El Salvador: Is the National Association of Salvadorean Educators (ANDES) considered to be a legal political group in El Salvador; Have any members feared mistreatment due to membership in this political group, 1980 to present?
| Publisher | Canada: Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada |
| Author | Research Directorate, Immigration and Refugee Board, Canada |
| Publication Date | 1 September 1989 |
| Citation / Document Symbol | SLV1985 |
| Cite as | Canada: Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, El Salvador: Is the National Association of Salvadorean Educators (ANDES) considered to be a legal political group in El Salvador; Have any members feared mistreatment due to membership in this political group, 1980 to present?, 1 September 1989, SLV1985 , available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/3ae6ab6050.html [accessed 21 May 2023] |
| Disclaimer | This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States. |
The National Association of Salvadorean Educators is a workers association, not a political party. [Labor Rights in El Salvador, New York: Americas Watch Committee, 1988, p. 115.] Salvadoran death squads, however, have in the past, targeted this association for violent reprisals as they perceived it to espouse a particular political ideology. In 1987, ANDES represented approximately 9,745 dues-paying members. [Americas Watch, p. 76.] Please refer to the attachments for examples of arrest, detention, or murder of individual ANDES members. In particular, the Amnesty International document discusses a 1982 ANDES report which alleges that between 1980 and 1982, 305 academics or teachers were killed, 50 "disappeared", and another 8,000 forced to flee the country. [Amnesty International, El Salvador: Death Squads A Government Strategy, p. 25.] Death squad activities were stepped up on university campuses in 1983, and in July 1987, a list naming "14 university teachers and students" said "they would be executed unless they left the country within 24 hours". [Ibid., p. 26.]
Repression of union activists in El Salvador has been documented by human rights monitors such as Amnesty International, Americas Watch Committee, and the Human Rights Commission of El Salvador. All of the available evidence on arrests, harassment, and assassination of trade union members in El Salvador in recent years indicates that active unionists from all sectors of society are at some potential risk of mistreatment by security forces or death squads. For example, between 1979 and 1981, 5123 trade unionists were allegedly killed. [Amnesty International, El Salvador: "Death Squads" a Government Strategy, (London: Amnesty International Publications), p. 26 (attached).]
Attachments:
- Amnesty International, El Salvador: Death Squads A Government Strategy, London: Amnesty International Publications, 1988.
- Americas Watch, Labour Rights in El Salvador, New York: Americas Watch Committee, 1988, particularly pages 72, 76, 81, 82.
- El Rescate, El Salvador Update: Labor Under Siege; A Report on the Salvadoran Trade Union Movement, October 1985, Los Angeles: El Rescate Human Rights Department, 1985.
- A partial list compiled by the Human Rights Institute of the Central American University José Simeón Cañas, Repression Against Salvadoran Labor and Cooperative Movement; September 1985 to August 1986.
