Mike Ring Sr. and Jim Wallace Presentes!

Mike Ring sr. passed away last Saturday in his sleep. He and recently deceased Jim Wallace took part years ago on the delegation in support of the 13 people arrested during Tony Saca’s administration for protesting against the initiatives of water privatization. Dennis Chinoy took part on that delegation as well and he wrote the following story as a tribute to both of them.

 

In 2007, following a protest in Suchitoto against water privatization, thirteen Salvadoran activists were arrested under El Salvador’s newly passed anti-terrorism law, a copy-cat of our own country’s post-9/11 Patriot Act. They were charged with subversion and faced long prison sentences.

 

In response, USESSC organized a human rights delegation to attempt to pressure the government of El Salvador to release the “Suchitoto 13.” The delegation’s strategy was to suggest as publicly as possible that by violating precepts of good governance as laid out by the World Bank and International Monetary Fund,  El Salvador might be at risk of losing millions of dollars in development funds administered through these agencies.

To set the stage,  our delegation represented itself as a group investigating the  imprisonment of Salvadorans on trumped up charges, a human rights task force that would then report back to interested U.S. Congressional Representatives.  Since no Congressional offices had in fact officially sent us, this was an exercise in a bit of political theater in the service of justice.

 

On this adventure were ten sister city delegates from around the country. Among them were Jim Wallace and Mike Ring, Sr. who each provided essential and differing ingredients for the secret sauce the delegation required. Jim, though he would of course deny it, was the delegation’s senior veteran activist, whose quiet wisdom and depth of experience helped give us all the confidence we needed.

 

Mike Senior, who had never before been on a delegation, provided a good humored bravado, plus a touch of gravitas, that helped us all feel we might be able to cast a larger shadow than might otherwise have been the case. Each morning Mike took it upon himself to convene the group for breakfast and the tasks for the day, and daily acted as a spirit-booster for us all.

Throughout our meetings with high level government officials and the press conferences that followed — all arranged through the intrepid auspices of our sister city staff — Jim and Mike provided us with their twin rudders of their experience, energy and spirit.

 

The headlines of El Salvador’s largest newspaper on the delegation’s last day announced that the country could lose critical Millennial Challenge funding due to human rights violations, with the country’s archbishop expressing his deep concerns, as well.  The following week charges against the Suchitoto 13 were dropped.

 

The human rights delegation was hardly the only factor in obtaining the release of our Salvadoran brothers and sisters.  In truth, it may well have been just a grace note to the resistance mobilized by El Salvador’s social movement in defense of the Suchitoto thirteen.

Likewise, Jim and Mike would have been the first to say that their contributions only complemented the energies and talents that the rest of the delegation and staff brought to bear.  But for all of us who knew and loved and admired these two men, these are the experiences that bind.

 

¡Jim Wallace,  presente!

¡Mike Ring, Sr., presente!