PICO-UNION : Rally for Salvadoran Candidate Protested
Carrying signs calling for peace, dozens of protesters lined up outside the Convention Center during an appearance last week by Armando Calderon Sol, the ARENA party’s presidential candidate in El Salvador’s upcoming presidential election.
Calderon Sol’s Dec. 12 visit was hailed by some who support the ruling Nationalist Republican Alliance, saying his visit marks a move toward reconciliation with the Salvadoran community here.
“We believe in the party and the progress it offers,” said Antonio Hernandez, who moved to Los Angeles more than 20 years ago. “In the last six years they’ve made a lot of economic progress.”
But critics and human-rights groups such as the Central American Resource Center (CARECEN) expressed their concern with his candidacy, citing recently released CIA documents that link Calderon Sol with violence in El Salvador.
“I don’t think anyone who is implicated should be running for office,” said Martha Arevalo, a CARECEN spokeswoman. She also called for the release of additional CIA documents. “We’re calling for the truth, and I think if people know the truth they won’t want Calderon. They won’t want a death-squad organizer.”
Calderon Sol, the mayor of San Salvador, has denied allegations linking him to a 1991 plot to kidnap a Salvadoran businessman that were made public last month when the CIA declassified more than 12,000 documents. “Despite allegations and misinformation and all the lies, the truth will come out,” said Calderon Sol at the rally, when a group of protesters walked out during his speech.
Inside the center, more than 100 people wore ARENA T-shirts and waved red, white and blue banners. The rally began with a brief tribute to the late ARENA founder Roberto D’Aubuisson, who was cited in a United Nations report as the leader of right-wing death squads that killed thousands during that country’s 12-year civil war, which ended in January, 1992.
The 500,000 Salvadorans living in Los Angeles are not eligible to vote in the March election.
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