El Salvador's "American-made" Terrorism Act in Corporate Play

Suchitoto 13: El Salvador's "American-made" Terrorism Act in Corporate Play

By Robert Weitzel

Created Feb 10 2008 - 4:50pm

by Robert Weitzel and Meredith DeFrancesco

"Because we were struggling against the privatization of water. Now we have

to struggle against the anti-terrorism law."

- Vincente Vasquez-

In 2001 El Salvador replaced the colon with the U.S. dollar as its national

currency. In 2006 its right-wing government replaced lawful dissent with

U.S. inspired anti-terrorism legislation as its national policy. In return,

the Salvadoran people are offering Americans an object lesson in the value

of our Bill of Rights when dollar meets dissent.

On the morning of July 2, 2007, an estimated 400 Salvadorans who were

waiting for buses to take them to the small town of Suchitoto to attend a

public forum on the privatization of water utilities were accused of

blocking the road and were attacked by riot police firing rubber bullets and

tear gas. Two women and one man were arrested.

In Suchitoto's central square, word of the attack and arrests spread through

the crowds waiting for the motorcade and press caravan of President Antonio

Saca, who was coming to Suchitoto to announce his administration's new

""National Decentralization Policy," a plan viewed by many Salvadorans as

the first step in privatizing the country's publicly-owned water resources.

In solidarity with the marchers being attacked, people began moving in the

direction of the melee. Met by police and military units supported by

helicopters and machine guns mounted on jeeps, people in the front ranks,

attempting to avoid further violence, raised their hands in the air pleading

for calm and shouting, "we are unarmed." The riot squad responded by

advancing on the crowd firing rubber bullets and tear gas at close range.

Many Salvadorans were injured by bullets or overcome by gas. Ten people were

arrested.

Oscar Luna, the Salvadoran Human Rights Ombudsman, spoke out against the

blatant human rights violations committed by the police and military at

Suchitoto, stating, "I was able to identify the following human rights

violations: excessive use of force, excessive use of weapons, mistreatment,

illegal treatment, acts of torture, because that is torture when you

threaten to throw someone out of a helicopter. It's against all kinds of

conventions and violations to human integrity.."

A witness to the protest simply said, "The people who were creating terror

here were the police."

The "Suchitoto 13," as the defendants are known, were initially charged with

public disorder, but Attorney General Garrid Safie quickly upped the charges

to "terrorism" under the country's "Decree 108: The Special Law Against Acts

of Terrorism" enacted in 2006. Judge Fuentes de Paz ordered the Suchitoto 13

to be held for three month in preventative detention to allow the prosecutor

time to gather evidence supporting the charge of terrorism. Released in late

July on conditional liberty, the defendants still face the possibility of 60

years in prison if convicted as "terrorists."

Writing in defense of the Suchitoto 13, Amnesty International said it,

"fears that those concerned were arrested to punish them for their

involvement in legitimate acts of protest and to prevent similar acts in the

future." They went on to say, "Any charges that impair the lawful exercise

of fundamental rights should be dropped . . .."

The fate of the Suchitoto 13 should be of particular interest to Americans

who value the right to lawful dissent and free speech. El Salvador's Decree

108 was not only modeled on the USA PATRIOT Act, but the vagueness and

ambiguity of its language rivals that used in the Violent Radicalization and

Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act passed by the U.S. House of

Representatives in December 2007 by a 404-6 vote and which is currently

being considered in the Senate. The language in both countries'

anti-terrorism legislation has been crafted so that constitutionally

protected dissent can, with a corporate nod, be prosecuted as acts of

terrorism and result in draconian sentences.

El Salvador's right-wing government has close ties to the Bush

administration. It was with the urging and support from his friends in the

Oval Office that President Saca was able to implement CAFTA (Central America

Free Trade Agreement) in March 2006. Critics of CAFTA say it was no

coincidence that the anti-terrorism legislation was enacted six months

later, an occasion praised by the United States ambassador to El Salvador as

proof that the two countries are partners in the war on terrorism. Or, more

cynically stated, partners with the multinational corporations whose

interests both Decree 108 and the Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act are

meant to protect.

Lorena Martinez, one of the Suchitoto 13 and president of CRIPDES, the

Association of Rural Communities for the Development of El Salvador, the

principal organization coordinating the Suchitoto forum, said that by

passing Decree 108 "the government wants to a set a precedence for social

movement organizations, especially organizations that have been very visibly

protesting against what the government's been doing . . . CRIPDES and other

organizations were very strongly against the free trade agreements, against

the interests of multinational companies."

February 8 was the last day the prosecution had to present its case against

the Suchitoto 13. It is not certain whether Attorney General Safie will stay

with the charge of terrorism or downgrade the charge to the original public

disorder-the definition of which was recently changed and the sentences

doubled. The defendants could spend up to eight years in prison if convicted

on the lesser charge. Defense lawyers and social movement leaders said that

whether the charge is terrorism or public disorder, this case is about the

criminalization of social protest.

Whatever the defendants' ultimate charge, Decree 108 has accomplished what

President Saca and President Bush and their multinational corporate partners

intended. It has instilled fear and hesitation in the minds of citizens

whose right to free speech and dissent are inalienable rights guaranteed by

their respective constitutions. In short, it is terrorizing citizens into

silence.

Those of us north of the Rio Grande River, who swear by the Constitution's

Bill of Rights, can take cold comfort in the fact that forty-two Senators

sent a letter to President Saca last July regarding the charges brought

against the Suchitoto 13. They wrote, "It's hard to imagine such acts could

constitute terrorism."

Let's hope these same Senators remember the Suchitoto 13 when it's their

turn to vote on S. 1959: The Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism

Prevention Act, which was written, like El Salvador's Decree 108, to protect

the corporate dollar and prosecute lawful dissent.

Robert Weitzel is a freelance writer and contributing editor to Media With a

Conscience. His essays regularly appear in The Capital Times in Madison, WI.

He has been published in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Skeptic Magazine,

Freethought Today, and on popular liberal websites. He can be contacted at:

robertweitzel@mac.com [1]

Meredith DeFrancesco is a freelance radio journalist whose weekly

RadioActive program is heard on WERU 88.9 FM, Blue Hill, Maine. She traveled

to El Salvador in January 2008 with the U.S. Human Rights Delegation. She

can be contacted at: correspondingsignal@hotmail.com [2]

--

NOTICE: This post contains copyrighted material the use of which has not

always been authorized by the copyright owner. I am making such material

available to advance understanding of

political, human rights, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues. I

believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of such copyrighted material as

provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright

Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107

"A little patience and we shall see the reign of witches pass over, their

spells dissolve, and the people recovering their true sight, restore their

government to its true principles. It is true that in the meantime we are

suffering deeply in spirit,

and incurring the horrors of a war and long oppressions of enormous public

debt. But if the game runs sometimes against us at home we must have

patience till luck turns, and then we shall have an opportunity of winning

back the principles we have lost, for this is a game where principles are at

stake."

-Thomas Jefferson