U.S. Representatives Raúl Grijalva (D-AZ) and Marcy Kaptur (D-OH) are circulating a “Dear Colleague� letter to encourage other Representatives to sign on to a letter to President Barack Obama calling for the U.S. government to remain neutral in El Salvador's March 15 presidential race, respect the election results, and work toward a positive relationship with whichever party is elected. With less than a month remaining before election day, this urgent letter is now open for all Members of Congress to sign. (The deadline for signers is March 4; see below for the text of the letter to Obama and the “Dear Colleague�.)

Call your U.S. Representative TODAY to insist that s/he add his or her name to statement in defense of democracy in El Salvador by Rep. Grijalva and Rep Kaptur!  Call the Congressional switchboard to be connected to your Representative's office: (202) 224-3121. *Call script at the end of this alert.

 BACKGROUND

Public statements made by high level U.S. officials in the weeks leading up to El Salvador 's last presidential election, in 2004, threatened Salvadoran voters into re-electing the right wing ARENA party. Undersecretary of State Roger Noriega traveled to El Salvador a month before the election to publicly endorse ARENA candidate Antonio Saca and warn that relations with the U.S. would deteriorate if the opposition FMLN party were elected. The week before the election, Congressman Tom Tancredo (R-CO) threatened that the U.S. would stop the flow of remittances sent home by Salvadorans living in the U.S. in the case of an FMLN victory.

The threats made in 2004 were widely reported by the Salvadoran media as accurate statements of U.S. policy, and contributed to Saca's victory at the polls. In recent months, right-wing campaign advertisements have sought to resurrect these threats, claiming that the 2.5 million Salvadorans living in the U.S. , and the billions of dollars they send home every year, will be placed in danger if the FMLN's candidate, Mauricio Funes, is elected in March.

With a new administration in the White House, Salvadoran voters are awaiting assurance that the U.S. will respect their right to elect their own president, free from outside manipulation. Call on your Congressperson to assert that the U.S. must respect the democratic will of the Salvadoran people.

TAKE ACTION NOW!

1) Call the Congressional switchboard to be transferred to your Representative's office:

2) Ask to speak to the staff person in charge of foreign policy. If that person is not available, leave a voicemail.

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Call Script for support to Grijalva’s Dear Colleague letter on El Salvador elections

You can use the following script to talk with the congressional aid of your representative. If at any point you get cut off, be sure to make the final statement – “I encourage Representative _____ to sign on to this important letter in support of free and fair elections in El Salvador !

Here's what to say (the first two paragraphs are the most important):

• “My name is [your name] I am calling as a constituent to ask that [Representative's name] sign on to a Congressional letter to President Obama that has been initiated by Representative Raúl Grijalva [Gree-hall-vah]. This letter calls for U.S. neutrality with respect to the upcoming presidential election in El Salvador , and pledges that Members of Congress will seek a positive relationship with whichever party is elected.â€�
• “To sign on to this letter, please contact Daniel Brito at Representative Grijalva's office. His phone number is (202) 225-2435.â€�
• “This statement is urgently important. During El Salvador 's 2004 presidential campaign, Bush Administration officials and some Members of Congress threatened to punish the people of El Salvador if they elected the opposition party's candidate. Campaign ads being aired in El Salvador right now are resurrecting those threats. President Obama and his administration need to be made aware of this unfortunate precedent so they can chart a more responsible, respectful foreign policy.â€�
• “Furthermore, Salvadorans need to hear a clear message from Congress that assures them they can vote according to their own free will, rather than in response to threats and manipulation from the U.S. government.â€�
• “Thank you for your time, and I encourage [Representative's name] to sign on to this important statement in support of free and fair elections in El Salvador .â€�

For more information on the upcoming elections in El Salvador :

-         CISPES elections blog: www.cispes.org/09electionsblog

-         January 2009 elections report: El Salvador Election Observation Report, January 18 elections

-         The 2009 Salvadoran elections: Between Crisis and Change: http://nacla.org/node/5445

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Foreign Affairs, Immigration: Dear Colleague: Respect Salvadoran Elections

From: The Honorable Raul M. Grijalva
Date: 2/23/2009

 

Respect Democracy in El Salvador: Letter to President Obama Calling for Non-intervention in Presidential Election

Dear Colleague:

Please join us in writing to President Obama to encourage him to fulfill a historic opportunity to build a new relationship with our neighbors in the Americas based on mutual respect.

The upcoming Presidential election in El Salvador , the first in the Americas since President Obama was elected, is a chance for the United States to demonstrate that it will respect the results of our neighbors’ elections, and will not intervene in support of one party or candidate over another.

