Outrage! White House invitation to Bush's boy in El Salvador

[Joanne98]

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/11/16/113056/65

White House invitation to Bush's boy in El Salvador
by Daisy Cutter

Fri Nov 16, 2007 at 09:19:53 AM PST
The Bush White House today issued a press release announcing that on November 29, Salvadoran President Elias Antonio "Tony" Saca will visit the White House in order to discuss, among other things, "security cooperation with Central America to combat organized crime, drug smuggling, and international terror." Saca is about as "pro-US" as Latin American leaders come. Post-civil war El Salvador has generally been dominated by the right-wing, which has engaged in the usual IMF/World Bank-encouraged variety of neoliberal reforms. It is a dedicated member of the CAFTA treaty. The small country even currently has troops stationed in Iraq.

Needless to say, the US has played a large role in keeping the right-wing ARENA party in power through vague threats of revoking remittances from Salvadoran immigrants working in the US. Frontline reporter Joe Rubin describes how this works:

The $2.2 billion per year in remittances that Salvadorans "pay back" to relatives at home dwarfs every other industry in El Salvador.

More below.

Daisy Cutter's diary :: ::
A typical pro-Saca television spot that aired repeatedly in the closing days of the campaign showed a middle-class Salvadoran couple receiving a phone call from their son in Los Angeles.

"Mom, I wanted to let you know that I'm scared," the young man says.

"Why?" his mother asks.

"Because if Schafik becomes president of El Salvador, I may be deported," her son answers, "and you won't be able to receive the remittances that I'm sending you."

Of course, US officials (Iran-Contra criminals no less) played a large role in fanning these fears:

Addressing the press in El Salvador a month before the elections, Roger Noriega, the assistant secretary of the U.S. Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs, attacked the FMLN, saying, "We know the history of this political movement, and for this reason, it is fair that the Salvadoran people consider what type of relations a new government could have with us."
<...>
But just days before El Salvador's election, another Bush administration official, Special White House Assistant Otto Reich, went a step further. In a telephone interview on March 13, 2004, with the Salvadoran press gathered at ARENA headquarters, Reich declared, "We are concerned about the impact that an FMLN victory would have on the commercial, economic and migration-related relations that the United States has with El Salvador."

Reich went on to say that the United States would reevaluate its relationship with "an El Salvador led by a person who is an admirer of Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez."

I wonder if Bush and Saca, while talking about "organized crime, drug smuggling, and international terror," will discuss the case of the 13 protesters charged with terrorism for opposing the privatization of the water supply? Or the FMLN members who were assasinated even after the civil war was officially over. Or the blanket amnesty law that let all death squad members, even the ones involved in the assassination of Monsenor Romero, off the hook. Or the draconian restrictions on freedom of movement included in "anti-gang" legislation. Or Roberto D'Aubuisson, the "pathological killer" whom Saca personally commemorated at a memorial ceremony in early 2007.

American meddling. Rightist oligarchs in power. Intimidation and disenfranchisement of the left. It's as if the Cold War never ended for El Salvador. As the saying goes:

The more things change, the more they stay the same
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/11/16/113056/65

[Joanne98]

1. kick

[Judi Lynn]

2. So the people involved in the loathesome murder of Archbishop Romero were allowed

their freedom through the munificence of the US-clinging right-wing-controlled Salvadoran government. What an evil shame.

Shot down right in his church, after giving mass, Archbishop Romero appeared to know he didn't have long to live. He had been getting death threats before he was assassinated by people waiting outside the church to shoot him down as he led his congregation.

This is his last sermon given, ever:

Archbishop Oscar Romero
The Last Sermon (1980)
Let no one be offended because we use the divine words read at our mass to shed light on the social, political and economic situation of our people. Not to do so would be unchristian. Christ desires to unite himself with humanity, so that the light he brings from God might become life for nations and individuals.

I know many are shocked by this preaching and want to accuse us of forsaking the gospel for politics. But I reject this accusation. I am trying to bring to life the message of the Second Vatican Council and the meetings at Medellin and Puebla. The documents from these meetings should not just be studied theoretically. They should be brought to life and translated into the real struggle to preach the gospel as it should be for our people. Each week I go about the country listening to the cries of the people, their pain from so much crime, and the ignominy of so much violence. Each week I ask the Lord to give me the right words to console, to denounce, to call for repentance. And even though I may be a voice crying in the desert, I know that the church is making the effort to fulfill its mission....

