Submitted by Sisters of Mercy: Mercy for Justice
Contact your senators and the Biden administration to stop the appointment of Elliott Abrams to the United States Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy. Abrams is responsible for extreme human rights violations in Central America during the 1980s and has continued to foster dangerous policies in many prominent positions since, including official roles in the George W. Bush and Trump administrations.
Write Your Senator Now!
The Sisters of Mercy have had a long history of accompanying the peoples of Central America throughout the wars there in the 1980s and 1990s. Our sisters and associates there know firsthand the effects of atrocities like those Abrams has facilitated and hidden. The whole Mercy family stands in solidarity with the people of Central America, and we continue in the work to heal the lives of communities and individuals harmed by his destructive efforts. This includes holding responsible officials accountable and working to keep them out of positions where they could compound the harm they’ve caused.
Background
In early July, President Biden nominated Elliott Abrams to the bipartisan U.S. Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy. According to its website, the Commission’s work is “appraising U.S. government activities intended to understand, inform, and influence foreign publics and to increase the understanding of, and support for, these same activities.” What this neutral sounding language means in practice is whatever it takes to extend and maintain U.S. control of other countries. The activities of Elliott Abrams over the past forty years provide some of the worst examples of this mission, and of a blatant disregard for the sovereignty, rights, and lives of others.
Abrams has had a long career as a U.S. foreign policy official and member of the foreign policy establishment. During this career, he has enabled and covered up some of the most infamous moments of destruction and violence in U.S. foreign policy as it was unleashed on the most vulnerable members of the global community, including in El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua. His work has also caused suffering and mayhem in Venezuela, Palestine, Iraq, and Iran. Abrams continues to be complicit in actions and policies that violate human rights and undermine global democracy today.
A recent article, Elliott Abrams and the People of Central America: Never Forget!, states:
Abrams was involved in conceptualizing, organizing, and white-washing policies and practices that cut a broad path of murder, mayhem, and misery in Central America and are still haunting and shaping the region today, in large part because the architects of the terror, like Mr. Abrams, are still in positions of influence in Washington and in the region.
-by Jim Phillips
Please contact members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to oppose this nomination, all senators to vote against his nomination, and President Biden to withdraw his nomination.
