Ponce

MEMORANDUM *

Salvador Ponce, native and citizen of El Salvador, petitions for review of the Board of Immigration Appeals’ (“BIA”) order dismissing his appeal from the Immigration Judge’s (“IJ”) decision denying his application for asylum, withholding of removal, and protection under the Convention Against Torture (“CAT”). We have jurisdiction pursuant to 8 U.S.C. § 1252 , and we grant the petition in part and deny it in part.

As an initial matter, we deny Ponce’s request that we take judicial notice of the U.S. State Department’s 2007 Country Report for El Salvador. Our review is limited to the administrative record. 8 U.S.C. § 1252 (b)(4)(A); Fisher v. INS, 79 F.3d 955, 963-64 (9th Cir.1996) (en banc). The exception to the general rule recognized in Gafoor v. INS, 231 F.3d 645, 655-57 (9th Cir.2000), is not applicable in this case.

We deny the petition as to Ponce’s claims for asylum and withholding of removal based on political opinion. Substantial evidence supports the IJ’s determination because Ponce failed to put forward sufficient evidence that the guerrillas’ attentions were “on account of’ any actual or imputed political opinion, as opposed to on account of the…