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check out media from the week of action here
October 6 -13 marks an international solidarity week of action to demand that terrorist charges against Salvadoran protestors be dropped. On July 2, fourteen people were arrested in Suchitoto , E l Salvador for taking part in a protest against water privatization. Police brutality against the peaceful demonstration and the arrests of 14 of them produced international outrage, and ultimately this pressure forced the Salvadoran government to temporarily release the detainees. Nevertheless, protestors continue to be charged under the “anti-terrorism” law and could face up to 60 years in prison. This draconian law that criminalizes different forms of public protest as acts of terrorism is being used to silence the social movement in El Salvador , criminalizing acts that do not in any way constitute terrorism!
In El
Salvador different sectors continue to
resist the anti-terrorism law, claiming that the way it is being employed,
both against the social movement in general and against the 14
demonstrators in particular, represents a step back from the 1992 Peace
Accords. Three judges declared last week that the law is “too
confusing” and, more importantly, declared that “simple street
protests are not acts of terrorism”. Despite the repression
against the Salvadoran social movement, people continue to organize against
privatization and economic and political repression.
The trial of the Suchitoto protesters was scheduled
for the first week of October but has been delayed for six months while the
prosecutors build their “terrorism” case. However, it is
obvious that the trial was delayed for lack of evidence, since those
arrested were in the streets to voice their opinion against water
privatization.
The
United States government has a
responsibility to speak out against the way the anti-terrorism law is
targeting and criminalizing the social movement. However, the government
has consistently supported the implementation of the law, while bolstering
El Salvador ’s repressive National
Civil Police through the US-sponsored
International
Law Enforcement
Academy (ILEA). Your
action is critical in defending the right to organize, in solidarity with
those who are struggling to keep water accessible and public in
El Salvador
(see below)! Community leaders and non-violent protestors are
not terrorists.
Take Action!
1. Organize an action at the Salvadoran Consulate in
your city! Distribute this action alert and the call-in script
on the back side.
2.
Call the State Department and demand that the
United States government hold
the Salvadoran government accountable for these acts. Contact Jeremy Cornforth at the
U.S. State Department’s
El Salvador
desk at (NEW NUMBER: 202 647 4087). See below for sample script.
3.
Call the Salvadoran Ambassador to the
U.S. and let him know that you
hold the Salvadoran government accountable for these acts. Contact Rene de Leon at
202-265-9671 in the Salvadoran Embassy and demand that terrorist charges
against the Suchitoto protestors are dropped.
Call Script for El Salvador
Desk at the U.S.
State Department
You can use the
following “script” to talk to Mr. Cornforth. If at any
point you get cut off, be sure to ask the final question –
“will you call the ambassador and assure that he calls for the
terrorism charges be dropped?”
1) I’m
calling because I am very concerned about the July 2 arrests of the people
protesting water privatization in Suchitoto ,
El Salvador .
2) The
Salvadoran police violently captured community leaders – shooting
rubber bullets and tear gas at close range – and local community
members and is now charging them with terrorism.
3) The
Salvadoran government’s disproportionate reaction raises serious
concerns about human rights and the freedom of organization and
expression.
4) The
U.S.
government has publicly supported the Salvadoran government, including
supporting the passage of the anti-terrorism law last September.
5) It
is extremely important that the
U.S. stand up for human rights
everywhere and not let protest be criminalized in the name of a so-called
fight against terrorism.
6) Will you call Ambassador Rene de Leon and tell him
to call for the terrorism charges to be dropped and the protestors to be
freed?
More
background information about Suchitoto Arrests can be found at www.cispes.org or www.elsalvadorsolidarity.org
watch the video of the recent Consulate Action in
Boston ! http://www.cispes.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=257&Itemid=29
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