Before El Salvador ’s 2004 presidential election, US officials attempted to sway the vote by suggesting that in the event of a victory by the opposition party, the legal status of Salvadoran immigrants living in the U.S. would be jeopardized and remittances sent to El Salvador by family members in the U.S. could be outlawed.

Remittances are believed to comprise roughly 20% of El Salvador ’s GDP, and consequently these threats were widely covered in the Salvadoran press and had an enormous impact that lingers to this day.

We believe that the proper position of the U.S. Congress and government is one of neutrality and respect for El Salvador ’s independent democratic process, allowing the Salvadoran people to make a free choice of personal conscience, a choice which can only be done in the absence of coercion and threats.

Please join us in calling on President Obama to affirm this position, prevent a recurrence of the events of 2004, and bring real change to our relationship with Latin America .

Sincerely,

 

/s                                                                /s 

Raul M. Grijalva                                      Marcy Kaptur

Member of Congress                             Member of Congress

Dear President Obama:

As Members of Congress who have been disappointed by many of our nation's foreign policy decisions over the past eight years, we write to extend our support for your vision of a more respectful, less confrontational relationship with our neighbors in the Americas . We also believe that the March 2009 presidential election in El Salvador – the first such contest in the Western Hemisphere since your election in November, will provide a critical opportunity to realize this vision.

We wish to express our support for free and fair elections in El Salvador . To that end, we request your assurance that your administration will join us in honoring and respecting the will of the Salvadoran people when they go to the polls on March 15. Furthermore, we call upon all U.S. government officials and Members of Congress to refrain from any attempt, at any point during the campaign, to influence the decision of Salvadoran voters.

Intervention in the El Salvador's 2004 election took the form of public statements, made in the days and weeks leading up to the election, suggesting that U.S.-Salvadoran relations would be severely damaged in the event of a victory by the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN), the opposition party whose candidate is now leading in the polls for 2009. Specific threats made by U.S. officials in 2004 alleged that the legal status of Salvadoran immigrants living in the U.S. would be jeopardized and remittances sent to El Salvador by family members in the U.S. could be outlawed if ARENA's candidate were not elected. 

Documentation attached as an addendum to this letter highlights many of statements made by U.S. officials during El Salvador 's 2004 campaign, and the coverage they received in the Salvadoran press.

El Salvador uses the U.S. dollar as its official currency, and the U.S. is by far the country's most important trade partner. Nearly 25% of El Salvador ’s population lives in the United States , and the remittances that these immigrants send home comprise roughly 20% of El Salvador ’s GDP.

In light of these facts and circumstances, threats made by US officials are widely covered in the Salvadoran press and can have an impact that is hard to overstate.

The interventionist statements and actions of 2004 had a serious, coercive effect on the choices made by the Salvadoran electorate and, even today linger in the minds of Salvadoran voters, as US Embassy staff in San Salvador admitted to a visiting delegation.

The governing party has encouraged the U.S. government to repeat its intervention in the 2009 campaign. I a September 2008 speech in Washington, Salvadoran Foreign Minister Marisol Argueta, called for the U.S. government to again tip the scales toward ARENA.

Pro-ARENA television advertisements recapitulating the claim that an opposition victory at the polls will cause the U.S. government to outlaw remittances from Salvadoran immigrants are nearly ubiquitous. Similar advertisements and television reports have made use of statements by an adviser to the Obama campaign, Dan Restrepo, identifying him as an actual official in the Obama Administration, to suggest that your administration is averse to an election result favoring the FMLN.

These claims and distortions will continue to resonate until they are refuted by words and actions.

As Members of Congress, we reject the threats of 2004 and any effort to instigate another US intervention in Salvadoran politics. We feel that U.S. immigration policy should not be made into a political instrument used to influence foreign elections. Similarly, we reject the suggestion that the US government would seek to financially punish Salvadorans, in this country or in El Salvador , for exercising their right to elect a government of their choosing. As members of Congress, we will not support any such measure.

We believe that the proper position of the U.S. Congress and government is one of neutrality and respect for El Salvador ’s independent democratic process, thus allowing the Salvadoran people to make a free choice of personal conscience, a choice which can only be done in the absence of coercion and threats.

We believe it is essential that the United States seize this quickly approaching opportunity to demonstrate that we will not seek to undermine democracy in El Salvador and Latin America . This is an invaluable, historic opportunity to make a clean break with the past and move with our neighbors into a relationship based on mutual respect.

No matter the results of El Salvador 's 2009 elections, we look forward to working with the Salvadoran people and their elected representatives to seek a future that holds peace and shared prosperity for both of our countries. We trust that your administration will join us in these efforts.