In 1980, American activists formed the Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador (CISPES), a nation-wide organization, to fight against U.S. military intervention in the Salvadoran civil war. CISPES is organized into local area committees linked by a national office based in Washington, DC. This collection includes materials from the Dallas branch of CISPES that functioned from approximately 1981 to 1990.
During the civil war in El Salvador, the military government and the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN) battled for control of the country. The high levels of violence during the conflict brought thousands of refugees into the United States. CISPES and other organizations advocated for U.S. non-intervention in this and other Central American conflicts as well as the right of undocumented refugees to receive sanctuary in the U.S. Since the 1980s, CISPES's work has expanded to include campaigns against the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA), government impunity for war crimes, and general vigilance of U.S. foreign policy toward the region.
CISPES is best known for the series of law suits it brought against the Federal Bureau of Investigation in the late 1980s following FBI infiltration and surveillance of the organization. Three months after the founding of CISPES, the FBI began to investigate it as a suspected terrorist organization. These suspicions were raised due to its vocal position against U.S. intervention in the conflict. The FBI infiltrator who investigated CISPES specifically targeted Linda Hajek, Director of the Dallas CISPES branch, for her high profile opinions about El Salvador and her social justice work in general. Therefore, the law suits against the FBI were also brought by CISPES in reference to the Dallas office. The collection documents the FBI infiltration and subsequent law suits, CISPES's sanctuary work in the Dallas area, and Holy Cross community initiatives for the urban poor in Dallas.
From the guide to the Committee In Solidarity With the People of El Salvador (CISPES), Dallas Office Records 2007-20. N/A., 1968-1990 (bulk: 1980-1988), (Benson Latin American Collection, The University of Texas at Austin)
