A member of the National TPS Alliance, an advocacy group representing immigrants with Temporary Protected Status (TPS), accused the United States of “destroying” El Salvador by backing the country’s government during its civil war.
Doris Reina-Landaverde of the National TPS Alliance said the United States bears responsibility for the conditions that forced her to leave El Salvador, arguing that U.S. support for the Salvadoran government during the country’s civil war contributed to the destruction of her homeland.
Reina-Landaverde said she survived the civil war and came to the United States for medical treatment after receiving Temporary Protected Status in 2000.
“As a TPS holder, a immigrant, that I survive a civil war in El Salvador where United States invest one million dollar per day to destroy my country and make me to leave my country because I need a medical treatment,” Reina-Landaverde. “This is the reason I’m here. But they made me get out from my country because they destroyed my country. And now they blame us, and we bring hope to this country, because the only hope this country in this moment have is the immigrant community.”
The United States backed El Salvador’s government throughout the 1980–1992 civil war as part of its Cold War strategy to prevent the communist Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN) from taking power.
The U.S. justified its military and economic support as part of its effort to contain communism in Central America during the Cold War, even as the Salvadoran military faced international condemnation for widespread human rights abuses.
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