FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
MEDIA/PRESS ALERT
Press Conference/Back grounding/ Protest
 
Contact:  Mario Cuellar [Spanish] - Don White [English]
Mario Cuellar at 323-301-0286 / Mr. White at 323-556-1932
 
SALVADORAN COMMUNITY, U.S. HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVISTS HOLD PRESS CONFERENCE TO CONDEMN ESCALATING HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES IN EL SALVADOR; DEATH HAS RESULTED FROM ATTACKS
 
What?  Press Conference in front of the Consulate of El Salvador
When? Wednesday, November 28, 2007 ---  11:00 a.m.
Where?  Consulate of El Salvador  3450 Wilshire Blvd at Normandie Ave.
 
Repression and violence against unarmed civilian populations has escalated at
an alarming rate in various parts of El Salvador with both police and military units
attacking, gassing, arresting and injuring communities protesting government
policies over water privatization and corrupt privatization of waste treatment
facilities.
 
In the State of Santa Ana, canton of Cutumay Camones, last week government helicopters sprayed tear gas on peaceful demonstrators causing the death of a 14-year-old boy who was overwhelmed by the gas.

An eye-witness account of the attack will be presented at the press conference.

In Cutumay Camones, a four-month long struggle by the community to prevent the

illegal establishment of a waste treatment facility by the mayor of Santa Ana --- a plant which would poison the community's water supply---and both police and military have entered the community and attack, arrested and wounded scores of citizens.
 
The brutal attacks in Cutumay Camones come in the context of such attacks on
Salvadoran citizens in various parts of the country including Suchitoto where mass arrests

took place against citizens protesting water privatization. In Cutumay Camones the protests were also against the illegal "grabbing" of community waste treatment facilities for the private benefit of elected officials.
 
A large banner, "Why Is The Government of El Salvador Terrorizing The People of Cutumay Camones?" will be unfurled in front of the Consulate tomorrow.