They posed with signs saying “We Are José” in front of the Monumento a la Paz in San Salvador, the capital city of El Salvador, a peace monument which was made with melted shell casings used during the country’s bloody civil war.
Supporters of Langley resident José Figueroa also posed in front of the statue of Roman Catholic Archbishop Óscar Romero in San Salvador’s Plaza de las Américas, erected to honour the outspoken cleric who was murdered by a pro-government death squad in 1980.
People who back Figueroa’s fight to remain in Canada also demonstrated in his former home town of Santa Ana, the second largest city in El Salvador, located 64 kilometres west of the capital.
In Santa Ana’s Libertad (freedom) park, in front of the the Santa Ana Gothic Cathedral, the municipal palace (city hall) of Santa Ana, and the century old Teatro (theatre) de Santa Ana, they protested the May 2010 decision by a Canadian immigration hearing that declared Figueroa unacceptable for Canadian citizenship.
This ruling came down because of his involvement as a student in El Salvador with the left-wing Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN) during the civil war.
The ruling was made even though the Immigration and Refugee Board commissioner agreed that Figueroa was never involved in anything violent, going so far as to state that Figueroa’s “personal actions, in my view, were fine.”
But since elements of the FMLN were linked to violent acts during the fight to overthrow a government the immigration commissioner called a “repressive regime that needed to be changed,” that was enough to exclude Figueroa under broad new anti-terrorism guidelines imposed in the wake of the 9/11 tragedy.
With the end of the civil war in El Salvador, the FMLN has turned into a political party, one that has won elections for control of the national government and municipal authorities including Santa Ana, where the mayor, FMLN member Francisco Polanco, participated in the day of protest.
A number of prominent FMLN members of the El Salvador legislative assembly also took part in the demonstrations, including Sigfrido Reyes, the head of the assembly.
Reyes stood with “We Are José” demonstrators at the Monumento a la Paz and issued a statement backing Figueroa, saying “include me on the list of those supporting the demand that José Figueroa’s rights be respected.”
Figueroa was pleased by the show of support in his homeland.
“It is obvious that [the] Salvadoran community have a different definition of terrorism,” Figueroa told The Times.
“We don’t see FMLN as a terrorist organization. This is just a historic error made by [Canadian immigration] officers who have no clue of what Salvadoran social reality is.”
Figueroa has lived in Langley for more than 13 years with his wife and three Canadian-born children.
The “We Are José” campaign was organized by a university professor who supports Figueroa and asks people to post video messages online on YouTube saying “we are José.”
Some of the posted clips can be viewed at http://wearejose.wordpress.com/.
The Jan. 16 protests in Canada and El Salvador were timed to coincide with the anniversary of the day the Salvadoran government signed a peace agreement with the FMLN, ending 12 years of fighting that killed an estimated 80,000 people.
