From: hrcoord@igc.apc.org (Human Rights Coordinator)
Newsgroups: soc.rights.human
Subject: CUANES Alert 11-3-92
Date: 4 Nov 92 18:58:00 GMT
Nf-ID: #N:cdp:1476700758:000:3641
Nf-From: cdp.UUCP!hrcoord    Nov  4 10:58:00 1992


From: Human Rights Coordinator <hrcoord>
Subject: CUANES Alert 11-3-92

/* Written  9:01 pm  Nov  3, 1992 by cuanes@igc.apc.org in igc:carnet.alerts */
      CUANES Alert 11-3-92  (Alert 367)


On the night of November 1 or early morning of November 2, the house
of Mirtala Lopez was broken into.  A threatening note was left at
her house signed by the initials BMHM.  The initials stand for the
name of a well-known death squad, the Brigada Maximiliano Hernandez
Martinez.  The note states, "We did not find you. . .But we are
going to kill you."

Neither Mirtala nor her housemates were home when the break-in
occured.  All were with their families to celebrate Dia de los
Difuntos - the Day of the Dead.  No objects of value were taken from
the house, but files relating to Mirtala's work and several
photographs were taken.  Mirtala Lopez is now the general secretary
of the Farabundo Youth, a youth organization of the FMLN.

During the fall of 1991, Mirtala received repeated death threats
from another hate group, the Salvadoran Anticommunist Front.  She
left the country in the end of September,  after being issued a visa
for the U.S.  She returned to El Salvador in October, 1991, and
continued her work.

Mirtala Lopez, 23, is from a remote village in Chalatenango.  As a
young girl she watched her father and brother be taken away to be
killed and saw her house blown up by the National Guard.  She
learned to read and write when she was in a refugee camp in the
early 80's.  She was a founder of CRIPDES, the Christian Committee
for the Displaced of El Salvador, when she was 15.  At age 17, she
took responsibility for documenting human rights violations against
displaced persons and the repopulated communities that were being
formed.  Her work with the human rights department of CRIPDES
included attempting to assure legal help for political prisoners and
victims of illegal captures.  She has also represented the displaced
on the Permanent Committee of the National Debate for Peace.

In April of 1989, Mirtala was arrested when the Treasury Police
searched the CRIPDES office.  She, along with eight others, were
brutally tortured in the Treasury Police Headquarters, and then held
in Ilopango Prison for three and a half months.  In October of 1989
she was captured by the National Guard when she participated in a
welcoming party for refugees returning from Mesa Grande refugee camp
in Honduras.  On that occasion she was transferred along with 6
others to the jail of the National Guard and was released two days
later.

The most recent death threat against Mirtala Lopez follows a death
threat issued by the Maximiliano Hernandez Martinez Bridage against
leaders of the FMLN, foreign and national journalists, and personnel
of ONUSAL on October 22.

REQUESTED ACTION:  Please send telexes, faxes, letters requesting
a) and investigation into the break-in and the death threat against
Mirtala Lopez;  b) continued implementation of the peace accords,
including dismantling the Atlcatl Batallion and implementation of
the recommendations of the Ad Hoc Commission regarding purging human
rights abusers from the military.

Lic. Alfredo Cristiani
Presidente de la Republica         telex:  20245
Casa Presidencial                  fax:  011-503-71-0950
San Salvador El Salvador

Bernard Aronson
Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs
United States Department of State
Washington D.C.                       fax:  202-647-0791

U.S. State Department  202- 224-3121  ask for the El Salvador desk

TO SEND A TELEX OR FAX:
Worldlink 800-827-2831 or fax 800-827-2833
Faxnet 800-831-2202 or fax 800-241-1170