Salvadoran coalition responds to US ambassador's push for gay 'rights'

San Salvador, El Salvador, Jul 7, 2011 / 10:08 am

The U.S. ambassador to El Salvador has violated rules of diplomacy and international laws by writing an article encouraging homosexual “rights,” according to a coalition of pro-life and pro-family groups in the country.

Speaking directly to Ambassador Mari Carmen Aponte, the coalition wrote, “(I)n clear violation of the rules of diplomacy and international rights laws, you intend to impose (a) new vision of foreign and bizarre values and intend to disguise (these) as ‘human rights.’” The statement was published July 6 in the local newspaper El Diario de Hoy.

The rebuke of the ambassador occurred after she called for the recognition of “lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights” in an article that appeared in the June 28 edition of La Prensa Grafica newspaper.

Aponte said that ensuring this change falls not only on the government but also on “each one of us.” She added that each generation had to bring their countries closer to equality and noted that progress would take time, but that the “diversity of the Americas” would be celebrated.

In response to the ambassador’s article, a combination of domestic and international pro-life and pro-family groups accused Aponte of violating the Vienna Convention of the U.N. General Assembly, which states that diplomats are obligated not to interfere in the internal affairs of the receiving state, and that other states have the duty to respect the character of other states.

The coalition for life and family agreed with the ambassador when referring to the need to “repudiate violence against homosexuals, bisexuals, transsexuals, etc.” At the same time, they clarified that this “does not mean accepting the legal union between same sex individuals or to add new types of families.”

“Not accepting the legitimacy of ‘sexual diversity’ does not mean we are violating any human right,” the group said.
 
The statement noted that the U.S. is a place where “millions of defenseless and vulnerable unborn babies are murdered legally in the most cruel and merciless ways,” which goes against human rights as well.

An official from the U.S. Embassy in El Salvador, who asked not to be named because he wasn’t authorized to speak to the media, said in a July 6 interview with CNA that the ambassador “was not commenting on foreign culture and laws; (she) was restating U.S. policy,” because President Obama and Secretary Clinton have stated this position previously.
 
“One of the reasons that we have ambassadors around the world is to explain U.S. policy outside of our border, so that is what she was doing,” he explained. “She is the president’s representative in this country.”

But the pro-life and pro-family coalition did not want the ambassador to define what progress meant for the country.
 
“We prefer to feel proudly ‘old fashioned,’ keep our moral values, preserve our families and posses the clarity of what defines good and evil,” their statement concluded.