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For
immediate release
Central American
Solidarity Activists Dispute Department of Justice Order, Denounce Possible
Repeat of Illegal Harassment
Grassroots
Group Accused of Being Foreign
“Agent”
of Leftist Political Party in Lead-up to Contentious Salvadoran
Presidential Elections
Washington DC: The Committee in Solidarity with
the People of El Salvador (CISPES), illegally targeted in the 1980’s by the
largest FBI Internal Security investigation of the Reagan era, has in recent
months again received threatening communications from the U.S. Department of
Justice. Citing the Foreign Agents Registration Act of 1938, a letter sent to
CISPES in January questions the organization’s relationship with the leftist
Salvadoran political party known as the Farabundo Marti Front for National
Liberation, or FMLN. CISPES received similar inquiries in the 1980s which
eventually led to an illegal FBI investigation into its
activities.
The letter cites the organization’s
website and an article published in the Washington Post – which does not mention
CISPES – following the December 2007 visit of the FMLN’s presidential candidate
Mauricio Funes. It states that, “it has come to our attention… that the FMLN,
and/or possibly its candidate for El Salvador’s 2009 presidential election,
Mauricio Funes, hired your organization for the purposes of conducting a public
relations media campaign to include political fundraising…” The Department of
Justice gave no other evidence to back up the
claim.
According to CISPES Executive
Director Burke Stansbury, “CISPES has never had a contractual agreement with the
FMLN or Mr. Funes, nor have we taken orders from the party to do publicity work
in the U.S. Rather, we have a solidarity
relationship based on shared political values that goes back to the struggle for
democracy and economic justice that the people of El
Salvador fought against a brutal U.S.-backed
military regime in the 1980s.” CISPES was founded in 1980 at the height of the
civil war between the US-backed Salvadoran government and the FMLN, at that time
an internationally recognized guerrilla force.
“That the Department of Justice
would wrongly evoke the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) to target this
organization at this particular moment demonstrates the Administration's fear of
progressive change sweeping Latin America . It
is an effort to intimidate and stifle solidarity groups in the
U.S. who oppose the
Government's efforts to install puppet regimes against the will of the people of
Latin America,” said Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, a
lawyer from the Partnership for Civil Justice who is part of the team of
attorneys assisting CISPES in this matter.
The Salvadoran FMLN and its
candidate Funes have gained broad support 12 months ahead of the 2009 election,
in large part due to the failure of U.S.-supported neoliberal policies like the
U.S.-Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA).
“This shows that the Bush
Administration is terrified of another Latin American country electing a Left
party,” said Stansbury. “People in the region want fair and transparent
elections, free of outside intervention, and such actions by the Bush
Administration show a dangerous tendency towards once again disrupting the
electoral process of a sovereign country.” In 2004, the last time the FMLN had
a chance to win the presidency, U.S. government officials issued statements
showing clear support for the right-wing ARENA party and threatening to cut off
money sent from Salvadorans in the U.S. to their families should the
FMLN win.
In 1981 FBI investigated CISPES for
allegedly acting as a foreign agent of the FMLN. When that claim proved
baseless, the Department of Justice launched a full-scale investigation based on
the claim that CISPES was a front for the “terrorist” FMLN. The FBI campaign of
surveillance, harassment, and intimidation of CISPES lasted until 1987 and
ultimately became a major embarrassment for the Bureau when CISPES and the
Center for Constitutional Rights forced the release of FBI files under the
Freedom of Information Act. Subsequent Congressional hearings showed the FBI to
have conducted numerous illegal operations, led to an internal inquiry by the
Bureau, and curtailed the scope of domestic surveillance activities which were
later expanded again under the USA Patriot Act.
“In the 1980s the Department of
Justice set out to intimidate and repress the powerful Central America solidarity movement,” said Angela
Sanbrano, CISPES Executive Director during the FBI investigation of the1980s.
“That infamous witch hunt was a complete failure, and yet the Bush
Administration has the nerve to return to the original tactics of using an
ambiguous law – FARA – to threaten CISPES again.”
CISPES has continued its work of
supporting real democracy and human rights in El
Salvador by taking delegations of elections observers to
El Salvador; touring
prominent Salvadoran labor leaders and human rights advocates in the
U.S.; and working to prevent
a repeat of past U.S. political intervention. CISPES
has opposed the opening of the U.S.-sponsored International Law Enforcement
Academy (ILEA), claiming that it has served to export repressive U.S. policing
tactics – including harassment of political activists from opposition groups –
to Latin America.
“It’s no coincidence that the Bush
Administration is targeting CISPES now for our solidarity with movements in
El
Salvador,” said Sha Grogan-Brown, CISPES’s
Development Director. “As more and more progressive forces take power in
Latin America, the State Department is looking
for ways to bolster its few remaining allies and to thwart the rise of parties
like the FMLN. But their dirty tactics of harassment and intimidation will not
stop our solidarity work, as we refuse to submit to their pressure.”
- Go here to view the
Department of Justice letter to CISPES
- Go here to view the
CISPES response
- Go here
for an article on the history of FBI harassment targeting CISPES in the
1980s
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It's
vital that CISPES continue its solidarity with El
Salvador in the face of this attack - go here to make your tax-deductible
contribution today!
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