El Salvador's Vice President-Elect, FMLN Comandante Salvador Sanchez Ceren, is seen in this September 15, 2001 video celebrating the 9/11 Al Qaeda attacks on the United States and issuing statements in approval of the vandalism and burning of the American flag. This after he visited the US Embassy to sign the condolence book.
Highlights of the video follow, with the number corresponding to the time on the video clip:
1:54 Headline in El Diario de Hoy, El Salvador’s largest newspaper: “A march in support of the terrorists.”
2:25 Politicians of all political factions in the National Assembly (unicameral parliament) go to the US embassy to sign a condolence book. Salvador Sanchez Ceren is chief of the FMLN faction of the National Assembly. He and the others express their condolences at the US Embassy, then go to a demonstration to accuse the United States and burn the American flag.
2:43. Salvador Sanchez Ceren: “The Frente we participate in this is a march to condemn the situation that the country is in, against dollarization, against privatization.” (Note: FMLN is the Spanish initials for Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front. Farabundo Marti was the founder of the Salvadoran Communist Party. The FMLN calls itself “Frente” or “Front” for short.)
Men in FMLN shirts are shown spray painting vandalism, equating US-backed privatization in El Salvador with terrorism. Salvador Sanchez Ceren defends these actions.
The FMLN issued a communiqué about September 11, proclaiming that world peace is in danger. A US embassy spokeswoman compares it to the rhetoric coming out of Taliban-run Afghanistan.
2:57 Announcer: “Despite the leftist party assuring that its participation was different from those of the supposed students who committed the vandalism on September 15, the spokeswoman of the American Embassy said that an FMLN communique concerning the terrorist attacks has a tone heard only from states like Afghanistan.”
3:17 Newspaper headline “Support for terrorism,” concerning the FMLN protests. I believe the paper is El Diario de Hoy.
3:28 Schafik Handal, head of the FMLN and a member of the National Assembly, speaks about terrorism, blaming the US and Israel, and equating the US preparations to attack the Taliban with the 9/11 attacks: “Terrorism also happens continually at all hours of the day and night by the government of Sharon in Israel against the people of Palestine. The government of the United States at this moment has taken a tolerant position on this, to say at least. All of this is terrorism. And now it’s starting to be carried out over Afghanistan. It’s the same kind of thing.”
4:01. Salvador Sanchez Ceren press quote, defending the “students” who committed vandalism and burned flags at the September 15 protest: “There was no disorder in the protest (in support of the attacks), ask the students.”
4:04. Headline: “That was not the intention.” Text: “For his part, the chief of the FMLN bloc [in the national legislature], Salvador Sanchez Ceren – who participated in the demonstration on Saturday – rejected that there was any disorderliness. ‘What happened was that they made use of the regular characteristics of a demonstration: placards and paint,’ he said.”
4:10. Image of FMLN Legislative letterhead headlined, “World Peace Is In Danger.” The text is not legible on my screen. The sidebar says: “In the lead of the communiqué, the FMLN maintained that the terrorist acts against New York and Washington composed ‘the use of the pretext of the violence of the United States and of anarchic groups.’”
“They [the FMLN] condemned terrorism of all kinds that attack civilian populations and promote economic policies that affect humanity and the [words illegible].”
“In point number three, they [the FMLN] ask the United States to resolve its conflicts through political means and through dialogue, as a sign of political goodwill, and that safeguards social, political and economic tranquility and stability of all peoples.”
4:13: Photo of FMLN leaders on the steps of the National Assembly building in San Salvador. Salvador Sanchez Ceren is seen applauding, standing in the light shirt between the paunchy man in the red vest and the woman in the white blouse. “ANDES” is the teachers’ union front of the FMLN. At right is the FMLN banner.
4:14: Press clip: “The chief of the FMLN faction [in the national assembly], Salvador Sanchez Ceren, says that conflicts should be resolved by the political route and dialogue, in order not to endanger world peace.”
4:21: Press clip with quote from parliamentary FMLN faction leader Salvador Sanchez Ceren: “World peace is in danger. The options are either revenge or promotion of a new order of peace.”
4:25: Announcer commentary: “The position of the Embassy of the United States of America accredited in our country, before the declarations of the FMLN, were delivered by means of a letter in which Ambassador Rose Likins tells Mr. Sanchez Ceren, ‘Concerning the aforementioned, one cannot but be surprised and offended that the Faction [FMLN] decided to compare these mass killings with unspecified ‘economic policies.’”
4:59: Salvadoran President Francisco Flores speaks out in support of the United States: “It’s important to signal that to make declarations that justify acts of terrorism, like the declaration by the FMLN, saying that the terrorism was justified by the brutality or the economic policies of the United States, or even more, making a public act by people of high level in the FMLN, the chief of faction, members of the mayors office of San Salvador, constitutes enormous damage to our country.”
Bush: “You are with us, or you are with the terrorists.” Note how even the Democrats gave him a standing ovation.
The FMLN invited Libyan dictator Muammar Qaddafi's personal envoy to Nicaragua as an official observer for Sunday's election in El Salvador. Abdalla Mohamed Matoug was invited by FMLN International Relations Coordinator Blanca Flor Bonilla, El Diario de Hoy reports.
(Photo: Qaddafi and Sandinista leader Daniel Ortega renew old ties.)
The Salvadoran presidential elections have focused new attention on the FMLN's support for Al Qaeda's attacks on the United States in 2001.
"Four days after 9/11, the FMLN had a march in their capital city to celebrate the attack by Al Qaeda and to burn the American flag," said Congressman Paul Broun of Georgia in a statement on the House floor. "The leader of that march was Salvador Sanchez Ceren, who today is the FMLN's candidate for vice president.
