[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 6]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages 7137-7139]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                         EL SALVADOR ELECTIONS

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. DANA ROHRABACHER

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                       Wednesday, March 11, 2009

  Mr. ROHRABACHER. Madam Speaker, El Salvador is a good friend of the 
United States. And after we suffered the attacks of 9/11, most 
Salvadorans kept us in their prayers. But one group felt differently.
  The FMLN, a pro terrorist, Left wing party in El Salvador, issued a 
communique that the U.S., because of its policies, was itself to blame 
for being attacked. The U.S. embassy publicly denounced that 
declaration, yet the FMLN is now poised to possibly enter into the 
government in El Salvador.
  Four days after 9/11, the FMLN had a march in their capital city to 
celebrate the 9/11 attack by Al-Qaeda and to burn the American flag. 
The leader of that march was Salvador Sanchez Ceren, who today is the 
FMLN's candidate for El Salvadoran Vice President.
  El Salvador's election is on Sunday. If an ally of Al-Qaeda and Iran 
comes to power in El Salvador, the national security interests of the 
United States will require certain immigration restrictions and 
controls over the flow of the $4 billion in annual remittances sent 
from the U.S. back home to El Salvador.
  Let me note, that my purpose is not to punish Salvadorans, but if a 
pro-terrorism government takes power, it will be imperative to review 
our policies in order to protect the national security of the United 
States.

    Statement on United States Policy Regarding the FMLN, Temporary 
    Protected Immigration Status, Money Transfers and U.S. National 
                                Security


                     NEW WORLD REALITY OF TERRORISM

       The global offensive waged by terror groups against the 
     United States and the free world obliges our nation to make 
     strong decisions to help assure our own security.


             REMITTANCES AN ISSUE OF U.S. NATIONAL SECURITY

       The U.S. government, in permitting or prohibiting 
     unregulated remittances from the United States to a foreign 
     country, must concern itself above all with the national 
     security of the United States.
       Policy decisions regarding monetary remittances to foreign 
     countries must now be evaluated with special attention paid 
     to the degree of confidence and effective cooperation that 
     exists with the counterpart government.
       It has been determined through a number of official 
     investigations that some of the same groups that direct 
     terror campaigns against us and our allies may help finance 
     those campaigns with money acquired in the United States and 
     then transferred out of the country.


  REMITTANCES DESTINED FOR TERRORIST GROUPS MUST BE BLOCKED AND SEIZED

       To fight this threat, tougher laws have been enacted and 
     effective law enforcement efforts have been able to block and 
     seize funds originating in the United States that were 
     destined for foreign terrorist groups. Toward that end, 
     international and bi-lateral cooperation is of the utmost 
     importance.
       Ample legal precedent exists to shut down U.S.-based 
     organizations that send money or material support, directly 
     or indirectly, to terrorist entities, and to seize their 
     assets. The FBI and Department of the Treasury have done so 
     on several occasions since the September 11, 2001, terrorist 
     attacks.


        COUNTRY POLICY ON REMITTANCES AND PRO-TERRORIST REGIMES

       The country policy regarding the unregulated flow of 
     remittances should be urgently reviewed and, in most cases, 
     those remittances must be immediately terminated, if a pro-
     terrorist party wins power or enters the government of a 
     country.


                   THE FMLN AS A PRO-TERRORIST PARTY

       The Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN), a 
     political party in El Salvador, can be considered a pro-
     terrorist party because of its support for designated 
     terrorist organizations, such as the FARC, for state sponsors 
     of terror, such as Cuba and Iran, and for the public 
     participation by some of its leaders, including its current 
     candidate for Vice President, in a pro-Al Qaeda rally where 
     the U.S. flag was burned,

[[Page 7138]]

     this taking place immediately after September 11, 2001. The 
     U.S. Embassy in El Salvador was forced to condemn the written 
     public statements related to the September 11th attacks that 
     were issued by the FMLN and blamed the U.S. for causing 
     itself to be attacked because of its international policies.


