Northampton Committee News Northampton Committee to Stop the War in Iraq - http://www.northamptoncommittee.org - February 8, 2020 Deported to Death: US Sent domestic abusers. Neither the rightist or leftist governments that have held power since have managed Hundreds of are killed every 138 Salvadorans to Be Killed to change this. month. Murders, disappearances and By Mneesha Gellman, tortures almost always go unsolved in El ’s defense minister recently The Conversation, 2/7/20 Salvador. Criminals, especially those with assessed that there are more gang access to power, are rarely punished for members than soldiers in his country. t least 138 people deported from their wrongdoing. Police in El Salvador are extremely the to El Salvador aggressive in pursuing them, and civilians I have documented this culture of impunity since 2013 have been killed, can get caught in the crossfire, Human A across and , according to a new report by finds. Rights Watch, which investigates human focusing on the indigenous people, women rights abuses worldwide. and political dissidents who are so often The resulting dangerous disarray sent victims of political violence. 46,800 residents to seek asylum in the U.S. The 117-page report also says researchers last year. Risking the unknown violence of This violence dates back centuries, to identified at least 70 deportees who were migration over guaranteed violence at Spain’s bloody conquest of the Americas. sexually assaulted, tortured or kidnapped. home is, for many Salvadorans, a logical As in the U.S., colonial-era brutality has Many victims were asylum-seekers decision. attacked or killed by the gangs they lasting impacts on the region’s race, class originally fled. and gender divisions. Human security The findings show that “the U.S. is In 1932, the massacre of indigenous Crime and violence in El Salvador has repeatedly violating its obligations to Salvadorans and leftists who rebelled declined since President Nayib Bukele took protect Salvadorans from return to serious against dictator Maximiliano Hernández office in June 2019, according to the risk of harm," Human Rights Watch says. Martínez left between 10,000 and 30,000 government. dead. The group used court records, police The president credits his tough-on-gangs reports, interviews with victims and their Communist Party member Farabundo policing with improving security in the families and news articles to document the Martí, who led Salvadoran peasant farmers country. But some crime analysts say the fates of deportees. It is the first systematic in their revolt against political corruption apparent drop in homicides is actually a effort to find out what happened to and unjust resource allocation, was manipulation of crime data. The Salvadorans whose asylum claims were assassinated after the massacre. But the government recently changed how it rejected in U.S. immigration courts struggle continued. counts murders, eliminating deaths that result from confrontation with security because they failed to demonstrate By the 1970s, dissident factions again forces—police killings—from the homicide “credible fear” of violence in El Salvador. organized against state oppression. United category. International asylum laws created after the as the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Holocaust require countries to take in Front, these groups eventually waged war In any case, levels of violence in El people who are persecuted for their race, on the ruling ARENA party, which they Salvador are still among the world’s religion, nationality, membership of a blamed for oppressing the Salvadoran highest. working class. particular social group or political opinion. Police regularly turn a blind eye to violence El Salvador has one of the world’s highest The subsequent killed by gang members, including both MS-13 homicide rates. It is one of the main 75,000 people. In 1992, with intensive and Barrio 18 gangs, either due to sources of migration to the U.S. military support from the United States, corruption or concern for their own safety. ARENA defeated the rebels. As a result, Salvadoran police frequently As part of its immigration crackdown, the fail to meaningfully protect people from The 1992 El Salvador peace accords, Trump administration in September signed gang violence. an agreement with El Salvador requiring overseen by the , were the Central American country to keep meant to bring national reconciliation. A In these circumstances, deporting asylum seekers there while they await the truth commission documented widespread Salvadoran asylum-seekers may violate an results of their asylum claims. human rights abuses committed by state international law called “non- and paramilitary forces during the war. But refoulement.” But the murders of 138 deportees belie any days after the report was released, in 