Sister Cities Statement on Political Prisoners of Suchitoto – July 14, 2007

Statement of the U.S.- El Salvador Sister Cities Network regarding the arrest and imprisonment of four member of CRIPDES and nine community members in the Department of Cuscatlán on July 2, 2007

July 14, 2007

U.S. – El Salvador Sister Cities represents twenty two communities and organizations in the United States which have sistering relationships with communities and organizations in El Salvador.  Several of these relationships are over 15 years old.

Organizationally we have worked closely over this period of time with CRIPDES,   initially during its instrumental role in enabling community repopulations during the war.   Subsequently we have continued to have close working relationship with CRIPDES in its role of helping over 300 communities to advocate for their human rights and sustainable development.

We know the staff that works at CRIPDES in San Salvador as well as in their regional organizations in various departments in El Salvador.   We know these people to be persons of integrity whose commitment to a nonviolent and constructive social movement we greatly respect and admire.    We are therefore deeply disturbed to witness four members of CRIPDES along with 9 community members imprisoned and held in preventative detention following an arraignment on charges of terrorism.

We regard these charges to be so transparently false that it is obvious that political as well as judicial factors are at play. The entire world can view  video footage of the capture by National Civilian Police  of  two CRIPDES  executive officers , a journalist,  and driver, making it plain that these people’s crime was driving down the road to attend a political demonstration.  Perhaps the most important gift to the Salvadoran people of the 1992 Peace Accords was the creation of protected space for political expression to replace the repression that precipitated armed conflict.  The Salvadoran government’s actions signal an assault on that legacy and represent an alarming threat to social stability.

In our own country it has become painfully obvious that counter-terrorism legislation must be subject to an extremely delicate balance between ensuring public security and guaranteeing the most basic tenets of due process and free political expression.   The use by any government of this volatile legal tool as a pretext to criminalize dissent and intimidate citizen expression represents a betrayal of the security and democracy these laws are designed to protect.   In the current case, one need be neither a legal expert nor Salvadoran to understand that a dangerous line has been crossed.

We are also aware from a 2003 Human Rights Watch report that our own government has been muted in its criticism  of governments with poor human rights record which have become newfound allies in our the U.S. “war against terrorism.”  We are further aware that El Salvador is the only Latin American county to join President Bush’s “coalition of the willing”  by sending its soldiers to fight in Iraq,   We are therefore dismayed that our own government looks the other way while the government of El Salvador denies its citizens due process and the full protection of law in the name of its own campaign against terrorism.

Finally, we understand that $461 million in U.S. State Department aid allocated to El Salvador through the Millennium Challenge Account were conditioned on passing scores in the areas of political rights, civil liberties and the rule of law.    The arrest and imprisonment of these thirteen people, and its associated threat that anti-terrorism statutes will distort  establish legal procedure for political ends, worries us that our own tax dollars will be used to subsidize human rights violations.

 

U.S. – El Salvador Sister Cities Network therefore calls upon the Salvadoran government to: 

1.  Ensure the physical safety and well-being of those being held:  Marta Lorena Araujo Martinez, Manuel Antonio Rodriguez, Rosa Maria Centeno, Hector Ventura, Maria Aydee Chicas, Sandra Guatemala, Jose Ever Fuentes, Patricio Valladares, Clemente Guevara, Santos Noel Macia, Marta Yanira Mendez, Beatriz Eugenia Nuila and Vicente Vasquez.

2.  Drop terrorism charges and halt the extra-judicial process to which the defendants have been subjected

3.  Vacate the order for preventative detention which is based on the false assumption that those held are a threat to their community or government

4. Accord the defendants all customary protections of due process if they are to be charged with any offense under Salvadoran law.

5. Refrain from using counter-terror provisions as a political tool.

 

U.S. – El Salvador Sister Cities Network therefore calls upon our own, United States, government to:

1. Express its strong disapproval of the Salvadoran government’s handling of the current case.

2. Encourage the Salvadoran government to re-evaluate its recently passed anti-terror legislation, decree # 108,  Special Law Against Acts of Terrorism, in light of the way it has been abused to stifle and punish legitimate dissent.

3. Re-evaluate U.S. funds for the Government of El Salvador which are conditioned on compliance with human rights, free political, expression and rule of law.