El Salvador struggles with anti-terrorism law
The Salvadorean congress is struggling with a draft anti-terrorism law the government tried to rush through in early July, in the wake of an unclear incident in which two police officers were shot dead and another 10 were wounded. The bill, first submitted to the legislative assembly three years ago, has still not come up with a definition of terrorism that satisfies all parties.
The incident which prompted the government to speed up passage of the anti-terrorism law took place on 5 July. A column of students protesting increases in bus rates was intercepted by police, who say they began firing tear gas and rubber bullets when the demonstrators started wrecking phone booths and automated tellers. As the students took refuge in the buildings of the Universidad de El Salvador, gunfire broke out. Television images recorded the appearance among them of hooded persons carrying arms. They also showed armed men taking up positions on the roof of a nearby hospital. A police helicopter came under fire; witnesses say a sniper on the aircraft fired into the university, where one member of staff received a bullet in the chest.
President Elías Antonio Saca and interior minister René Figueroa immediately blamed groups liked to the leftist Frente Farabundo Martí de Liberación Nacional (FMLN). Figueroa said the gunmen had used AK-47 assault rifles. Saca said that when investigations had been completed a report would be prepared for the OAS and the UN, expressing 'concern' about the FMLN's involvement, which would entail a breach of the 1992 peace agreements inasmuch as it would have been 'maintaining an armed group'. Conclusions began to vary as evidence surfaced, particularly after the media produced an image of one man firing an M-16.
The FMLN says the shootings were the work of agents provocateurs. President Saca nonetheless persuaded the leaders of Central America, Colombia, Mexico and the Dominican Republic, gathered in Panama for a summit, to go along with his interpretation of events and issue a statement condemning 'the inadmissible terrorist acts' of 5 July.
In San Salvador the government urged congress to approve the anti-terrorism law without debate. The legislators demurred, but went as far as to set up a special committee to speed up proceedings (they expect to get the work done in about six weeks). The government's most recent draft, submitted last year, typifies 27 acts as 'terrorist' and imposes prison terms of up to 50 years.
Ernesto Angulo, who represents the ruling Arena party on the committee, announced on 13 July that the UNODC would be invited to send experts to help out with the definition of terrorism. Mario Ponce, representative of the centrist Partido de Conciliación Nacional (PCN), says it is important to avoid simply transplanting other peoples' definitions and to spell out 'when an act will be deemed terrorist in this country.' He is also pressing for coordination of the new law with the existing penal legislation, to avoid overlaps and redundancies.
It is worth pointing out that, though an assiduous follower of the US lead in matters such as the 'War on Terror', President Saca has adopted a position not too far from those of Cuba and Venezuela regarding Luis Posada Carriles, the onetime CIA asset and dedicated anti-Castroite wanted for the downing of a commercial aircraft and for masterminding bombing campaigns in Cuba and Central America, now seeking to avoid expulsion from the US.
He has denied claims made by Posada that high officials of his government had been discussing with him the prospects for granting him asylum, noting, 'In El Salvador there is not entry for terrorists [...] for people who have been involved in acts of terrorism.' Both Cuba and Venezuela want to try Posada on charges of terrorism, but a US court has blocked his rendition to either on grounds that he might be tortured.