From August to December 1981 the FBI conducted a 3-month inquiry (something less than an investigation) into whether CISPES was merely a front organization for the Salvadoran communists, thereby placing the organization in violation of the FARA.
However members of the Los Angeles chapter, in response to allegations that CISPES was formed at the behest of Handal claimed that they had been informally working together for a year before the founding conference in October [REF].