Resist Tyranny; Restore Constitutional Rights

Letter to the LNP Editor; text as submitted January 31, 2026

Two hundred fifty years ago colonists in North America declared their independence from tyrannical rule. After seven years of war and eight more of discussion, heated debate, and grudging compromise, they had crafted a Constitution and Bill of Rights to govern their new nation. Though far from perfect, for the most part those documents with amendments have served us reasonably well.

Disturbingly, however, for the last year we have been living under an increasingly lawless and violent regime. Commentary has noted that Trump has not just been violating the Constitution; he is acting as if it doesn’t exist. He is sending heavily armed and masked thugs into cities against which he has vowed retribution. Those troops are terrifying neighborhoods, disappearing people into brutal concentration camps, and murdering observers on the streets.

The flood of lies issuing from government officials about the victims and the circumstances of their killings are easily disproved, but the lasting harm is very real. The provisions contained in the Bill of Rights are being violated with impunity. If Republican lawmakers had any concern for justice and national wellbeing, Trump wouldn’t be in office, and we wouldn’t be living this nightmare.

The brutality of ICE’s occupation of Minneapolis is horrifying, and that is not the only city under siege. In contrast the resistance of the residents, the way they have rallied to protect and care for their neighbors, is inspiration for us all. Just as our founders did in 1776, we must demand an end to tyranny and immediate restoration of our Constitutional and human rights.

PVC 1990 Delegation – Part Twelve: CODEFAM

The following notes have been edited to correct errors and to add explanations and updates. Parenthetical notes and remarks from the original are enclosed in parentheses. Present day [2022] updates are italicized and enclosed in square brackets.

5 October 1990, 11:50 AM - CODEFAM

This group was formed on 9 September 1981 out of the roots of the war in El Salvador by families of captured, disappeared, and assassinated persons. It was originally called Comite. Later, on 14 March 1983 Marianella Garcia Villas was assassinated in Las Bermudas. She was a worker who fought for human rights, and at the time of her death she was investigating the use of chemicals in bombing by the military. She was accompanying ninety families who were escaping from a strong military operation when she was wounded and captured. First she was taken to a military school, then to a military hospital, where she was tortured – burned on the legs and arms, raped, and forced to swallow a grenade which then was exploded. She was a founder of the Human Rights office which PVC just visited, and CODEFAM works in her name today.

(Later we were to meet a young girl named Marianella. Her mother, whose first husband was disappeared, tells us that the child was born just a few months after Marianella Garcia Villas' assassination, and that when she went to register the birth, the authorities questioned her sharply as to whether she was sure that she wanted to give her daughter such a controversial name. She answered them proudly that yes, that was her deliberate intention.)

"The work of the committee is three-fold: 1. to struggle for the defense of human rights, with priority on freeing political prisoners; 2. to struggle to clarify the whereabouts of the disappeared and to enforce existing laws in El Salvador to discontinue this practice; and 3. to bring those persons who are responsible for the violations of human rights to trial and punishment.