For the first time since the 1980's, we've been singled out for attack bythe Department of "Justice".

In January CISPES received a letter from their National Security Division saying that they suspected us of being an "agent of a foreign principal" and wanted us to register under the "Foreign Agents Registration Act."Their justification? They claimed that the FMLN had hired CISPES to do public relations and fundraising support for their presidential campaign in the US.

Our response was clear: [see sidebar for more information]

* CISPES solidarity with the FMLN began in 1980 and continues today.

* It is based on a shared vision of a more just world; there is no financial or contractual agreement. We have a solidarity relationship-what we have in common is a commitment to building a cross border movement that will unite the poor and working people of the US and El Salvador in our struggle for social justice.

* Therefore we will not register with the US government, but ratherassert that we will continue our support for the Salvadoran strugglefor social justice as part of our democratic right to free speech.

* Finally, ourresponse to any attempt by the US government to infringe on thoserights will not be to retreat one inch but rather to build thestrongest, broadest resistance movement we can.

Many of you remember, I'm sure, that CISPES was the object of the most extensive internal security "investigation" of the Reagan presidency.

And did you know that the CISPES infiltration of the 1980's all began in 1981 with an attempt to get CISPES to register under the same Foreign Agents Registration Act?! Back then, their campaign of surveillance, harassment, and intimidation of CISPES lasted for years. Like other FBI COINTELPRO campaigns, this operation had a sinister purpose-to intimidate and silence movements that fight for people's empowerment in the face of repression.

Leading solidarity activists and organizations agree that this threat is very real and it stems from what we've been talking about for some time now-El Salvador is joining the left turn in Latin America, and Bush and ARENA are terrified. That's why the Latin America Solidarity Coalition is circulating this letter of protest to the Department of Justice. Your organization can sign it at www.lasolidarity.org

Bush and the right-wing Salvadoran ARENA party want to stop CISPES from playing a key role in providing effective solidarity. We understand that this threat is meant to frighten us into changing the nature of our work-to make us think twice about standing with the FMLN as a leading opponent of USdomination in Latin America.

While we take the government's threat very seriously, we have no intention of backing down. In the 1980's we took the offensive against the FBI and we will not be intimidated this time either. That's why we continue to organize! In early May our local committees will be taking actions locally in relation to the Department of Justice letter, and we are planning a Fact Finding Delegation to El Salvador this summer to document US intervention and human rights violations.

We hope you will stand strong with us and with the Salvadoran people-show Bush and his agents that you will not be intimidated! Please make a generous gift to support our work today!

In solidarity,Burke Stansbury, Executive Director

P.S. We may be calling on you to defend our right to organize and take action in our campaigns. Look out for more action alerts about US support for the International Law Enforcement Academy (ILEA) and potential State Department intervention in the Salvadoran elections - coming soon!