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“Planting the Seeds of Violence: How U.S. Involvement in El Salvador Led to Today’s Migration Crisis”

The CWRU Cox International Law Center, the Social Justice Institute and International Partners in Mission (IPM) will co-sponsor a panel discussion titled “Planting the Seeds of Violence: How U.S. Involvement in El Salvador Led to Today’s Migration Crisis” Monday, Oct. 12, from 4:30 to 6 p.m. ET. The panel will feature Kristina Aiad-Toss, Brenna Dilley and Adela Zayas as speakers.

Members of the Case Western Reserve University community are invited to join in for a discussion of how U.S. involvement in El Salvador in the 1980s planted the seeds for today’s crisis of migration from Central America. The panelists will outline how the United States assisted the Salvadoran government in committing war crimes by providing weapons and training soldiers, which ultimately led to the murders of over 70,000 innocent civilians. The Salvadoran Civil War left the country deeply divided and ridden with economic troubles. When the U.S. forced Salvadorans who had sought refuge in Los Angeles to return home, they brought back a gang system that grew in response to the harsh post-war inequalities. Today’s migrants are fleeing the continuing violence and financial devastation.

The panel discussion will be presented as part of “Memory & Resistance: 40 Years,” a series of community events commemorating the 40th anniversary of the Inter-Religious Task Force on Central America.

The discussion is free and open to the CWRU community.

Register for the Zoom webinar.

About the speakers

Kristina Aiad-Toss is a third-year Juris Doctor student at Case Western Reserve University School of Law and an International Business Law LLM candidate at Middlesex University in London. In law school, she has focused her studies and professional experience on corporate social accountability and human rights.

Brenna Dilley joined IPM in May 2019 as a law student intern investigating war crimes that took place during the Salvadoran Civil War, along with U.S. involvement in aiding and abetting those war crimes. She is the founder and president of Inn(H)er Change Network, which provides human trafficking survivors access to rescue and justice.

Adela Zayas is the director of International Partnerships and Programs and regional director for Latin America and the Caribbean for IPM. She studied psychology at Universidad Centroamericana “José Simeón Cañas” (UCA) and is passionate about working with women, children and youth.