By Matthew Behrens
It
was down to the wire, but last week, Salvador Sánchez Cerén emerged as the next president of El Salvador on behalf of the
FMLN (Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front). A legal political party since
1992, the FMLN, under which Sánchez Cerén was himself
a commanding general, had previously been a political/military coalition
resisting the Salvadoran death squad dictatorships whose brutal U.S.-sponsored
wars of the 1980s claimed over 75,000 lives.
During
that decade, when slogans such as “Be a Patriot, Kill a Priest” were popular
among government forces who disappeared, tortured, and massacred thousands with
impunity – including the assassination of priests conducting mass
–Salvadorans from all walks of life joined the resistance under the FMLN
umbrella. (The FMLN was widely accepted as the only available outlet for opposition
voices, recognized by the governments of France and Mexico in 1981 as “a
representative political force.”)
Since
Sánchez Cerén’s election – indeed, since the
previous election of an FMLN government in 2009, at whose inauguration sat then
Canadian Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Peter Kent and U.S. Secretary of
State Hillary Clinton – the Canadian government has carried on normal relations
with the government of El Salvador. In addition, 63% of Salvadorans living
abroad who were registered to vote supported the FMLN.
Against
this backdrop, two Salvadorans who refused to participate in the U.S.- and
Canadian-backed terrorist regime that ruled the country during the 1980s – and
who, like thousands of their fellow Salvadorans, became associated with the
FMLN – are now facing a Kafkaesque immigration nightmare. At the same time
Canada recognizes the FMLN government in San Salvador, it is trying to deport
long-time Canadian residents Oscar Vigil of Toronto and Jose Figueroa of
Langley, BC, because of their former membership in the FMLN, claiming it is an
organization “that there are reasonable grounds to believe engages, has engaged
or will engage in acts” that include “espionage,” “terrorism,” and “subversion
by force of any government.”
Canada
Calls FMLN Terrorist Force
Both men are understandably
scratching their heads, but their cases represent the tip of the iceberg in the
ongoing, ideological abuse of Canada’s immigration system, long documented by
the likes of Reg Whitaker in his excellent study “Double Standard,” and now
represented by hundreds of Palestinians, Tamils, Iraqis, Kurds, Libyans, and
others who have resisted tyranny in their homelands only to face “security inadmissibility”
hearings after coming to Canada. In years to come, it will be curious to see if
any of the individuals with whom Prime Minister Harper expects to meet shortly
in Kiev will eventually wind up as inadmissible to Canada given their own role
in the subversion by force of the democratically elected government of Ukraine.
The terror designation is a broad
and amorphous one applied based on political expedience, with Ottawa welcoming
individuals who have ordered torture and assassination (Bush, Cheney, Rice, Clinton,
Obama, Kissinger et al.) while turning away former British MP George Galloway
and numerous members of the African National Congress (though Nelson Mandela’s
advocacy of armed struggle to subvert the apartheid regime did not prevent him
obtaining honourary Canadian citizenship). Indeed, Salvadoran judge Eugenio
Chicas,
invited by one arm of the Canadian government to attend a 2009 conference, was
detained for 24 hours in Toronto by border officials horrified to find that he
had been a member of the FMLN.
In an interview
shortly thereafter with the Globe and
Mail, Chicas noted: “They told me that because of my affiliation with the
organization, they wouldn't let me into the country. I told them that the war
in El Salvador ended 17 years ago and the FMLN is now the governing party in El
Salvador, but they told me that was the information they had available.”
The notion of “membership” in a
terrorist organization is so broad that literally anyone who contributes to a
newsletter, makes sandwiches for a meeting, or babysits the children of a group
member is held to be a member of that named group and, therefore, complicit in
anything wrong the group is alleged to have done. As always, the world of
national security is full of flaky rationales and loose definitions that are
vague, elastic, and lacking in any sense of consistency, due process, and rule
of law.
Twice
Accepted, But Overruled
Oscar Vigil
freely admitted in filing his 2001 Canadian refugee claim that he had been
involved with opposition activities since grade 9, and that he became media
coordinator for the FMLN in 1988, but left in 1994. Both he and his wife,
Carolina, were high-profile journalists who were subject to death threats in El
Salvador. They have since lived in Toronto, raising a family and becoming
deeply involved in human rights-related community activities, with Vigil’s
by-line appearing frequently in the Spanish language press while he also works
as executive director of the Canadian Hispanic Congress.
