In solidarity with Salvadoreans everywhere and the FMLN

The Immigration and Refugee Board has issued a deportation order against Salvadorean refugee claimant Josй Figueroa, married father of three Canadian-born children, given Canadian Border Security Agency and Ministry of Public Safety arguments that the Farabundo Martн Front for National Liberation, the FMLN, to which Mr. Figueroa was affiliated in the mid-1980s, engaged in terrorism or subversion.

The actions of the Canadian authorities in this case are shameful, contradictory, and of grave concern to all Canadians, particularly those of Salvadorean origin.

During El Salvadors civil war, the FMLN was a broad coalition of opposition forces fighting a murderous right-wing military regime. The FMLN popular insurgency was internationally recognized as legitimate and representative and through sheer determination forced the U.S.-financed Salvadorean government to negotiate peace and democracy in 1992.

The FMLN today is the governing party in El Salvador. It has the most seats in the Salvadorean Legislative Assembly, it governs more than half the Salvadorean population at the municipal level, and its candidate and party member, Mauricio Funes, won the presidential election in 2009. Canadian Minister of State of Foreign Affairs (Americas) Peter Kent represented the Canadian government during President Funes inauguration.

The FMLN is not a terrorist organization, and anyone affiliated to it should not be qualified as terrorist.

We, the undersigned, express our solidarity with Salvadoreans everywhere and their right to determine their political process and representatives. We respect the heroic choices made during the 12-year civil war by tens of thousands of people in El Salvador to defend themselves in the face of a brutal military regime by joining and/or supporting the FMLN. Furthermore, we support Salvadoreans today who continue their affiliation with the FMLN, now the governing political party in El Salvador. By signing below, we are requesting symbolic membership in the FMLN as a gesture of solidarity and resistance.