Bilingual Press Conference
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
10:00-11:00 am
at the San Francisco Federal Building, 450 Golden Gate

The recent CISPES fact-finding delegation to El Salvador had an unexpected meeting with U.S. Ambassador Charles Glazer. After CISPES delegates confronted him about ongoing U.S. political, economic and military intervention in El Salvador, specifically regarding U.S. intervention in the 2004 elections on behalf of the right-wing ARENA party, Ambassador Glazer admitted that yes, the U.S. had intervened in the 2004 presidential election!

We believe this is the first time that a representative of the Bush administration has taken responsibility for their role in manipulating and interfering in El Salvador's 2004 presidential election.

Though Glazer tried to assure the delegates that the U.S. would not intervene in the upcoming 2009 elections, another staff person at the Embassy revealed that the NDI (National Democratic Institute) and the IRI (International Republican Institute)--both "core organizations" of the NED (National Endowment for Democracy)--will be participating in the 2009 electoral process. Given the history of the NED in Latin America, this is a grave concern (see a great statement from the Latin America Solidarity Coalition here: http://www.nicanet.org/?p=63#more-63

Please join CISPES and allies from the Salvadoran community for a press conference to publicize this breaking news to denounce any attempt by the U.S. to intervene in the upcoming Salvadoran elections.

Background: In the months before the 2004 Salvadoran Presidential elections, officials from the State Department denounced the leftist opposition party, the FMLN, and called into question U.S. diplomatic relations with El Salvador. Furthermore, several Congressional Representatives, including Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-CO), threatened to introduce legislation to cut off remittance money that Salvadorans in the US send to their families should the FMLN win. At the time, the U.S. Embassy in El Salvador never countered this threat or clarified the impossibility of such legislation being passed. Ultimately, their intervention helped turn a close race for the presidency into a decisive victory for the right-wing National Republican Alliance (ARENA) party. For the upcoming elections in 2009, the leftist FMLN party holds a solid lead and we are concerned that the U.S. will once again interfere to protect their right-wing allies.