                         THE ORIGIN OF THE FMLN

       The FMLN was created in 1980, with the direct help of Fidel 
     Castro, as an armed subversive communist organization that 
     sought the violent overthrow of the Government of El Salvador 
     in order to replace it with a pro-Castro Marxist-Leninist 
     regime. After years of armed aggression and terrorism, which 
     included the murder of four U.S. Marines in El Salvador as 
     well as other U.S. citizens, the FMLN signed a peace 
     agreement in 1992 that brought the war to an end and led to 
     the participation of the FMLN in the political process.


                      CURRENT ACTIONS OF THE FMLN

       The FMLN continues to participate actively in international 
     gatherings with violent and radical anti-U.S. groups and 
     terrorist organizations. The FMLN contains clandestine armed 
     groups that have been linked to violent actions in El 
     Salvador, including the murder of a policeman and an attack 
     on a presidential convoy.
       The FMLN maintains direct ties with terrorist 
     organizations. This relationship was confirmed by electronic 
     records left by the Colombian narco-guerrilla terrorist group 
     the FARC on a laptop computer used by one of the group's 
     leaders. The emails found show that a key figure of El 
     Salvador's FMLN, Jose Luis Merino (alias ``Ramiro''), 
     assisted the FARC in contacting international arms dealers 
     for the purpose of obtaining weapons.
       Purges in the FMLN have left the party under the complete 
     control of its most hard-line communist leaders. The FMLN is 
     also known to organize in the United States among the 
     Salvadoran immigrant community.


        EXCELLENT CURRENT RELATIONS BETWEEN U.S. AND EL SALVADOR

       It must be emphasized that the United States has very good 
     relations with the current government of El Salvador, led by 
     the party ARENA. This friendship is based on confidence, 
     shared values, mutually beneficial international policies and 
     strong personal relationships.
       Excellent bi-lateral relations permit a high-level of 
     cooperation on important national security matters. El 
     Salvador provides military and intelligence cooperation and 
     was one of the longest-serving members of coalition that sent 
     armed forces to post-war Iraq. El Salvador is also a valued 
     ally in the war on drugs, providing the United States with an 
     important Forward Operating Location in Central America.


             TPS BASED ON EXCELLENT STRATEGIC RELATIONSHIP

       In the context of excellent relations and close 
     cooperation, the U.S. government was able to grant and extend 
     TPS for the benefit of nearly 300,000 Salvadorans now living 
     and working in the United States. For similar reasons, the 
     U.S. government has not had special concerns about the source 
     and use of the nearly $4 billion in remittances sent last 
     year by Salvadorans in the United States to their home 
     country, allowing the free movement of that large sum. The 
     government of El Salvador has shown itself to be a reliable 
     and trustworthy counterpart regarding U.S. national security.


CURRENT U.S. POLICY ON REMITTANCES TO EL SALVADOR IS BASED ON A STRONG 
                         STRATEGIC RELATIONSHIP

       In the context of excellent relations and close 
     cooperation, the U.S. government has not had special security 
     concerns about the source and use of nearly 4 billion dollars 
     per year (2008) sent by Salvadorans in the United States to 
     their home country. The current government of El Salvador has 
     shown itself to be a reliable and trustworthy counterpart 
     regarding U.S. national security.


           FMLN IN GOVERNMENT RADICALLY CHANGES THE EQUATION

       If the FMLN enters the government of El Salvador following 
     the presidential elections scheduled for March 2009, it will 
     mean a radical termination of the conditions that underlie 
     the unrestricted movement of billions of dollars a year and 
     that permitted the granting of TPS in the first place and its 
     continued renewal. The U.S. government would have no reliable 
     counterpart to satisfy legitimate national security concerns, 
     especially those regarding the threat posed by pro-terrorist 
     groups and the providing of funding for those groups.


