SANTA CRUZ — Condemning a recent political show of force in the El Salvadoran government, Rep. Jimmy Panetta, D-Carmel Valley, fired off a letter of concern late last week, cosigned by 18 of his Congressional peers.
Addressing his concerns to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Panetta highlighted an incident early this month, when Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele convened an emergency session of the legislative assembly to vote on a $109 million loan for the latest stage of his anti-crime funding bill. After rallying political supporters through Twitter, Bukele entered legislative chambers Feb. 9 with an armed military force when turnout was insufficient for a quorum vote.
Carmel Valley’s Panetta, whose legislative district includes a Latino population in Santa Cruz County with heavy ties to the Salvadoran community, called on Pompeo for “swift and broad rebuke” for such “blatant acts of political intimidation.” He said the United State cannot ignore “authoritarian tendencies and tactics in pursuit of policy outcomes.”
“Unfortunately, this incident is merely the latest example of an increasingly militaristic show of force by governmental leaders in Central and South America,” the congressional letter reads. “The alarming tendency to utilize armed forces to assert power and legitimize policy decisions poses significant danger to Latin America’s emerging, but often fragile, democracies. The trends leading to this confrontation, particularly a misplaced disillusionment with traditional democratic institutions and processes, are present in many countries in the region.”
According to a 2017 Pew Research Center paper on Hispanics of Salvadoran origin in the United States, Salvadorans are the third-largest population, tied with Cubans, of Hispanic origin living in the United States, accounting for 4% of the U.S. Hispanic population in 2017. Some 32% of the Salvadoran population was concentrated in California that year.
According to the U.S. Census, Santa Cruz County’s Salvadoran population reached nearly 1,700 in 2010, representing .6% of the county’s overall population at the time. By 2017, Santa Cruz City Schools reported seeing its Salvadoran student immigrant population growing, surpassing Mexican-born newcomers and representing about half its incoming group of English language-learners that year.
“The Central Coast is home to many Salvadorans who fled instability, calamity, and even brutality and still have family and friends living in their home country. In this day and age, Americans can’t turn a blind eye to populist ideologue leaders of democracies who act like they live in autocracies,” Panetta wrote in a statement to the Sentinel. “Through my letter, my colleagues and I wanted to make clear that there are leaders in this country who will not accept the Salvadoran President’s disregard for democratic institutions.”
Felton resident and political insider Les Gardner commended Panetta for taking a stand against Bukele’s recent actions, saying American intervention was a necessary step. Gardner led a state delegation including Assemblyman Luis Alejo, D-Watsonville, to El Salvador in 2014 to address a migrant crisis and has since returned to create a documentary. He said Santa Cruz County’s ties to the region date back decades, at least to the country’s 12-year war ending in 1992.
“There’s no pressure in that country that’s going to back him off, period. He’s not afraid of pushback from his congress,” Gardner said. “I’m interested in this not happening again, they’ve been through so much…. I don’t think any democracy in the world would applaud this, I don’t think it’s approved conduct in any place.”
In addition to Panetta, the congressional letter, dated Feb. 14, was signed by Reps. James McGovern, Ilhan Omar, Raúl Grijalva, Mark Pocan, Ted Lieu, Jim Costa, Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, John Garamendi, Suzanne Bonamici, Gil Cisneros, David Price, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Pramila Jayapal, Jan Schakowsky, Jamie Raskin, Salud Carbajal, Tom Suozzi and Hank Johnson.
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February 18, 2020 at 08:01AM
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Rep. Jimmy Panetta denounces Salvadoran ‘authoritarian’ tactics - Santa Cruz Sentinel
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