Although
Vigil was declared inadmissible under security grounds, a 2009 pre-removal risk
assessment concluded he was a person in need of protection who should not be
deported, as “there is a lack of state protection for journalists or social
activists in El Salvador” and that he “faces a risk to life or of cruel and
unusual treatment or punishment” if returned there. A 2012 Canadian Border
Services Agency (CBSA) assessment found he did not directly participate in “any
combat, guerrilla or terrorist activities during his involvement with the FMLN”
and further that he “does not constitute a danger to the security of Canada.”
With that second positive assessment, Vigil was assured he was on the road to
permanent residency and Canadian citizenship.
In
2009, Vigil also applied for ministerial relief under an exemption in the
immigration act that allows humanitarian considerations to be considered in
granting someone permanent residency when they have been found inadmissible on
“security” grounds. But five years later, he has received no response.
Instead,
in early 2014, at the same time his wife and three children were being sworn in
as Canadian citizens, the Canadian government decided to ignore the positive
findings of its own two assessments and ordered Vigil to be removed. In a
coldly worded rejection, immigration case management officer Karine
Roy-Tremblay acknowledged El Salvador is one of the 10 most dangerous countries
on the planet, but sternly lectured Vigil that “it will be up to him to make
the right choices to protect his security and his life.” Roy-Tremblay also rejected out of hand the
disturbing re-emergence of death squads in El Salvador and numerous other
Central American countries.
Approved in Principle, but Overruled
While Vigil
and his legal team consider their options, B.C.’s Jose Figueroa is marking six
months in church sanctuary. In a scene that perhaps felt more akin to his
experience in El Salvador than Canada, he has had to assuage his children’s
worries over the intensive CBSA surveillance of the church where he is
currently staying.
Figueroa and his wife came
to Canada in 1997 but in May 2000, they were denied refugee status because the
Canadian government claimed El Salvador was a safe place and NOT because
Figueroa, a teacher, admitted he was a member of the FMLN from 1986 to 1995.
Indeed, the denial of their claim in fact recognized the FMLN as a legitimate
political party and made no mention of alleged terrorism. In 2004, he and his
wife were approved in principle for permanent residency following a positive
humanitarian and compassionate application that was determined with full knowledge
of his FMLN membership, good news for the family of five (including three
Canadian-born children, one of whom has autism). Unfortunately, permanent
residency was never finalized and, in 2010, Figueroa was declared inadmissible
to Canada. An outline of Mr. Figueroa's protracted dealings with Canadian immigration
authorities can be found at http://wearejose.wordpress.com/canada/).
Immigration’s
Karine Roy-Tremblay handled this case as well, and noted with a similarly cold
bureaucratese that even though Figueroa’s intensive work with his autistic son
made a huge difference in the youngster’s transfer to a regular classroom,
removing the father would not be traumatic as the kids still have their mother
and “with all the technology available for communication,” he can provide
emotional support for his family from afar.
In
an additional sign of how far removed from history and reality Canadian
immigration officers tend to be, Roy-Tremblay patronizingly lectures in a
manner that most would find offensive were it applied to anti-apartheid
partisans who joined the ANC, even while that organization occasionally engaged
in armed actions. Roy-Tremblay notes Figueroa’s predicament is “not the result
of circumstances beyond Mr. Figueroa’s control as he chose at one point in his
life to become a member of an organization that was involved in the commission
of terrorist acts,” even though, as is usually the case, said acts were deemed
terrorist because they were in resistance to the status quo of a terrorist
government committing horrific atrocities against its people.
As
Mark Danner recounts in his study of the Salvadoran government’s terrorist El
Mozote massacre – in which 733 civilians were murdered in 1981, many
decapitated by soldiers – the most visible signs of the government’s dirty war
“were mutilated corpses that each morning littered the streets of El Salvador’s
cities. Sometimes the bodies were headless, or faceless, their features having
been obliterated with a shotgun blast or an application of battery acid;
sometimes limbs were missing, or hands or feet chopped off, or eyes gouged out;
women’s genitals were torn and bloody, bespeaking repeated rape; men’s were
often severed and stuffed into their mouths. And cut into the flesh of a
corpse’s back or chest was likely to be the signature of one or another of the
‘death squads’ that had done the work, the most notorious of which were the
Union of White Warriors and the Maximiliano Hernandez Martinez Brigade.”
