Rights Abuses Escalate in El Salvador

Clashes between students and police left two officers and at least three students dead at the end of a July 5 rally in San Salvador to protest government sanctioned bus fare hikes.

According to an article that appeared on the Christians for Peace in El Salvador (CRISPAZ) website, police subsequently locked down the University, and blocked foot and vehicular traffic within a half mile of the campus. Police entered the university campus, in violation of strict legal codes protecting university autonomy, and arrested 20 people.

On July 5, 2006, the Coordinadora Sindical de Trabajadores Salvadoreños (CSTS) union informed the Salvadoran government of their intention to participate in a hearing before the Inter-American Human Rights Commission concerning the systematic violation of union rights by the Salvadoran government. The next day, police raided the CSTS office. Daniel Ernesto Morales, a CSTS union leader was beaten, tortured, and imprisoned. The police also stole money and files containing personal information, Students Against Sweatshops reports. Activists are invited to sign on to an open letter of protest, saying, "We are concerned that this series of acts was meant to serve as retaliation for CSTS' attempt to bring attention to the repression of union organizing and other progressive social movements that, unfortunately, has become all too common throughout El Salvador."

On July 2, the website reports, Francisco Antonio Manzanares and Juana Monjarás de Manzanares, parents of Radio Venceremos co-founder Marina Manzanares, were tortured for hours then killed in their home. The police maintain that the Manzaneres were the victims of robbers, but Human Rights Ombudswoman Beatrice Carrillo denounced the continued existence of "extermination groups." Carillo told CRISPAZ, "If we don't take this problem seriously in this country, we are going to have a social debacle of incalculable magnitude." For information, see www.crispaz.org/news/news_home.htm.