Bay Area update from El Salvador

Dear Friends-

I just wanted to let you all know that I made it into San Salvador safely,
along with my two friends and co-workers from the Oakland Catholic WOrker,
Natalie and Melody.
WE arrived around 6:30p.m. Friday March 12, and made it through immigration
and customs just fine. I was questioned about my reason for being here, but
was not asked directly about the elections.
However, as you will see from the following update from CIS (the
organization organizing election observer delegations) that several people
have been interrogated and detained at the San SAlvador airport, with
immigration officials trying to deny entry to anyone they suspect as
elections observers--which is illegal.

I would like to ask you to call, e-mail or fax your representatives as well
as the U.S. Embassy in San Salvador to urge them to demand that observers be
allowed to enter the country. Please see the contact information for the
U.S. Embassy below...

Aside from this urgent news, all is going well an I am really enjoying it
here. We are staying with a frien from the bay area who has been in SAn
Salvador fro about 4 years. We spent the day yesterday with another friend,
a feminist woman who was in prison for part of the war here and does amazing
work with women in the maquiladoras (factories). I've already had amazing
pupusas, and went to a vigil last night for the 24th anniversary of Monsenor
Oscar Romero's assassination. It was a beautiful celebration of his life
and the resiliency an beauty of the people of El Salvaor.
Tomorrow we will begin the orientation process and become credentialed
observers of the national elections...
We hae already heard and seen that the situation is quite tense here between
the two main opposing parties- ARENA, which has ben the ruling party for
the last 15 years, and FMLN, the left wing party which for the first time
has a chance of upsetting the balance of power. The ARENA campaign has ben
quite a dirty one, attempting to scare anyone away from voting for the FMLN
candidate for president, Schafik Handal. One way they have done this is to
claim that Schafik hats the gringos, and the gringos hate him, an that is he
is elected, all Salvadorans sending money from or living in the U.S. will be
deprted. Well, to some of the Salvadorans we met at an FMLN rally
yesterday, we were quite the attraction...one group wanted to take our
picture to prove that the gringos support the SAlvadoran people.
My tattoo has also been a novelty, with teenage boys being the most frequent
admiring audience...:)

Anyway, I just wanted to say hi to you all, and let you know what{s going on
here. I will try to kep you updated if I have time to make it to another
internet cafe at some point...

Peace to you all-

Rachel