[Marxism] CISPES under the gun

[Greg McDonald <sabocat59@xxxxxxx>]

March 11, 2008

Contact: Burke Stansbury, CISPES 202 521 2510 ext. 205; burke@xxxxxxxxxx

Central American Solidarity Activists Dispute Department of Justice  
Order, Denounce Possible Repeat of Illegal Harassment



Grassroots Group Accused of Being Foreign Agent of Leftist Political  
Party in Lead-up to Contentious Salvadoran Presidential Elections



Washington DC: The Committee in Solidarity with the People of El  
Salvador (CISPES), illegally targeted in the 1980 s by the largest  
FBI Internal Security investigation of the Reagan era, has in recent  
months again received threatening communications from the U.S.  
Department of Justice.  Citing the Foreign Agents Registration Act of  
1938, a letter sent to CISPES in January questions the organization s  
relationship with the leftist Salvadoran political party known as the  
Farabundo Marti Front for National Liberation, or FMLN.  CISPES  
received similar inquiries in the 1980s which eventually led to an  
illegal FBI investigation into its activities.



The letter cites the organization s website and an article published  
in the Washington Post which does not mention CISPES following the  
December 2007 visit of the FMLN s presidential candidate Mauricio  
Funes.  It states that, it has come to our attention& that the FMLN,  
and/or possibly its candidate for El Salvador s 2009 presidential  
election, Mauricio Funes, hired your organization for the purposes of  
conducting a public relations media campaign to include political  
fundraising&   The Department of Justice gave no other evidence to  
back up the claim.



According to CISPES Executive Director Burke Stansbury, CISPES has  
never had a contractual agreement with the FMLN or Mr. Funes, nor  
have we taken orders from the party to do publicity work in the U.S.   
Rather, we have a solidarity relationship based on shared political  
values that goes back to the struggle for democracy and economic  
justice that the people of El Salvador fought against a brutal U.S.- 
backed military regime in the 1980s.   CISPES was founded in 1980 at  
the height of the civil war between the US-backed Salvadoran  
government and the FMLN, at that time an internationally recognized  
guerrilla force.



That the Department of Justice would wrongly evoke the Foreign Agents  
Registration Act (FARA) to target this organization at this  
particular moment demonstrates the Administration's fear of  
progressive change sweeping Latin America . It is an effort to  
intimidate and stifle solidarity groups in the U.S. who oppose the  
Government's efforts to install puppet regimes against the will of  
the people of Latin America, said Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, a lawyer  
from the Partnership for Civil Justice who is part of the team of  
attorneys assisting CISPES in this matter.



The Salvadoran FMLN and its candidate Funes have gained broad support  
12 months ahead of the 2009 election, in large part due to the  
failure of U.S.-supported neoliberal policies like the U.S.-Central  
America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA).



This shows that the Bush Administration is terrified of another Latin  
American country electing a Left party, said Stansbury.  People in  
the region want fair and transparent elections, free of outside  
intervention, and such actions by the Bush Administration show a  
dangerous tendency towards once again disrupting the electoral  
process of a sovereign country.   In 2004, the last time the FMLN had  
a chance to win the presidency, U.S. government officials issued  
statements showing clear support for the right-wing ARENA party and  
threatening to cut off money sent from Salvadorans in the U.S. to  
their families should the FMLN win.



In 1981 FBI investigated CISPES for allegedly acting as a foreign  
agent of the FMLN.  When that claim proved baseless, the Department  
of Justice launched a full-scale investigation based on the claim  
that CISPES was a front for the terrorist FMLN. The FBI campaign of  
surveillance, harassment, and intimidation of CISPES lasted until  
1987 and ultimately became a major embarrassment for the Bureau when  
CISPES and the Center for Constitutional Rights forced the release of  
FBI files under the Freedom of Information Act.  Subsequent  
Congressional hearings showed the FBI to have conducted numerous  
illegal operations, led to an internal inquiry by the Bureau, and  
curtailed the scope of domestic surveillance activities which were  
later expanded again under the USA Patriot Act.



In the 1980s the Department of Justice set out to intimidate and  
repress the powerful Central America solidarity movement, said Angela  
Sanbrano, CISPES Executive Director during the FBI investigation of  
the1980s. That infamous witch hunt was a complete failure, and yet  
the Bush Administration has the nerve to return to the original  
tactics of using an ambiguous law FARA to threaten CISPES again.



CISPES has continued its work of supporting real democracy and human  
rights in El Salvador by taking delegations of elections observers to  
El Salvador; touring prominent Salvadoran labor leaders and human  
rights advocates in the U.S.; and working to prevent a repeat of past  
U.S. political intervention.  CISPES has opposed the opening of the  
U.S.-sponsored International Law Enforcement Academy (ILEA), claiming  
that it has served to export repressive U.S. policing tactics  
including harassment of political activists from opposition groups to  
Latin America.



It s no coincidence that the Bush Administration is targeting CISPES  
now for our solidarity with movements in El Salvador, said Sha Grogan- 
Brown, CISPES s Development Director.  As more and more progressive  
forces take power in Latin America, the State Department is looking  
for ways to bolster its few remaining allies and to thwart the rise  
of parties like the FMLN.  But their dirty tactics of harassment and  
intimidation will not stop our solidarity work, as we refuse to  
submit to their pressure.



- Go here to view the Department of Justice letter to CISPES <http:// 
cispes.org/documents/Doj_CISPES_Page1.pdf>

- Go here to view the CISPES response <http://cispes.org/documents/ 
Final_response_to_DOJ.pdf>

- Go here for an article on the history of FBI harassment targeting  
CISPES in the 1980s <http://www.cispes.org/index.php? 
option=com_content&amp;task=view&amp;id=355&amp;Itemid=75>


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