ALERTA ESTADOS UNIDOS QUIERE HACERNOS FRAUDE

ACTION ALERT

October 2008
Stand up against intervention in El SalvadorSalvadoran Foreign Minister calls for more U.S. involvement in Latin AmericaEl Salvador's Minister of Foreign Affairs, Marisol Argueta, has publicly urged the U.S. government to help prevent the leftist FMLN party from winning next year's presidential election in El Salvador. Act now to ensure that the U.S. does not repeat its electoral intervention of 2004.Call your Congressional Representatives TODAY to insist they make a commitment to free and fair elections in El Salvador.

Congress must refute the ruling ARENA party's call for intervention by declaring its neutrality and willingness to maintain a positive relationship with any government freely elected by the Salvadoran people. In a speech on September 18 at the American Enterprise Institute, a right-wing think tank in Washington, D.C., Argueta called on the U.S. government to be more active in Latin America, lest countries such as El Salvador elect "dangerous populists" in upcoming elections. Along with her open-ended exhortation for the U.S. to "do more" to prevent an opposition government from being elected, she specifically lobbied for the U.S. to pass immigration reform legislation and to increase its funding for El Salvador's police. For a summary of Argueta's speech, go here:

http://www.aei.org/events/filter.,eventID.1794/summary.asp The panel discussion in which Argueta took part was moderated by Roger Noriega, who himself perpetrated electoral intervention in El Salvador while serving as Assistant Secretary of State in 2004. At the time, Noriega publicly threatened that U.S. relations with El Salvador would be ruptured in the case of an FMLN victory at the polls. Such threats led many Salvadorans to fear that their relatives in the U.S. – whose remittances make up nearly 20% of the Salvadoran economy – would be deported if the FMLN were elected.

TAKE ACTION!1) Call your Congressional Representative using the following number and ask to be connected to your Representative's office: (202) 224-3121.

See below for sample script.

2) Sign the petition calling upon Salvadoran President Saca to ensure that government employees do not use their positions to influence the results of upcoming elections: http://www.share-elsalvador.org/

3) Sign onto CISPES' "People's Pledge to Defend Free & Fair Elections in El Salvador" and accompany the Salvadoran people by standing in solidarity with them during their struggle for REAL democracy.

Go to www.cispes.org/pledge2009 -----------------------------------You can use the following script to talk to your Congressional Representative. Call (202) 224-3121.1.

I am calling to urge Representative ___________ to publicly support democracy in El Salvador by declaring that Congress will not seek to influence the results of the 2009 elections. 2. In speech on September 18, El Salvador's Minister of Foreign Affairs called upon the U.S. to help ensure that the opposition FMLN party does not win the country's March 2009 presidential election.

3. In 2004, officials from the Bush Administration and some Members of Congress publicly threatened that the election the FMLN's presidential candidate would jeopardize the relationship between the U.S. and El Salvador. In one glaring example, Congressman Tom Tancredo threatened that the U.S. would restrict the money that Salvadoran immigrants living in the U.S. send home, but only if the FMLN's candidate were to be elected.

4. This statement, among others, caused many Salvadorans to vote out of fear of U.S. retaliation, rather than as their own convictions led them. As someone who believes in democracy, I want to make sure the U.S. does not intervene in El Salvador's elections again in 2009.

5. It is extremely important that Members of Congress stand up for the Salvadoran people's right to freely elect their government, without foreign manipulation. I am calling on Representative ____________ to declare neutrality toward the 2009 Salvadoran elections, and to assert that Congress is willing to seek a positive relationship with any government freely elected by the Salvadoran people. We are also interested in having your office co-sponsor a letter to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice U.S. calling for neutrality in the Salvadoran elections.

NOTE: If your representative's office agrees to make a statement or co-sponsor the letter, ask for the contact information of the person that the letter should be sent to.

Then contact Burke Stansbury at burke@cispes.org to pass on the contact information and Representative's name. We will follow up with that Representative.