Eugene CISCAP About

What is CISCAP?

CISCAP, the Committee in Solidarity with the Central American People, is a local, volunteer-based grassroots organization, founded in 1982. CISCAP has one full-time staff person, 30 very active members, over 100 volunteers, over 200 dues-paying members and a mailing list of more than 600. CISCAP works to educate the community, raise funds for material aid projects, build grassroots opposition to U.S. military intervention, and generate pressure for a more just U.S. policy toward Central America, Mexico, and Cuba.

CISCAP¹s work includes tabling at local events, bringing touring speakers to Eugene, providing educational forums, counteracting media disinformation, raising funds through concerts, benefit dinners and other activities, and carrying-out marches, demonstrations and leafletting. CISCAP also coordinates a phone tree to pressure congress on important legislative issues at key times and to respond to human rights abuses in Central America, Mexico, and Cuba.

Why Do We Need CISCAP?

Over the past twenty five years, the U.S. government has:

supported the death squad governments of El Salvador, where over 75,000 civilians have died due to the violence since 1980.
supported the Guatemalan military governments which have the worst human rights record in this hemisphere.
illegally intervened in the affairs of Nicaragua by funding the brutal contra army, economically starving the country through an embargo and manipulating the electoral process.
been illegally enforcing an embargo against Cuba, effectively starving a nation of food and other necessities.
implemented NAFTAwhich allows U.S. corporations to exploit Mexican labor, environment and health regulations
given military assistance and weapons sales to the Mexican army in the name of counter-narcotics efforts to contain the social and political pressures of recent social movements.

While our tax dollars have bought death and destruction in Central America, human needs here in Eugene and the United States have gone unmet. Citizens in this country are in desperate need of healthcare, decent schools, housing, and jobs. However, rather than meet the needs of its own citizens, the U.S. government chooses to intervene in Central America, Cuba and Mexico because it is profitable to U.S. interests. CISCAP advocates funding human needs in the U.S., not militarism in Central America and Mexico.