With only a week before the Presidential elections in El Salvador, CISPES is turning up the heat! After a flurry of lobbying and grassroots Congressional pressure by people like you, U.S. officials are speaking out in favor of U.S. neutrality in El Salvador’s March 15 elections, exactly the kind of statements we need to prevent U.S. intervention in the days to come. We will be posting all the latest news to the 2009 Elections Blog—have you bookmarked it yet?

On Thursday, March 5, Rep. Raúl Grijalva (D-AZ) held a press conference on Capitol Hill to announce a Congressional letter to President Obama asking him to declare his respect for El Salvador’s sovereign democratic process and assure the people of El Salvador that he will maintain a positive relationship with their government regardless of the outcome. Check out a video of Rep. Grijalva’s statement calling for a new era in foreign policy towards Latin America and read the international media coverage.

The 33 members of the House of Representatives and 1 Senator who signed the letter rejected past U.S. intervention and committed to “honoring and respecting the will of the Salvadoran people when they go to the polls on March 15.” Read a complete version of the letter and find out if your Representative signed on!

Nearly one hundred North American solidarity organizations, churches, and unions also made the call to President Obama in an Open Letter published in the Salvadoran newspapers, stating their commitment to organize against any form of U.S. intervention.

A group of 70 delegates from across the U.S. is headed to El Salvador right now to observe the elections on March 15, to report on the results independently, and to stand with the Salvadoran people during this historic possibility for change.

Those of us here in the U.S. have a very important role to play. It costs about $8,000 for CISPES to coordinate a delegation this size. Will you give $100 today to make it happen?

These public statements of U.S. neutrality, the commitment of thousands to take action to defend Salvadoran sovereignty, and the presence of vigilant international observers will serve as a powerful “vaccine” against last-ditch attempts by the right-wing to thwart the will of the Salvadoran people to elect a new government.

We need you to stay vigilant, to check the website, to check your email and when called upon, to take action. If you aren’t part of our Emergency Response Network, please sign up today! (Enter your email address under Join Today!)

We hope the 2009 Elections blog will be a valuable resource for journalists and solidarity activists and we will be updating it as often as possible, in both Spanish and English.

Artist and long-time ally of the Salvadoran people, Adam Kufeld, has a new on-line photo project to document the campaigns!

We also need your financial support to keep this work going, now and for the challenges and victories to come. Please give as generously as you can so that we can seize this historic moment, which Blandino Nerio, FMLN mayor of Mejicanos described as the “realization of the democratic revolution in El Salvador.” Si se puede!

En solidaridad,

Alexis Stoumbelis

CISPES National Office

P.S. What do I need to be ready for? We don’t know exactly what will happen in El Salvador in the days that remain before the elections, on Election Day and on the days that follow. Together with our allies we are preparing for several scenarios: 1. International Observers are detained at the airport (this happened in 2004) and not allowed to enter the country 2. There are incidents of electoral violence or political assassinations 3. There is massive fraud at the polls or the Supreme Electoral Tribunal refuses to release the results of the elections in the case of an FMLN victory Please sign up to be part of our Emergency Response Network and we will keep you up to date.But a vaccine is a preventative measure. We also need to be ready to respond. The right-wing is desperate, dangerous and it is hard to imagine them respecting the will of the Salvadoran people now after trampling it for nearly 20 years. Are you ready to take action?