Celebrate Romero Day by Demanding Respect for Human Rights in El Salvador and the Closure of the ILEA!

March 24 marks the 27th anniversary of the brutal murder of Archbishop Oscar Romero, the tenacious defender of El Salvador’s poor and marginalized. One example of the destructive intervention of the United States today is the International Law Enforcement Academy (ILEA)....

CISPES ACTION ALERT

March/April, 2007

Celebrate Romero Day by Demanding Respect for Human Rights in El Salvador and the Closure of the ILEA!

March 24 marks the 27th anniversary of the brutal murder of Archbishop Oscar Romero, the tenacious defender of El Salvador’s poor and marginalized majority who was gunned down by an operative of the U.S.-backed Salvadoran death squads while giving mass. Twenty seven years later Salvadoran organizers and activists who speak out against the right-wing administration’s social and economic policies are being harassed, kidnapped, and assassinated. Still, in the spirit of Monseñor Romero, the struggle for social justice continues in El Salvador. The Salvadoran social movement is challenging state repression and U.S. intervention in the form of privatization, CAFTA implementation, and patrolling and harassment in their communities by military and police forces.

One example of the destructive intervention of the United States today is the International Law Enforcement Academy (ILEA). In 2005 U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice announced the opening of the ILEA in San Salvador, and this year Bush has asked for $16.5 million of the taxpayers money to continue running the ILEAs (for more information, see www.cispes.org/ilea). The ILEA is now in its second season, with teachers from the United States’ Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Drug Enforcement Agency giving classes with vague titles like ‘Anti-Gangs Training Program’ and ‘Law Enforcement Management Development Program.’ These classes are smokescreens for furthering police harassment and brutality against the people of El Salvador. Based on the U.S.’s record of training security forces in Latin America and recent history of rising repression on the behalf of the Salvadoran government and the National Civilian Police (PNC), neither the trainers nor the topics of the courses should be trusted.

Furthermore, the installation of the ILEA legitimizes the activities of El Salvador’s corrupt PNC and represents a continuation of U.S. influence in El Salvador’s security apparatus. In the 1980s, the United States backed the country’s malicious military with direct arms support; now the U.S. government backs the repressive and corrupt police force through the ILEA and continued military training at the School of the Americas (SOA). There is currently a delegation led by Father Roy Bourgeois in El Salvador calling on the government to stop sending its troops to the SOA and to close the ILEA, and they will be accompanying the tens of thousands of Salvadorans who turn out to honor Romero on March 24. In the legacy of Archbishop Oscar Romero, and in solidarity with the social movement of El Salvador from the United States, take action now!

1. Call your Congressional representative at the Capitol Hill switchboard [202-224-3121] and demand that they take notice of human rights violations in El Salvador and vote to cut funding for the ILEA! See page 2 for talking points.

For local calls:

Rep. Earl Blumenauer: (503) 231-2300

Rep. David Wu: (503) 326-2901


ILEA Talking Points

Cut Funding for the International Law Enforcement Academy (ILEA). El Salvador is already the second largest recipient of military training in Central America, is the host of a U.S. military base at the Comalapa airport, and in early 2005 an FBI office was opened in San Salvador. The ILEA has the capacity to train 1500 students per year, more than the current Western Hemisphere Institute for Security and Cooperation, also known as the SOA. Salvadorans fear a return to the sort of torture and repression practices used by the graduates of that US-sponsored school in the 1980s. More surveillance does not make Salvadorans safer; it threatens daily life and the right to protest!

Background Information

* Resurgence of death squad-style threats and murders: Beginning with the July murder of the Manzanares couple, the parents of long-time activist “Mariposa”, threats and assaults on activists have been increasing. Death threats have been sent to SETA, the water workers’ union; two FMLN activists have murdered in Coatepeque; Rev. Antonio Romero was murdered in September; and student activist and son of well known FMLN activist Luis Edgardo Osorto Gomez was disappeared for 8 days. There are also two youth that remain missing: Jose Omar Chavez, son of a historic community organizer, who has been missing since July 8, 2005, and Francisco Contreras, a youth activist who has been missing since February 6 of this year. In both cases, their families have evidence that leads many people to believe the police and/or death squads were involved in their disappearances, but their calls for investigation have fallen on deaf ears. These political attacks are reminiscent of the intimidation tactics used in the 80s, and we call for immediate investigation of this repression!

* ARENA is militarizing the police, which is a direct violation of the Peace Accords. The separation between police and military in El Salvador has declined dramatically since originally established by Peace Accords in El Salvador. It is now common to have groups of soldiers “patrolling” rural and urban neighborhoods in El Salvador, something that current President Saca has promoted. El Salvador’s National Civilian Police, or PNC, was created by the 1992 Peace Accords to do the work of law enforcement in El Salvador. However, the PNC has increasingly been used to violently repress protests in El Salvador, especially the protests against the CAFTA free trade agreement.

* New Law Criminalizes Organizing: The Salvadoran right wing passed an anti-terrorism law in September. The language in this new law is very vague, therefore incredibly open to interpretation and application. The anti-terrorism law is similar to the Patriot Act in that it threatens civil liberties supposedly protected by the constitution of El Salvador. The US Ambassador to El Salvador even expressed explicit support for this law in a recent speech, condoning the use of police force in protecting US trade interests.