Jennifer Jean Casolo is an American citizen who was arrested on November 26, 1989 by
Salvador
Salvador, meaning "salvation" (or "saviour") in Catalan, Spanish, and Portuguese may refer to:
* Salvador (name)
Arts, entertainment, and media Music
*Salvador (band), a Christian band that plays both English and Spanish music
** ''Salvador'' ( ...
an government troops during the "Final Offensive" of the
Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front
The Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front ( es, Frente Farabundo Martí para la Liberación Nacional, FMLN) is a left-wing political party in El Salvador.
The FMLN was formed as an umbrella group on 10 October 1980, from five leftist gu ...
(FMLN) in San Salvador.
Controversy
Casolo's arrest was related to some arms allegedly discovered at her rented house. An American official noted at the time, "It's a good bust."
However, in a 1989 report on El Salvador,
Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch (HRW) is an international non-governmental organization, headquartered in New York City, that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. The group pressures governments, policy makers, companies, and individual human r ...
noted that the Casolo arrest came at a time when the Salvadoran police and army were arresting, jailing and expelling foreigners working with Salvadoran churches and relief organizations. These critics stated their belief that the government used the Casolo incident as part of an effort to threaten and discredit the entire foreign religious community in El Salvador. They also expressed their concern that it appeared to them that the U.S. Embassy staff in San Salvador and officials in Washington appeared to have already accepted the Salvadoran military's view that Casolo's guilt was an established fact. On November 27, 1989, White House spokesman
Marlin Fitzwater
Max Marlin Fitzwater (born November 24, 1942) is an American writer-journalist who served as White House Press Secretary for six years under U.S. Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush, making him one of the longest-serving press secreta ...
stated that "there are indications of her involvement, that's for certain". Faced with criticism for what appeared to be a bias towards Casolo, Fitzwater apologized "to anyone who feels that they were offended by this."
Context
During this time period, many American and Europeans, often under the auspices of church organizations, were believed to be assisting the FMLN in what they believed was a liberation struggle against the Government of El Salvador. In another incident during the 1989 offensive, the
International Committee of the Red Cross
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC; french: Comité international de la Croix-Rouge) is a humanitarian organization which is based in Geneva, Switzerland, and it is also a three-time Nobel Prize Laureate. State parties (signato ...
(ICRC) was contacted by the FMLN and told that another American woman could be located at a specific location who was suffering from battle injuries. The ICRC picked up the woman, whose jaw had been destroyed by a bullet, and transported her to a San Salvador hospital. The evidence suggested that she had been moving with an FMLN unit when it clashed with a Salvadoran military patrol.
''Embassies Under Siege: Personal Accounts By Diplomats On The Front Line''
edited by Ambassador Joseph G. Sullivan (1995).
World reaction
The Salvadoran government of Alfredo Cristiani
Alfredo Félix Cristiani Burkard (born 22 November 1947) is a Salvadoran politician who was President of El Salvador from 1989 to 1994.
Life and career
Born into a wealthy family in San Salvador, his father Felix Cristiani was an Italian immig ...
was pressed by both the Salvadoran military and outraged citizens, who demanded prosecution of a foreigner contributing to the violence in their country. However, Casolo was also supported by a wide number of critics of the Salvadoran government, who demanded that she be released immediately. Former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark
William Ramsey Clark (December 18, 1927 – April 9, 2021) was an American lawyer, activist, and federal government official. A progressive, New Frontier liberal, he occupied senior positions in the United States Department of Justice under Presi ...
flew in to represent Casolo, as did a number of religious leaders.
After days of pressure, President Cristiani ordered Casolo released for lack of evidence and deported on December 13, 1989. After spending the Christmas holiday with her family in the U.S. Casolo undertook a nationwide public speaking tour to declare her innocence and denounce the Government of El Salvador and the United States' involvement in that country.
After her release, Casolo was asked to testify before a Congressional subcommittee on the conduct of U.S. Embassy officials in San Salvador during her detention. She became a peace activist, later worked as a lay volunteer in a Catholic Parish in Honduras and in 2001 began a PhD program in Geography at the University of California at Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant univ ...
. She now has her Masters and PhD from University of California at Berkeley and has published on issues such as gender and land rights in Honduras and historical memory and indigenous territorial struggles in Guatemala. See https://independent.academia.edu/JCasolo and https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Jennifer_J_Casolo.
References
Sources
* "Her Salvadoran ordeal over, Jennifer Casolo hits the road to end the war she left behind", ''People Weekly'', vol 33 (January 22, 1990), pp. 64–65
* "The Evidence Against Casolo", W.W. Terry, ''The Oregonian'', April 20, 1990, p. B5
* "U.S. Woman Tells of Salvadoran Ordeal" by Jason Parle, ''New York Times'', January 8, 1990, Monday Late Edition - Final, Section A, p. 3
* "El Salvador's Cry: Tell The Truth", Accuracy In Media, March 8, 1990
* https://independent.academia.edu/JCasolo
* https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Jennifer_J_Casolo
{{DEFAULTSORT:Casolo, Jennifer
American anti-war activists
Brandeis University alumni
Living people
People of the Salvadoran Civil War
Year of birth missing (living people)
Place of birth missing (living people)
People deported from El Salvador
Women in war in Central America
Women in warfare post-1945