Every country lives its own "exodus"; today El Salvador is living its own exodus. Today we are passing to our liberation through a desert strewn with bodies and where anguish and pain are devastating us. Many suffer the temptation of those who walked with Moses and wanted to turn back and did not work together. It is the same old story. God, however, wants to save the people by making a new history....
(snip)

I would like to make a special appeal to the men of the army, and specifically to the ranks of the National Guard, the police and the military. Brothers, you come from our own people. You are killing your own brother peasants when any human order to kill must be subordinate to the law of God which says, "Thou shalt not kill." No soldier is obliged to obey an order contrary to the law of God. No one has to obey an immoral law. It is high time you recovered your consciences and obeyed your consciences rather than a sinful order. The church, the defender of the rights of God, of the law of God, of human dignity, of the person, cannot remain silent before such an abomination. We want the government to face the fact that reforms are valueless if they are to be carried out at the cost of so much blood. In the name of God, in the name of this suffering people whose cries rise to heaven more loudly each day, I implore you, I beg you, I order you in the name of God: stop the repression.

The church preaches your liberation just as we have studied it in just as we have studied it in the holy Bible today. It is a liberation that has, above all else, respect for the dignity of the person, hope for humanity's common good, and the transcendence that looks before all to God and only from God derives its hope and its strength.

From The Church and Human Liberation, March 14, 1980.

http://www.haverford.edu/relg/faculty/amcguire/romero.html

~~~~~~~~~~~From the Romero Wiki:

Archbishop Romero denounced what he characterized as the persecution of his Church:

In less than three years, more than fifty priests have been attacked, threatened and slandered. Six of them are martyrs, having been assassinated; various others have been tortured, and others expelled from the country. Religious women have also been the object of persecution. The archdiocesan radio station, Catholic educational institutions and Christian religious institutions have been constantly attacked, menaced, threatened with bombs. Various parish convents have been sacked.<4>

Catholic priests assassinated in El Salvador during Óscar Romero's archbishopric (1977 - 1980):

• Rutilio Grande García, S.J. - assassinated March 12, 1977
  
• Alfonso Navarro Oviedo - assassinated May 11, 1977
  
• Ernesto Barrera - assassinated November 28, 1978
  
• Octavio Ortiz Luna - assassinated January 20, 1979
  
• Rafael Palacios - assassinated June 20, 1979
  
• Alirio Napoleón Macías - assassinated August 4, 1979

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oscar_Romero

~~~~~~~~~~~
Joanne98, here's more on the _Bush administration and assorted other Republicans' meddling in the last El Salvadoran election. I had to look it up when I remembered reading that _{Jeb Bush} was down there mucking around in their affairs right before their vote, and wanted to make sure that got included:

INTERVENTION BY U.S. OFFICIALS

Here are some examples of U.S. intervention.

Paul Trivelli, Director of Central American Affairs for the Department of State, said “We said that we would not hesitate to express our opinion on issues that affect our bilateral relations and that we will continue reacting to the actions and statements of the FMLN during the campaign.” Douglas Barclay, current U.S. Ambassador to El Salvador remarked, “Congresspeople can say what they want when they are here. “

Rose Likins, in 2003 before she left her post as our Ambassador to El Salvador, said that the U.S. would respect the will of Salvadoran people in the coming election, but that our government would “re-analyze” relations if the FMLN won the presidency. She said explicitly that the Bush Administration was aware of her sentiments.

El Dario de Hoy alluded to a comment by Douglas Barclay that the U.S. would determine the type of support and relations according to what the elected candidate decided. He also noted in El Diario de Hoy that his country would support the candidate who won. He did not say however that the U.S. would refrain from interfering in the election.

Roger Noriega, Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs, several times said that he hoped the Salvadoran people would elect someone who “shares our vision, but it is the Salvadorans’ decision and we are going to respect the results.” He clearly showed that he thought Salvadorans should not vote for the FMLN when, during a visit to El Salvador, he met with the candidates from ARENA and also two minor parties but did not meet with the FMLN candidate, Schafik Handal.

Otto Reich, Special Envoy to the Western Hemisphere for the White House, said in a press conference held at the ARENA party campaign center that Salvadorans should choose a government that they know has “good relations with the U.S. and shares our values.” But he made clear that the FMLN did not meet these requirements. He said that the U.S. “could not have the same confidence in an El Salvador led by a person who is obviously an admirer of Fidel Castro and of Hugo Chavez… The U.S. would be fully justified in revising aspects related to a bilateral diplomatic relationship.” He made his comments in a press conference held at the ARENA party campaign center.

Jeb Bush, President Bush’s brother, met only with ARENA presidential candidate Tony Saca. during a visit to El Salvador to discuss CAFTA (the Central America Free Trade Agreement) .

Rogelio Pardo-Maurer, Deputy Defense Secretary for Western Hemisphere Affairs, after a visit with Tony Saca in Washington, commented that the ARENA plan “is a plan that inspires a lot of confidence in the U.S.”