D'Aubuisson
and the Death Squads
The
Union of White Warriors was headed by Major Roberto D'Aubuisson, who praised Hitler
and also founded the right-wing ARENA Party (which until recently ran the
Salvadoran government and came in a close second in the March elections). As
Elizabeth DiNovella reported in The
Progressive (http://www.progressive.org/node/871), “The United Nations
Truth Commission found that D'Aubuisson also ordered the 1980 assassination of
Archbishop Oscar Romero [murdered while celebrating mass]. D'Aubuisson's death
squads, run from his office in the Legislative Assembly while he was president
of the legislature, had close ties to the Salvadoran and U.S. intelligence
services. The Reagan and Bush Administrations condoned D'Aubuisson's activities
and lavished funds on El Salvador's military throughout the civil war.” During
her 2009 tour of the countryside, DiNovella noted everywhere she went, pictures
of the death squad leader were proudly hung in ARENA Party headquarters. It is
not known if any former ARENA party members in Canada are inadmissible on
security grounds.
While
an immigration bureaucrat insists on labeling the FMLN a terrorist entity,
Canada’s Public Safety Ministry confirmed in an interview with the CBC (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j0Bya20Zzx8, at 7:52 of broadcast) that the FMLN is not on Canada’s list of
terrorist entities (nor it is listed thusly anywhere on the planet), nor is
Figueroa listed as a restricted individual (indeed, former
Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Peter Kent has even written a letter of support
for Figueroa).
Among
Figueroa’s numerous upcoming legal actions is a court application seeking a certificate
from the Public Safety Minister under s. 83.07 of the Criminal Code in order to
clarify that notwithstanding the finding of bureaucrat Roy-Tremblay, Figueroa
is “not a terrorist and has not been involved in a terrorist organization.”
Although this request was submitted in June 2013, and the minister was
obligated to respond with 15 days, Figueroa received nothing, and is now hoping
the Federal Court will order the Minister to comply with the law and produce
the certificate.
Such
contradictions are maddening, but the law is the law, these bureaucrats seem to
imply, and so it is that the Immigration and Refugee Board (IRB) member who
heard Figueroa’s case in 2010 could turn him down while still remarking, “I
completely accept your evidence and testimony that you had nothing to do with
the more violent activities” of the FMLN and that “your only purpose was to
co-ordinate matters so as to open up the minds of the people to new and better
political realities.”
The
IRB decision also quoted from the Salvadoran Truth Commission, which “never
referred to the FMLN as a terrorist organization. That’s clear. It referred to
the group as a political organization. On the other hand, it did refer to the
terrorism through the death squads of the government.” Notably, it is estimated
that the FMLN was found responsible for only 5% of the violence reported. The IRB
member then says: “I can’t argue that a repressive regime that makes use of
death squads needs to be changed. Nobody can argue with that. The question is
how the change is brought about.”
The
IRB member later states: “What the people appear to have been trying to do was
to stop a regime that ran death squads. There’s some legitimacy, I would say,
in trying to arrange matters so that death squads can be eliminated.”
A Right to Resist
Indeed,
that legitimacy is encoded in United Nations General Assembly resolutions on
the right to armed resistance to throw off the chains of oppression.
Even
with the FMLN in power (they won by a margin of less than 1%), being deported
as a national security risk would place Vigil and Figueroa on the target list
of right-wing elements that continue to hold significant power in El Salvador,
including powerful elite sectors of society that waged and benefitted from the
brutal war against the country’s population.
These
two cases no doubt make life fearful for others who fled the Salvadoran civil
war, and with new legislation on tap to allow the stripping of Canadian
citizenship for alleged connections to terrorism, many in the Salvadoran
diaspora may wonder if they could be next, especially if they speak out on such
controversial topics as Canadian mining interests (and related repression) in
El Salvador and other Central American countries.
Three
events to support these men and challenge the inadmissibility regime take place
March 24 at 6 pm at Holy Trinity Church in downtown Toronto (http://vigilcampaign.ca/), March 28 at Langley’s Walnut Grove Luthern Church (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2WM7fQ0k3IU),
as well as a dinner in Toronto March 28
(https://www.facebook.com/events/224623571071514/)
