Dear Madam Ambassador,

I am writing to express to you our utmost concern at the arrest and ongoing detention on anti-terrorism charges of four members of CRIPDES, a partner organization of the Canadian Catholic Organization for Development and Peace. As you are aware, CRIPDES (Asociación de Comunidades Rurales para el Desarrollo de El Salvador) is a partner in our Central America programme, which is partly funded by CIDA. CRIPDES’ link with Canada was strengthened this past June by a Canadian youth delegation to El Salvador, in which Canadian youth members of Development and Peace met with CRIPDES.

We have already made known to the Salvadorean government our consternation at the arrest on July 2 in Suchitoto of Martha Lorena Araujo, Rosa Maria Centeno, Maria Haydee Chicas and Manuel Antonio Rodriguez. The latter four, far from taking part in violent actions, were on their way to a demonstration against water privatization in Suchitoto, exercising their right to democratic protest. We have received the documentation of the incident by Tutela Legal, the Catholic Church’s human rights organization, and we note their conclusion that the police used excessive force to break up a legitimate social demonstration. Amnesty International has also expressed its concerns about these detentions.

We note the conclusions of Tutela Legal that neither the four CRIPDES staff, nor the ten other civil society activists arrested took part in violence. After their arrest, the 14 were roughed up by the police, who used excessive and unnecessary force, and used psychological pressure tactics by threatening the detainees.

Tutela Legal pointed out the inappropriate use of the Armed Forces to control the demonstration, when this should have been the work of the National Civilian Police. The joint police and armed forces actions of the day led Tutela Legal to conclude that the State’s actions on July 2 in Suchitoto sought not to restore public order, but rather to punish, intimidate and repress the social movement, and dissuade others from exercising their right to democratic social protest, a right that is protected in Salvadorean law as well as international human rights legislation.

Development and Peace considers extremely worrying the fact that a social protest regarding the population’s access to water has been labelled a terrorist act, by the use of the country’s new Anti Terrorist Legislation. Such concerns have also been expressed by El Salvador’s own Human Rights Ombudsman. In our view, such an inappropriate use of this legislation will ultimately undermine the struggle against violent acts of terrorism, as stamping a terrorist label on social protesters insults those who are the victims of real acts of terrorism.

We hope that Canada will be forceful in making known its concerns regarding the Salvadorean government’s treatment of this case. Such treatment of the social movement is contrary to the spirit of the peace process, for which Canada has shown strong support. We urge Canada to continue such support by taking a strong stand that human rights are a cornerstone of any democratic society, and urging the Salvadorean government to see that charges against the 13 currently held are dropped, and they are immediately released.

We would welcome receiving any further information from you on this case, as and when there are developments.

With thanks for your attention to this matter,

Yours sincerely

Michael Casey
Executive Director

Cc: Elizabeth Pelton, Desk Officer, DFAIT
Elio Tamburi, Coordinator, Latin America and Caribbean Unit,
Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Geneva