- Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador -

March 24 marks the 27th anniversary of the brutal murder of ArchbishopOscar Romero, the tenacious defender of El Salvador‘s poor andmarginalized majority who was gunned down by an operative of theU.S.-backed Salvadoran death squads while giving mass. Twenty sevenyears later Salvadoran organizers and activists who speak out againstthe right-wing administration‘s social and economic policies are beingharassed, kidnapped, and assassinated.

The ILEA(International Law Enforcement Academy) in San Salvador is the USDepartment of Homeland Security's attempt to export the US "criminaljustice" system to Latin America. Police recruits, judges, prosecutors,and government agents from throughout the Latin American region will betrained in organized crime, financial data reporting, tax reform, a newTAG program for deportees from the US, judicial oversight, prosecution,crime scene management, gang curriculum, "anti-terrorism" and "streetsurvival training" (a.k.a. urban combat). The training is beingconducted by true experts in organized crime and state-sponsoredviolence — the DEA, FBI, ICE, ICITAP, the IRS, and other US governmentagencies.

The State Department says the ILEA will "enhancethe functioning of free markets and increase social, political, andeconomic stability in the Latin American region by combating crime."Salvadorans say it will be used to consolidate the tactics ofrepression and human rights abuse already being practiced by thepolice. Still, in the spirit of Monse