International Community Joins Outcry Against Tutela Legal Closure
On Friday, October 4, representatives from dozens of Salvadoran and international organizations held a press conference and protest at the gates of the Archdiocese of San Salvador to denounce the closure of the historic human rights office, Tutela Legal. In a statement signed by 35 international organizations (English version HERE), CISPES joined the international community in solidarity with demands for the immediate reversal of the closure, the reinstatement of the fired workers and the protection of the office’s vast archives. Standing before walls splotched with freshly-painted-over graffiti (“the Archbishop is the lapdog of the rich” read one newly-concealed message), the fired workers, families of victims and international solidarity groups joined with human rights, community and faith organizations to condemn the Archbishops actions, chanting, “reclaiming memory, respecting the victims!” and “we want Bishops on the side of the poor!” Bethany Loberg of the SHARE Foundation read the statement on behalf of the international community condemning the Archbishop’s actions as “an attack on the historic memory of the Salvadoran people, and a bitter and cynical blow to the sacred legacy left to them by Archbishop Romero.” Loberg declared: “Given that the Tutela Legal archives comprise more than 50,000 cases of human rights violations, including 80% of those cases documented in the 1993 UN Truth Commission Report, we are very concerned that this abrupt and unexpected closure is an effort to limit access to these extensive and historic archives.”