Mid afternoon Friday:

More delays and more frustrations and stress! I got the name and phone number of the holdup, and it appears to be purely political. I have to wonder who is really running the country when a 4th level beaurocrat can defy the President's approval to release the containers - twice! But he has.

Here is the letter that has been sent to everyone that I can think of who can help in some way including Geraldo at Fox News. By the way, I did an interview with KY3 for posting on Monday morning or later--unless something changes.

August 1, 2009
Dear Patricia Maza:

It appeared for a day or two that the release of the containers was going to happen. However, I just spoke with Napolean (503-2248-4718) and he gave me this information:

The person blocking the release is Carlos Cativo, Deputy Director of Customs Storage Office, San Bartolo, ES. His phone number is 503-2244-5072. It appears that he is a 4th level bureaucrat, but he is taking it upon himself to defy the orders of the President of the Republic of El Salvador who has twice signed documents releasing the shipment. He (Carlos) says he is simply enforcing the law when he requires that we pay for the unloading of the containers and having an item-by-item inventory made with a lawyer/notary present to verify it. (Note here that the inventory we provided of the goods is not enough—he wants the number of red men’s shirts, the number of blue men’s shirts, etc. For the record, our inventory shows inventory shows 254 bags/boxes/barrels of clothing.)

In a previous conversation with his boss present, he (Carlos) is reported to have told the Mayor of La Palma that this is payback time because that is the way Arena used to treat FMLN shipments. Carlos now denies making that statement. Again, I want to state that we as the Church of Christ have remained non-political. We have distributed goods, medicines, medical treatment, clothing, school supplies, etc to everyone based on need regardless of social status, religion, or any other affiliation. This can be verified by contacting people in the municipality. We welcome your audit or a visit to the area, and please have anyone and everyone involved come visit us while we are there in September for verification that the above statement is true.

Patricia, please help us on this matter. It is frustrating and expensive to be attempting to do the will of God and have political hurdles such as this. The Government shuts down in a few hours for a week of vacation, so we have little hope of any release today. The cost of $100 per day for the two containers continues. That money cannot be spent helping people in El Salvador.

Another message coming from the Customs office is that we should simply abandon the shipment and let ‘them’ take care of it. That option is not acceptable to us, as the recipients are intended to be the poor people of the La Palma region.

One more note: Included in the shipment are 4 boxes of glasses donated by Rotary International and to be donated to the new Optical Department at the University of San Salvador. Rotary International also donated the 3 children’s wheel chairs, the three exam tables, and many of the other medical items. It is unfortunate that those items are being held up along with the rest.

I will be contacting the Senators and Congressmen copied on the earlier document. I will also be contacting the major news networks and the Secretary of State to bring this matter to the attention of as many people and agencies as possible.

Sincerely,

Ralph McClurg
417-849-0245