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URGENT ACTION
Urgent Action El Salvador: Peaceful protest against water privatization
results in injuries, imprisonment, and charges of terrorism
16 July 2007
Content
On July 2, a peaceful demonstration against water privatization
in the community of Suchitoto, El Salvador, was used as an excuse
to detain fourteen activists from the Rural Development Association
(CRIPDES). They were then threatened with harm, charged under the
country’s anti- terrorism laws, and thirteen of them were
placed in three months’ “preventative” detention.
Your help in securing their safe release and protesting this grave
breach of human rights is needed!
Background
El Salvador continues to struggle against the impact of the civil
war, death squads, and US military intervention that gripped the
country in the 1970s and 1980s. Then as now, poverty, landlessness,
and a lack of basic services were a daily reality for the majority
of the population. Violence, whether by official forces or gang
members, continues to be ever present. In more recent years, the
national government has put its weight behind a number of efforts
to privatize basic services—especially water. These policies
have met widespread, peaceful opposition. (See http://salvaide.ca/elsalvador.html
for an overview of El Salvador).
In this context, any progress towards true democracy, equality
and relief from violence are absolutely crucial. The Peace Accords
signed in the 1990s will mean little if peaceful protest for much
needed services is met with violence, detention, and terrorism charges.
At a July 2 demonstration, CRIPDES, its regional branch in Suchitoto
(PROGRESO) and the people of the organized rural communities in
that municipality were peacefully demonstrating against the Salvadorean
government’s plans for the privatization of water. (see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-HfKckkEORk
) Ninety percent of El Salvador’s natural water supplies are
contaminated and over half the population relies on untreated water
for cooking, drinking and cleaning.
Before ever reaching the demonstration, the following four staff
members of The Association for Rural Development of El Salvador,
CRIPDES were arrested: Marta Lorena Araujo Martínez, President
of The Association for Rural Development of El Salvador, CRIPDES,
Manuel Antonio Rodríguez Escalante, who was driving the CRIPDES
vehicle, Rosa María Centeno Valle, Vice-President of CRIPDES,
and María Aydee Chicas Sorto, CRIPDES journalist and photographer,
They had not even gotten out of the vehicle, and were arrested
for nothing more than heading toward the demonstration. (See the
video Capture of CRIPDES leaders: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-HfKckkEORk&mode=related&search
)They were transported by helicopter to Cojutepeque, and en route
were subjected to psychological torture, including the threat of
being thrown out of the helicopter from high altitude.
On that day the anti-riot police, known as the Unit for the Maintenance
of Order (UMO) of the National Civilian Police (PNC) assisted by
the Reaction Police Group (GRP) also attacked the protesters for
four hours with tear gas, pepper spray and rubber bullets. Helicopters
circled the area, and a military unit was deployed in armored vehicles.
A total of 25 people were injured with rubber bullets, 18 were injured
by the pepper spray, and in total 14 were arrested. Three of those
arrested were leaders of the Association of Rural Communities for
the Development of El Salvador (CRIPDES) and the fourth member is
their driver. The police stopped them as they were driving toward
Suchitoto; the four had not even participated in the protest.
The families that live in the communities of the area were affected
by the gas and had to evacuate children from schools—a reminder
of the repressive military sweeps during the armed conflict of the
1980s. Ironically, the only difference is that today the repressors
are agents of the PNC, an institution born out of the Peace Accords,
and not the feared Armed Forces of the 1980s.
More than 81 persons reported wounds and blows attended to by first
aid organizations, in addition to thirty persons attended to in
the Suchitoto hospital and many cared for by the same local residents.
The 14 detainees and CRIPDES leaders were tried on July 7, 2007
in a Special Tribunal for Acts of Terrorism. (See the video “Third
Day of the process against the leaders of CRIPDES: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3evKoeIUULA&NR=1)
Judge Ana Lucila Fuentes de Paz, Specialized Judge for Organized
Crime, a new court system established by the anti-terrorism legislation,
sentenced 13 of the activists to three months of preventative detention
to allow the public prosecutor to gather more evidence to support
the charges of acts of terrorism, public disorder and illicit association.
The incarceration of the 13 activists only proves that these arrests
have a political end, and are an attempt by the government to intimidate,
coerce and silence any dissent against unpopular policies.
Salvadoran citizens’ groups continue to claim the constitutional
right of the people to demonstrate peacefully against government
abuses and privatization policies, above all in the defense of water.
They reject this obvious attempt to apply special or anti-terrorist
laws to local residents and are clear that both the Anti-terrorist
Law and the Organized Crime Law are unconstitutional.
For ongoing updates, please see the Salvaide site at http://salvaide.ca/urgent.html
A statement from Amnesty International will be posted shortly at
http://web.amnesty.org/library/eng-slv/index
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Suggested action
See also KAIROS’
letter 
Please write to the President of El Salvador, and to Canada’s
ambassador to El Salvador requesting that Canada intervene with
the Salvadoran government. Please ask for:
1. The immediate release of the detainees; respect for their physical
and moral integrity, and assurances that constitutional process
will be followed.
2. Respect for the Constitution and therefore, the citizens’
rights specified in it. You can note that the freedom of expression,
assembly, movement, and association are inalienable human rights,
and the demonstrations which took place in Suchitoto were a legitimate
exercise of constitutional freedom.
3. That there be respect for the Constitution and the rule of law
without interference. The FGR [Attorney General], the national police,
and the judiciary should submit themselves exclusively to the mandates
of the Constitution and to constitutional laws.
4. Respect for the independence of the judiciary.
Please send your letters to:
- President Antonio Saca, care of the Canadian NGO Salvaide (It
is very difficult to get through to the presidential office by
fax: 001-503-243-9947 . So please email, fax or mail your letter
to Salvaide and they will courier packages of letters to the president’s
office.)
salvaide
, fax to 613- 233-7375, or mail to 219
Argyle Ave. Suite 411, Ottawa, ON, K2P 2H4
- Please email a copy of your letter to Carlos Bonilla, Ministry
of Security
Carlos.Bonilla
- Ambassador Stephanie Allard-Gomez, Canadian Ambassador in El
Salvador,
ssal
- Rachel Warden, KAIROS Global Partnerships Latin America coordinator,
rwarden
or fax 416 463 5569, or mail: KAIROS,
129 St Clair Ave West, Toronto ON. M4V 1N5.
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