          FMLN IN GOVERNMENT COULD REQUIRE TERMINATION OF TPS

       Therefore, if the FMLN enters the government in El Salvador 
     it will be necessary for the U.S. authorities to consider all 
     available information regarding the ties of the FMLN to 
     violent anti-U.S. groups and designated terrorist groups and, 
     on that basis, proceed toward the immediate termination of 
     TPS for El Salvador.


        FMLN IN GOVERNMENT COULD REQUIRE CONTROL OF REMITTANCES

       In many instances, pro-terrorist groups conduct fundraising 
     in the United States, and special controls and restrictions 
     on the flow of funds have been applied where necessary. Given 
     the pro-terrorist nature of the FMLN and its ties to 
     designated terrorist groups, if the FMLN enters the 
     government in El Salvador, it will be urgent to apply special 
     controls to the flow of remittances from the United States to 
     El Salvador, a sum that is currently $4 billion per year.
       This review would examine and consider the termination of 
     the flow of money remittances to El Salvador, either from our 
     country, in our currency, or using our financial system and 
     our means of land- and space-based telecommunications.


     U.S. PROHIBITION ON DESIGNATED FOREIGN TERRORIST ORGANIZATIONS

       The U.S. Department of State has expressed the 
     ramifications, based on U.S. law, of the designation of 
     foreign terrorist organizations (FTO):
       It is unlawful for a person in the United States or subject 
     to the jurisdiction of the United States to knowingly provide 
     ``material support or resources'' to a designated FTO. (The 
     term ``material support or resources'' is defined in 18 
     U.S.C. Sec. 2339A(b)(1) as `` any property, tangible or 
     intangible, or service, including currency or monetary 
     instruments or financial securities, financial services, 
     lodging, training, expert advice or assistance, safehouses, 
     false documentation or identification, communications 
     equipment, facilities, weapons, lethal substances, 
     explosives, personnel (1 or more individuals who may be or 
     include oneself), and transportation, except medicine or 
     religious materials.''
       18 U.S.C. Sec. 2339A(b)(2) provides that for these purposes 
     ``the term `training' means instruction or teaching designed 
     to impart a specific skill, as opposed to general 
     knowledge.'' 18 U.S.C. Sec. 2339A(b)(3) further provides that 
     for these purposes ``the term `expert advice or assistance' 
     means advice or assistance derived from scientific, technical 
     or other specialized knowledge.''
       Representatives and members of a designated FTO, if they 
     are aliens, are inadmissible to and, in certain 
     circumstances, removable from the United States (see 8 U.S.C. 
     Sec. Sec. 1182 (a)(3)(B)(i)(IV)-(V), 1227 (a)(1)(A)).
       Any U.S. financial institution that becomes aware that it 
     has possession of or control over funds in which a designated 
     FTO or its agent has an interest must retain possession of or 
     control over the funds and report the funds to the Office of 
     Foreign Assets Control of the U.S. Department of the 
     Treasury.


 FMLN IN GOVERNMENT WOULD FORCE A CHANGE IN U.S. IMMIGRATION PRACTICES 
                         REGARDING EL SALVADOR

       Since the 1980s, the United States has maintained a lenient 
     immigration policy toward Latin Americans, particularly 
     Central Americans, and has not significantly enforced its 
     laws. In the past decade, successive Salvadoran governments, 
     offering Washington credible assurances of security and 
     intelligence cooperation, have asked the U.S. for continued 
     leniency toward their citizens who enter and work in the 
     United States illegally. However, if a pro-terrorist party 
     enters government in El Salvador that creates a radically 
     different strategic reality and the U.S. will be compelled to 
     change its immigration enforcement policy.


  PRO-TERRORIST PRACTICES BY FMLN MAKE IT AN UNTRUSTWORTHY COUNTERPART

       Based on the intimate relations between the FMLN and narco-
     guerrilla FARC terrorist organization in Colombia, if the 
     FMLN were to enter government in El Salvador, the U.S. will 
     have no alternative but to apply maximum lawful security 
     measures to Salvadoran nationals living and working in the 
     country illegally without valid identification, visas, work 
     permits, and related papers.
       The Department of the Treasury may be forced to use its 
     legal authority to monitor, control, delay, or terminate the 
     movement of remittances and other money transfers to El 
     Salvador, and the Department of Homeland Security may be 
     compelled to end TPS and to undertake a massive review of 
     Salvadoran nationals residing in or entering the U.S. 
     unlawfully.