1993, According to the 1954 United Nations notion that El Salvador can protect citizens El Salvador’s ARENA-controlled congress Convention on the Status of Refugees, who are under threat. passed an amnesty law that excused most which both the U.S. and El Salvador government and military officials. Roots of impunity signed, states cannot expel refugees to a Roughly the size of New Jersey, El As a result, the root causes of El Salvador’s territory “where his life or freedom would Salvador is densely populated and highly conflict – particularly, unequal access to be threatened.” insufficient resources – still plague society. connected by cellphone service and social Migrants know El Salvador can’t protect So does the very weak rule of law that media. The vulnerable groups protected them. That, of course, is why they flee. allowed civil war criminals to go under international asylum law cannot Now the United States government has to unpunished. easily go under the radar or relocate if know that, too. targeted by gangs, corrupt police or Northampton Committee To Stop the Wars Information and Events

fro Saturday Peace Vigils Frances Crowe Films In 2020, the popular Resistance Film Series will be called Frances Crowe Films, a living continuation of J O I N U S her work with the series she started 15 years ago. Films are usually 6:30 pm on the 4th Wednesday of A Protest Every Week the month, in the community room of the Forbes Saturdays 11:00 am – noon Library. Events are free and accessible. In front of the Courthouse, King and Main February 26: Under Pressure. Produced by students, The Northampton Committee has been this documentary film investigates the 2018 gas holding a Saturday vigil against war and disaster in the Merrimack Valley and challenges the for peace and justice since 1998. Join value of gas and other fossil fuels in an era of us, rain or shine. All are welcome. We accelerating climate change. Student filmmakers will have signs for you to hold, or you can bring your own. lead the post-film discussion. The Northampton Vigil was begun at the time of the December, 1998 Iraq airstrikes ("Operation Desert Fox") Stand Tall, Mi Gente! to protest the ongoing sanctions against Iraq. Friday, 2/14 and Saturday, 2/15, 8:00 p.m. The group was first known as "The Northampton School of Contemporary Dance and Thought, Committee to End the Sanctions on Iraq,” then "...to 25 Main Street, 4th floor Stop the War in Iraq," and now "...to Stop the Wars." A first-generation performance about the importance of The Northampton Committee organizes occasional youth voices and the power of speaking out. Students events of its own, and co-sponsors many others. Since from PERFORMANCE PROJECT/FIRST GENERATION turn 2004, we have run the Resistance! Film Series, showing their lives into a performance that features story-telling, 2-4 documentaries on peace and justice a month. We dancing, singing, drumming and much emotion. TIckets have watched over 500 films; see our website for a list. $12, $15 at the door. Democracy Now! is available several Uncaged Art: Exhibit of times a day on both radio and public access cable TV: Art by Incarcerated Migrant Teens Through Friday, February 21 UMass WMUA 91.1 FM Valley Free WXOJ 103.3 FM 8:00 a.m. 5:00 p.m. Michelson Galleries, 132 Main Street Public Access cable TV : DN! Is available on many local public Traveling exhibition of art by migrant teens incarcerated access cable TV channels. For a full listing see: at Tornillo Detention Center in Texas depicting their http://democracynow.org/stations/Massachusetts home cultures, architecture and geography. The exhibit is being hosted locally Western Mass. Jewish Activists for TRUTH SCHOOL: Immigration Justice. INVOCATION TO MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR. Sat, 2/22, 1-4 p.m., 170 Main St., Greenfield Towards Freedom, Justice and Peace: Dr. Rose Sackey-Milligan will use contemplative (mindful) Stand With Kashmir attentiveness to guide participants in communal reading and Wednesday, February 19, 6:30-8:30 p.m., reflecting on selected writings by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Integrated Learning Center (ILC), 3rd Floor, UMass Facilitated dialogue will explore the significance of these writings in the current political and cultural landscape. Inaugural Event of the UMass Amherst Chapter of Stand with Kashmir. Panel of scholars and activists from More Peace and Justice Events + Meetings Kashmir, Syria, Rojava, and Palestine to talk about their For more local peace and justice events, check out histories of resistance, imaginaries of liberation and Climate Action Now http://climateactionnowwma.org, and decolonization. Moderated by Sut Jhally, and followed by Traprock Center for Peace and Justice http://traprock.org a Q&A Discussion with the panelists. http://northamptoncommittee.org