCE AND AGGRESSION TOWARDS MEMBERS OF THE COMMUNITY.

 

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