[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 112 (Friday, July 13, 2007)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1518]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  HUMAN RIGHTS AT STAKE IN EL SALVADOR

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. CHAKA FATTAH

                            of pennsylvania

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, July 12, 2007

  Mr. FATTAH. Madam Speaker, I rise today to call attention to a 
disturbing human rights violation currently taking place in El Salvador 
under the guise of stopping terrorism, a situation brought to my 
attention by a dedicated group of Philadelphians that has just returned 
from that nation.
  Philadelphia maintains a U.S.-El Salvador Sister Cities connection to 
the rural village of Las Anonas, where most residents live in poverty 
and must still deal with the after-effects of the devastating civil war 
and a 1992 ceasefire that ended the bloodshed but brought little real 
change. This Sister Cities program is one of 20 that link U.S. 
communities and groups with rural El Salvador under the sponsorship of 
CRIPDES, a Salvadoran group for rural community development, and the 
Archbishop Romero Interfaith Center, which is based in Philadelphia and 
its suburbs.
  About 27 men, women and teenagers from the Interfaith Community 
Building Group in Northwest Philadelphia, including Catholics, Jews, 
Protestants and Muslims, were hard at work laying the foundation of a 
new community center in the village of El Milagro last week. They were 
shocked to learn that the president, vice president and two other 
members of CRIPDES, their sponsor, were seized on July 2 by police on 
the highway on their way to join a peaceful demonstration in the town 
of Suchitoto.
  The charges were originally ``creating public disorder,'' even though 
they had not even arrived at their destination. When supporters rallied 
outside the police station and demanded the release of the CRIPDES 
leaders, 10 more people were arrested and the ARENA government quickly 
escalated the charges. Now the prisoners have been charged with ``acts 
of terrorism'' under a new anti-terrorism law that went into effect 
last November. The law even created a special court to try such 
suspects. CRIPDES leaders, including President Lorena Martinez, who has 
visited Philadelphia, and a Salvadoran journalist covering the events, 
face up to 60 years in prison under this so-called ``anti-terrorism'' 
law in what is a clear attempt to stifle and silence dissent.
  The ARENA government, ruling with a bare majority and looking toward 
the next election, is counting on almost a half-billion dollars in U.S. 
aid that is dependent upon adherence to human rights principles. El 
Salvador is also the only nation in Latin America to maintain troops in 
Iraq as part of the ``Coalition of the Willing.'' Meanwhile ARENA 
presides over a country so desperately poor that an estimated two 
million Salvadorans have emigrated to the United States, most of them 
undocumented.
  The Philadelphia group was warned that if members raised their voices 
in protest to the arrests at Suchitoto, they could be immediately 
deported and barred from future trips. All this was occurring in the 
days immediately before and after the celebration, by fellow 
Philadelphians back home in the Cradle of Liberty and Birthplace of 
Independence, of the Fourth of July.
  The arrests led to a massive protest demonstration in San Salvador, 
the capital, on July 7. I am pleased to learn that Amnesty 
International has taken up this case, and that friends of CRIPDES, the 
United States-El Salvador Sister Cities Program and the Romero 
Interfaith Center are all raising the alarm. The Philadelphians, who 
have made six trips to El Salvador in the past decade, are not alone. 
Delegations of community builders, educators and citizen witnesses from 
Sister Cities across the U.S. continue to travel to El Salvador, to 
join the cause of rural development and empowerment with their hands 
and hearts.
  The ARENA government needs to know that the citizens of the United 
States and the world are watching what happens to CRIPDES and other 
peaceful, effective community development groups in their midst. Those 
in El Salvador's government who look to the United States for model 
behavior need to look beyond the shameless quick-fix of crying 
``terrorism'' under cynically created laws. Instead they must heed the 
principles forged in Philadelphia two centuries ago.

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