Congressional Record: Fattah Remarks on Suchi 14 – July 13, 2007

 

Remarks by  Congressman Chaka Fattah  in the Congressional Record concerning the  charges of terrorism leveled against CRIPDES leaders.

 

HUMAN RIGHTS AT STAKE IN EL SALVADOR — HON. CHAKA FATTAH (Extensions of Remarks – July 13, 2007)

[Page: E1518] 

HON. CHAKA FATTAH

OF PENNSYLVANIA

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

Thursday, July 12, 2007

  • Mr. FATTAH. Madam Speaker, I rise today to call attention to a disturbing human rights violation currently taking place in El Salvador under the guise of stopping terrorism, a situation brought to my attention by a dedicated group of Philadelphians that has just returned from that nation.
  • Philadelphia maintains a U.S.-El Salvador Sister Cities connection to the rural village of Las Anonas, where most residents live in poverty and must still deal with the after-effects of the devastating civil war and a 1992 ceasefire that ended the bloodshed but brought little real change. This Sister Cities program is one of 20 that link U.S. communities and groups with rural El Salvador under the sponsorship of CRIPDES, a Salvadoran group for rural community development, and the ArchbishopRomeroInterfaithCenter, which is based in Philadelphia and its suburbs.
  • About 27 men, women and teenagers from the Interfaith Community Building Group in Northwest Philadelphia, including Catholics, Jews, Protestants and Muslims, were hard at work laying the foundation of a new community center in the village of El Milagro last week. They were shocked to learn that the president, vice president and two other members of CRIPDES, their sponsor, were seized on July 2 by police on the highway on their way to join a peaceful demonstration in the town of Suchitoto.
  • The charges were originally “creating public disorder,” even though they had not even arrived at their destination. When supporters rallied outside the police station and demanded the release of the CRIPDES leaders, 10 more people were arrested and the ARENA government quickly escalated the charges. Now the prisoners have been charged with “acts of terrorism” under a new anti-terrorism law that went into effect last November. The law even created a special court to try such suspects. CRIPDES leaders, including President Lorena Martinez, who has visited Philadelphia, and a Salvadoran journalist covering the events, face up to 60 years in prison under this so-called “anti-terrorism” law in what is a clear attempt to stifle and silence dissent.
  • The ARENA government, ruling with a bare majority and looking toward the next election, is counting on almost a half-billion dollars in U.S. aid that is dependent upon adherence to human rights principles. El Salvador is also the only nation in Latin America to maintain troops in Iraq as part of the “Coalition of the Willing.” Meanwhile ARENA presides over a country so desperately poor that an estimated two million Salvadorans have emigrated to the United States, most of them undocumented.
  • The Philadelphia group was warned that if members raised their voices in protest to the arrests at Suchitoto, they could be immediately deported and barred from future trips. All this was occurring in the days immediately before and after the celebration, by fellow Philadelphians back home in the Cradle of Liberty and Birthplace of Independence, of the Fourth of July.
  • The arrests led to a massive protest demonstration in San Salvador, the capital, on July 7. I am pleased to learn that Amnesty International has taken up this case, and that friends of CRIPDES, the United States-El Salvador Sister Cities Program and the RomeroInterfaithCenter are all raising the alarm. The Philadelphians, who have made six trips to El Salvador in the past decade, are not alone. Delegations of community builders, educators and citizen witnesses from Sister Cities across the U.S. continue to travel to El Salvador, to join the cause of rural development and empowerment with their hands and hearts.
  • The ARENA government needs to know that the citizens of the United States and the world are watching what happens to CRIPDES and other peaceful, effective community development groups in their midst. Those in El Salvador‘s government who look to the United States for model behavior need to look beyond the shameless quick-fix of crying “terrorism” under cynically created laws. Instead they must heed the principles forged in Philadelphia two centuries ago.

END

 

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