[News] CISPES Disputes Department of Justice Order, Denounces Possible Repeat of Illegal Harassment!

[Anti-Imperialist News]

For immediate release
March 11, 2008

Contact: Burke Stansbury, CISPES – 202 521 2510 
ext. 205; <mailto:burke at cispes.org>burke at cispes.org

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

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

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



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