 TO RAPIDLY TERMINATE THE FLOW OF REMITTANCES, HOMELAND SECURITY MUST 
                       PREPARE A CONTINGENCY PLAN

       The United States must be prepared to apply, on an urgent 
     basis, the full array of legal instruments available should 
     circumstances after the Salvadoran election require the 
     urgent termination of the flow of remittances to that 
     country. Under U.S. law and in accordance with our national 
     security policies, the immediate responsibility for preparing 
     these plans resides with the Department of Homeland Security, 
     working in conjunction with the Department of the Treasury 
     and other agencies of the U.S. government.


                    FACTS ABOUT THE FMLN LEADERSHIP

       Leadership of FMLN is hostile to U.S. FMLN, in power, would 
     follow anti-U.S. agenda of Venezuela's radical president Hugo 
     Chavez and join Cuba, Nicaragua, Bolivia, Ecuador, Honduras 
     in pro-Chavez axis. Flags of Venezuela, Cuba and Iran are 
     carried at FMLN rallies.
       Chavez helps finance FMLN campaign by selling cut-rate 
     diesel fuel to FMLN's

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     ``ALBA PETROLEOS''. Reselling the fuel (20% of the diesel 
     sold in El Salvador) gives FMLN profit estimated at $20 mn.
       SALVADOR SANCHEZ CEREN is FMLN's candidate for Vice 
     President. In 2001, four days after 9-11, Salvador Sanchez 
     Ceren led march in San Salvador that celebrated attacks by 
     Al-Qaeda and burned American flags. FMLN issued a communique 
     that the U.S., for its policies, was itself to blame for 
     being attacked.
       Sanchez Ceren is the FMLN commanding general whose alias 
     was ``Leonel Gonzalez''. Between 1986 and 1990, he approved 
     1,200-1,500 assassinations according to investigation 
     reported by John R. Thomson in the Washington Times (November 
     2008). Ceren, a hard-core communist, purged party leaders 
     seen as insufficiently radical. He and Merino dominate (and 
     if necessary could eliminate) Mauricio Funes, their 
     figurehead presidential candidate.
       JOSE LUIS MERINO (code name ``Ramiro''), de-facto leader of 
     FMLN, helped arrange the diesel fuel deal with Chavez. In 
     2005 interview, Merino said El Salvador should model itself 
     after Chavez's Venezuela, and that USSR was ``one of the most 
     just'' political systems on earth.
       FMLN, like Chavez, is ally of designated terrorist groups 
     and of state sponsors of terror, including FARC, Cuba and 
     Iran. FMLN contains clandestine armed groups (BPJ, `El 
     Limon', BRES), that stage violent actions, killed a 
     policeman, and attacked presidential convoy.
       FARC (Colombian narco-terrorists)
       Merino is implicated in arms trafficking with FARC. In raid 
     on a rebel camp last year, Colombian military seized computer 
     of FARC leader Raul Reyes. An e-mail from Ivan Marquez, FARC 
     guerrillas' primary contact with the Venezuelan government, 
     showed Merino to be the link with certain arms dealers.
       IRAN
       Chavez introduced FMLN and Iran at meetings in Nicaragua. 
     With flights from El Salvador to 10 U.S. cities and large 
     FMLN network in the United States, Salvador would be 
     important beachhead for Iran, a state sponsor of terror. Iran 
     opened large embassy in Nicaragua and is building relations 
     with Honduras.
       CUBA
       FMLN is close ally of Cuba, a state sponsor of terror. 
     Castro played key role creating FMLN as an armed 
     revolutionary force, uniting five Salvadoran extremist groups 
     under one banner.

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