CISPES Protest at SF Consulate of El Salvador

October 6 -13 marks an international solidarity week of action to demand that terrorist charges against Salvadoran protestors be dropped. On July 2, fourteen people were arrested in Suchitoto , E l Salvador for taking part in a protest against water privatization. Police brutality against the peaceful demonstration and the arrests of 14 of them produced international outrage, and ultimately this pressure forced the Salvadoran government to temporarily release the detainees. Nevertheless, protestors continue to be charged under the “anti-terrorism” law and could face up to 60 years in prison. This draconian law that criminalizes different forms of public protest as acts of terrorism is being used to silence the social movement in El Salvador , criminalizing acts that do not in any way constitute terrorism!

In El Salvador different sectors continue to resist the anti-terrorism law, claiming that the way it is being employed, both against the social movement in general and against the 14 demonstrators in particular, represents a step back from the 1992 Peace Accords. Three judges declared last week that the law is “too confusing” and, more importantly, declared that “simple street protests are not acts of terrorism”. Despite the repression against the Salvadoran social movement, people continue to organize against privatization and economic and political repression.

The trial of the Suchitoto protesters was scheduled for the first week of October but has been delayed for six months while the prosecutors build their “terrorism” case. However, it is obvious that the trial was delayed for lack of evidence, since those arrested were in the streets to voice their opinion against water privatization.

The United States government has a responsibility to speak out against the way the anti-terrorism law is targeting and criminalizing the social movement. However, the government has consistently supported the implementation of the law, while bolstering El Salvador ’s repressive National Civil Police through the US-sponsored International Law Enforcement Academy (ILEA). Your action is critical in defending the right to organize, in solidarity with those who are struggling to keep water accessible and public in El Salvador (see below)! Community leaders and non-violent protestors are not terrorists.

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