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Vol. 72/No. 23      June 9, 2008

 
El Salvador solidarity group rejects
registering as ‘foreign agent’
 
BY TED LEONARD  
BOSTON—“We will not allow the Justice Department to stifle our voices,” declared Alana Epstein, an activist in the Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador (CISPES) here. She was addressing a picket line of 15 people May 17 in front of the John F. Kennedy Federal Building. The action was one of many organized by local CISPES chapters across the country.

In January CISPES received a letter from the Department of Justice saying it suspected the organization of being an “agent of a foreign principal,” which would require it to register under the Foreign Agent Registration Act. The government claims CISPES has been hired by the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN) to do public relations and fundraising in the United States for the FMLN’s presidential campaign in El Salvador. Presidential elections are scheduled for March 2009.

CISPES has refused to register as a foreign agent and says it will “continue our support for the Salvadoran struggle for social justice.” Since the 1980s CISPES has organized activities in solidarity with the people of El Salvador and against U.S. military intervention in that country.  
 
 
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