Thomas Tancredo, congressperson from Colorado, said that if the FMLN controlled the Salvadoran government after the elections, it could mean a radical change in U.S. policy regarding the essentially free flow of remittances from Salvadorans living in the U.S. to El Salvador. Dan Burton, congressperson from Indiana, apparently does not know that the Cold War is over. He said that if the communist candidate of the FMLN assumes the presidency of El Salvador, it could very well be necessary for the U.S. “to reconsider its relationship with El Salvador, the prolongation of TPS and our current support for the sending of their remittances to their country.”

Dana Rohrabacher, congressperson from California, said that it is important that the Salvadoran people understand that their decision at the polls will have consequences for future relations with the U.S. Congresspersons Tom Davis of Virginia, Kevin Brady of Texas, Mario Díaz-Balart of Florida and Jerry Weller of Illinois met with Tony Saca, the ARENA presidential candidate, but not with his opponent.

Many of these statements by representatives of the U.S. were repeated later in statements made by ARENA leaders.

Francisco Flores, the President of El Salvador, remarked “How many families are not going to receive their remittances? An important source of the economy will be lost. We are talking about immense risks for the country… Investors are nervous. I know many projects that are being delayed, people saying, ‘I’m not going to invest while this is not defined.’ The first effect is in the investor and that affects jobs.” He was reported as being “worried for the future of remittances because of the comments of Tancredo, Burton, Rohrabacher.”

Rene Leon, the Salvadoran Ambassador in Washington, reacted to Congressperson Tancredo’s comments about TPS, saying " Legislators threaten the continuation of TPS. He also commented on the other statements from U.S. officials, referring to them as a signal being emitted from Washington and Congress that he looked at with concern.

Women for Freedom (Mujeres por la Libertad), a group that placed a large number of anti-FMLN propaganda in the Salvadoran newspapers, quoted Roger Noriega, and Rose Likins in one of their ads and also noted that, “some Salvadoran brothers do not realize the catastrophe and the chaos that would result from a President like Schafik Handal.”
(snip/...)

http://www.countercurrents.org/us-lucas100105.htm

[Joanne98]

3. Thanx Judi. We can only hope that all these people get what they deserve someday!

[0007]

4. How many Salvadorans have graduated from the 'Schools of America'?

Thanks for reminding me about the conditions else where, Joanne98.

[Judi Lynn]

5. I just stumbled across this reference to the Salvadoran water privatization today, while looking for

information on something concerning another country!

Wednesday, August 1st, 2007
Salvadorans Face Terror Charges for Opposing Water Privatization

A protest against water privatization in El Salvador last month resulted in 13 demonstrators charged with committing acts of terrorism. If found guilty they could face up to 60 years of prison time under laws modeled on the USA Patriot Act.

_______________

~snip~
AMY GOODMAN: We turn to El Salvador, where protests against water privatization early last month ended with the arrest of fourteen protesters, thirteen of whom were subsequently charged with committing acts of terrorism.

On July 2, hundreds of people had gathered in the Suchitoto municipality to protest President Antonio Saca’s plan to decentralize water distribution. They saw the plan as an attempt to privatize municipal water resources as stipulated in a 1998 World Bank loan. The protesters were met with heavily armed riot police, who fired rubber bullets and tear gas on the crowd and detained fourteen people. Among those arrested was a journalist covering the protest and members of CRIPDES, the Association of Rural Communities for the Development of El Salvador. They were on their way to attend the rally in Suchitoto.

Last week, the prisoners were released on bail as a result of national and international pressure. But the charges of terrorism remain, and if found guilty, they could face up to sixty years of prison time. El Salvador's antiterrorism law came into effect last year and is modeled on the USA PATRIOT Act. Human rights groups have condemned the government’s response and application of this draconian law. Human Rights Watch said yesterday the law criminalizes a wide variety of acts most of which “do not fall within any reasonable definition of terrorism.”

Today, Krista Hanson joins us, also from Boston, to tell us more. She's the program director at CISPES, the Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador. Welcome to Democracy Now!, Krista. Explain what's happening in El Salvador.

KRISTA HANSON: Well, I think that what's really important to know about that event on July 2 in Suchitoto is that it comes from -- I mean, the resistance that was happening there comes from a long history in El Salvador of -- first, of this implementation of privatization. People in El Salvador know what privatization of public resources looks like. The telecommunications, electricity, other industries have been privatized, and the rates go up so much that people have no access anymore to those. And so, you can't have that with water, right?
(snip/...)

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/08/01/1435246

[Judi Lynn]

6. Please look through this documentary by British author John Pilger to 1:02 on the counter,

to see people attempting to enter a memorial service for Archbishop Romero getting shot at/down by a death squad. It will certainly give you something to think about:

John Pilger - The War On Democracy
http://tenpercent.wordpress.com/2007/08/23/john-pilger-the-war-on-democracy/

This entire film is surely worth your time.

Here's the google video page, in case the sound on the film link above comes through a little weak on your computer. I'm certain there will be one version which will be perfect:
http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=The+War+on+Democracy+John+Pilger&hl=en&sitesearch=