"The FMLN political party in El Salvador supports designated terrorist organizations, such as the FARC [of Colombia], and state sponsors of terror such as Iran and Cuba," said Broun, a former Marine.
American lawmakers are worried that if Salvadorans vote to install a pro-terrorist government, the US will have to invoke existing counterterrorism policies that will have a detrimental effect on the population. El Salvador is a long-standing American ally.
"The FMLN has a long history of hostility towards us," said Broun. "Under current law, the election of a pro-terrorism party in El Salvador would have real consequences. Since the 9/11 attacks, the US has enacted stronger tools to fight terrorism and those who funnel money to support it.
"I want to make clear that these actions would not be punitive; they are not meant to chastise Salvadorans, but the US will not aid sponsors of terrorism," the Georgia lawmaker said. "We have an obligation to protect the US and our citizens against those seeking to do us harm."
Members of the US Congress friendly to El Salvador are concerned that the United States might have to cut off remittances to the country in the event the FMLN wins the presidential election on Sunday.
The cash flow into the country from Salvadorans working in the United States, the lawmakers say, would be used to support international terrorism.
Lawmakers cite the FMLN's connections with international terrorist groups, its not-so-covert backing from Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez, and its leaders' hostility to the United States.
One of the most significant effects of an FMLN victory would be a US attempt to cut off the flow of dollars to the country's economy in the event it became a pro-terrorist regime.
"El Salvador receives nearly $4 billion a year in remittances—almost 20% of its annual gross domestic product—from several million Salvadorans living in the United States," notes Rep. Connie Mack, in a statement of support for the Salvadoran people. "As we look to the future, we must weigh the potential ramifications of this election and its impact on our relations -- more importantly, the longstanding and open policies related to TPS and the flow of remittances," he said.
"Should the pro-terrorist FMLN party replace the current government in El Salvador, the United States, in the interest of national security, would be required to reevaluate our polices toward El Salvador including cash remittances and immigration policies, to compensate for the fact that there will no longer be a reliable counterpart in the Salvadoran government," said Rep. Trent Franks in a speech on the House floor today.
Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, who has supported El Salvador's democracy for more than 20 years, made a strong statement as well. "The country policy regarding the unregulated flow of remittances should be urgently reviewed, and, in most cases, those remittances must be immediately terminated, if a pro-terrorist party wins power or enters the government of a country," Rohrabacher said. The FMLN, he added, is a pro-terrorist party.
Veterans of the fight to bring democracy to El Salvador are recalling the upcoming anniversary of the FMLN's targeted killing of SGT Gregory Fronius in 1987.
Fronius, with the 7th Special Forces Group, was training the Salvadoran military when the FMLN overran a base in El Paraiso, killing about 70. Fronius was the sole American among them. The FMLN reportedly carried out the attack for the express purpose of killing a US soldier for its propaganda value. FMLN guerrillas booby trapped Fronius' body.
The attack took place on March 31, 1987.
The FMLN carried out the killing with the help of intelligence provided by Ana Belen Montes, a Cuban penetration agent in the Defense Intelligence Agency. Montes visited the El Paraiso camp during an official visit a few weeks before the attack.
Author Scott W. Carmichael, in his book True Believer (Naval Institute Press, 2007), says that the Cuban spy directly assisted the FMLN in killing Fronius. Montes was convicted of espionage in 2002.
FMLN Presidential candidate Mauricio Funes, the former CNN correspondent, says he doesn't control the party of the former communist guerrillas. As he says at the beginning of this video, "Mauricio doesn't command the FMLN. Those who command the FMLN are the comandantes."
This 8-minute video about Funes is in Spanish. We'll try to get English translations. Readers are welcome to add their comments or translations.
Not only did he order the killings of thousands of Salvadoran civilians who opposed his communist revolution - or the murders of American military personnel in the 1980s. Salvador Sanchez Ceren admits he ordered the killings of hundreds of his own people in the FMLN.
See the political campaign ad aimed at Ceren, who is running as Mauricio Funes' running mate to be become the next vice president of El Salvador.
Readers are welcome to post translations of this video.
FMLN vice presidential candidate Salvador Sanchez Ceren, one of the five notorious former comandates of the Soviet-backed guerrilla group that killed thousands of civilians in its failed communist revolution of the 1980s, says he'll still resort to armed violence if necessary.
Here are some quotes of Ceren's in this short video, in Spanish.
Admissions of murder and torture by FMLN vice presidential candidate Salvador Sanchez Ceren have resulted in a prominent Salvadoran lawyer calling for his withdrawal from the campaign.
This clip, from Salvadoran TV last December, contains the story in Spanish. Readers are invited to post translations and comments.
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We're a group of Salvadorans and Americans concerned with promoting a stable democracy in El Salvador and preserving the freedoms gained there since the victory over the communist FMLN guerrillas in 1992.
The FMLN invited Libyan dictator Muammar Qaddafi's personal envoy to Nicaragua as an official observer for Sunday's election in El Salvador. Abdalla Mohamed Matoug was invited by FMLN International Relations Coordinator Blanca Flor Bonilla, El Diario de Hoy reports.
The Salvadoran presidential elections have focused new attention on the FMLN's support for Al Qaeda's attacks on the United States in 2001.
Members of the US Congress friendly to El Salvador are concerned that the United States might have to cut off remittances to the country in the event the FMLN wins the presidential election on Sunday.
Veterans of the fight to bring democracy to El Salvador are recalling the upcoming anniversary of the FMLN's targeted killing of SGT Gregory Fronius in 1987.
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