Salvadoran Foreign Minister calls for more U.S. involvement in Latin America

El Salvadors Minister of Foreign Affairs, Marisol Argueta, haspublicly urged the U.S. government to help prevent the leftist FMLNparty from winning next years presidential election in El Salvador.Act now to ensure that the U.S. does not repeat its electoralintervention of 2004.

Call your Congressional Representatives TODAY to insist they make acommitment to free and fair elections in El Salvador. Congress mustrefute the ruling ARENA partys call for intervention by declaring itsneutrality and willingness to maintain a positive relationship with anygovernment freely elected by the Salvadoran people.

In a speech on September 18 at the American Enterprise Institute, a right-wing think tank in Washington, D.C., Argueta called on the U.S. government to be more active in Latin America, lest countries such as El Salvador elect dangerous populists in upcoming elections. Along with her open-ended exhortation for the U.S. to do more to prevent an opposition government from being elected, she specifically lobbied for the U.S. to pass immigration reform legislation and to increase its funding for El Salvadors police. For a summary of Arguetas speech, go here: http://www.aei.org/events/filter.,eventID.1794/summary.asp

The panel discussion in which Argueta took part was moderated by Roger Noriega, who himself perpetrated electoral intervention in El Salvador while serving as Assistant Secretary of State in 2004. At the time, Noriega publicly threatened that U.S. relations with El Salvador would be ruptured in the case of an FMLN victory at the polls. Such threats led many Salvadorans to fear that their relatives in the U.S. whose remittances make up nearly 20% of the Salvadoran economy would be deported if the FMLN were elected.

TAKE ACTION!

1) Call your Congressional Representative using the following number and ask to be connected to your Representatives office: (202) 224-3121. See below for sample script.

2) Sign the petition calling upon Salvadoran President Saca to ensure that government employees do not use their positions to influence the results of upcoming elections: http://www.share-elsalvador.org/

3) Sign onto CISPES Peoples Pledge to Defend Free & Fair Elections in El Salvador and accompany the Salvadoran people by standing in solidarity with them during their struggle for REAL democracy. Go to www.cispes.org/pledge2009

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You can use the following script to talk to your Congressional Representative. Call (202) 224-3121.

1. I am calling to urge Representative ___________ to publicly support democracy in El Salvador by declaring that Congress will not seek to influence the results of the 2009 elections.

2. In speech on September 18, El Salvadors Minister of Foreign Affairs called upon the U.S. to help ensure that the opposition FMLN party does not win the countrys March 2009 presidential election.

3. In 2004, officials from the Bush Administration and some Members of Congress publicly threatened that the election the FMLNs presidential candidate would jeopardize the relationship between the U.S. and El Salvador. In one glaring example, Congressman Tom Tancredo threatened that the U.S. would restrict the money that Salvadoran immigrants living in the U.S. send home, but only if the FMLNs candidate were to be elected.

4. This statement, among others, caused many Salvadorans to vote out of fear of U.S. retaliation, rather than as their own convictions led them. As someone who believes in democracy, I want to make sure the U.S. does not intervene in El Salvadors elections again in 2009.

5.    It is extremely important that Members of Congress stand up forthe Salvadoran peoples right to freely elect their government, withoutforeign manipulation. I am calling on Representative ____________ todeclare neutrality toward the 2009 Salvadoran elections, and to assertthat Congress is willing to seek a positive relationship with anygovernment freely elected by the Salvadoran people.  We are alsointerested in having your office co-sponsor a letter to Secretary ofState Condoleezza Rice U.S. calling for neutrality in the Salvadoranelections. 

NOTE:
 
If your representativesoffice agrees to make a statement or co-sponsor the letter, askfor the contact information of the person that the letter should besent to.  Then contactBurke Stansbury at [email protected]to pass on the contact information and Representatives name. Wewill follow up with that Representative. 

More background information about past USintervention can be found here