A letter sent in January refers to the Foreign Agents Registration Act of 1938 (FARA), and questions CISPES’s relationship with the leftist Salvadoran political party, Farabundo Marti Front for National Liberation (FMLN).  

Similar inquiries in the 1980s led to an illegal FBI investigation into CISPES activities.

The January letter cites CISPES’s website and an article published in the Washington Post following the December visit of the FMLN presidential candidate Mauricio Funes. The Post article did not mention CISPES.  

The letter stated 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…”  No evidence was cited.

Current Executive Director Burke Stansbury says, “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 and part of a legal team 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. Surveillance, harassment, and intimidation of CISPES lasted until 1987.

Ultimately CISPES and the Center for Constitutional Rights forced the release of FBI files under the Freedom of Information Act.  Subsequent Congressional hearings showed that the FBI conducted numerous illegal operations. This led to an internal FBI inquiry which curtailed the scope of domestic surveillance activities until they were 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, who was CISPES Executive Director at that time. “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 sent elections observers to El Salvador and hosted Salvadoran labor leaders and human rights advocates on U.S. tours. It generally works to prevent a repeat of past U.S. political intervention.  

CISPES opposed the opening of the U.S.-sponsored International Law Enforcement Academy (ILEA), claiming that it has served to export repressive police tactics—including harassment of opposition political activists—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 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.”  

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Contact: Burke Stansbury, CISPES (202) 521-2510 ext. 205; burke@cispes.org

Department of Justice letter to CISPES

CISPES response to Department of Justice

article on 1980s FBI operation against CISPES

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