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Published on Saturday, March 14, 2009 by CommonDreams.org
Obama Administration Affirms U.S. Neutrality in Salvadoran Election
Thank you, President Obama. At long last - better late than never - a
high-level official of the Obama Administration has clearly affirmed
U.S. neutrality ahead of Sunday's Presidential election in El
Salvador.
Voice of America reports:
Friday in Washington, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Tom Shannon said the United States supports the democratic process in El Salvador and will work with whomever is elected.Also on Friday, Rep. Howard Berman, (D-CA), chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, affirmed that neither Temporary Protected Status for Salvadorans in the U.S. nor remittance flows from the U.S. to El Salvador would be affected by the outcome of the election. From the Committee website:
Congressman Howard L. Berman (D-CA), chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, issued the following statement in response to comments made by members of Congress, widely reported in the El Salvador media on the eve of elections there, that both Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Salvadorans in the U.S. and remittance flows from the U.S. to El Salvador may be in jeopardy depending on the outcome of the El Salvador elections to be held this Sunday: "Sunday's election belongs to the people of El Salvador. As Chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, I am confident that neither TPS nor the right to receive remittances from family in the United States will be affected by the outcome of the election, despite what some of my colleagues in Congress have said."Last week, Rep. Raul Grijalva and more than 30 Members of Congress asked the Obama Administration for a high-level affirmation of US neutrality. Until today, there had been no high-level response. The need for such affirmation - which should have come earlier - was made painfully obvious by the dirty tricks of Congressional Republicans this week. Tuesday March 10:
El Salvador's largest circulating daily, the Diario de Hoy, published news of a letter signed by over 40 Republicans in Congress, denouncing the FMLN and warning of their links to Venezuela and Cuba. The letter expresses "grave concern that a victory by the FMLN could make links between El Salvador and the regimes of Venezuela, Iran and Cuba, and other states that promote terrorism, and also with other non-democratic regimes and terrorist organizations."Wednesday March 11: Rep. Trent Franks (R-AZ):
"Should the pro-terrorist FMLN party replace the current government in El Salvador, the United States, in the interests of national security, would be required to reevaluate our policy toward El Salvador, including cash remittance and immigration policies to compensate for the fact there will no longer be a reliable counterpart in the Salvadoran government."Rep. Dan Burton (R-IN):
"Those monies that are coming from here to there I am confident will be cut, and I hope the people of El Salvador are aware of that because it will have a tremendous impact on individuals and their economy." Indeed, these threats carry considerable weight for Salvadoran voters, as 25% of the Salvadoran population lives in the U.S., and 20% of the nation's economy consists of remittances from those family members."Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA):
El Salvador's election is on Sunday. If an ally of Al-Qaeda and Iran comes to power in El Salvador, the national security interests of the United States will require certain immigration restrictions and controls over the flow of the $4 billion in annual remittances sent from the U.S. back home to El Salvador.These threats were trumpeted in Salvadoran media. Here's the front page of Diario de Hoy. What remains to be seen is how widely Friday's affirmations of U.S. neutrality will be reported in El Salvador, where the private media are overwhelmingly and openly biased in their reporting in support of the right-wing government.
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12 Comments so far
Show All" The national security of the United States". Yeah, the security of the MIC scares the hell out of the crime family!
Thank you President Obama.
What Hooey.
How dare non-white people take seriously our pronouncements on democracy. You can't trust children and colored people to make the right decisions.
This has been the case in Iran, Guatemala, Chile, Vietnam, Iraq, etc. Go FMLN. New day in Lat Am.
I think the Mara Salvatruchas should move into the districts of Dana Rohrbacher, Dan Burton and Trent Franks. It would serve them right. Blowback, ain't it a uknowwhat?
Well, one could call these Republicans pro-death -- their vicious temperament only masks their panic over another right-wing government about to fall. Their favoured party, ARENA, was founded by "Blowtorch Bob" D'Aubuisson, who played a key role in the assassination of Archbishop Romero, amongst numerous other depraved atrocities.
Old history yes, but the last twenty years of ARENA rule has left El Salvador mired in poverty, pimped out to the US multinationals, and with a crime epidemic that has given birth to one of the most vicious and powerful gangs in the Americas.
Friday in Washington, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Tom Shannon said the United States supports the democratic process in El Salvador and will work with whomever is elected.
...as we did in Gaza?
Excellent point, Humbaba ...
Excellent point! I guess the admin. is fair, unless the Zionists squeeze its ballz.
--Amir
Remember deeds speak louder than words. When the populist priest Jean Bertrand Aristide was democratically elected by the people of Haiti, the U.S. once again sponsored a coup which overthrew the government bringing to power, in the usual fashion another brutal dictator. Aristide was only allowed back into power in Haiti if he agreed to accept all of the neo-liberal policies of both NAFTA and the IMF. By this time Haiti had already been destroyed beyond recognition and may to this day, never recover. The U.S. knew that Aristide would be able to do nothing but preside over ruin. Yes, we may allow a democratic election but I wouldn't bet that the U.S. will allow the FMLN (who will more than likely win the election) to carry through any economic policies that would benefit the people there. After all, this is our turf according to the Monroe Doctrine (which has now of course, been extended to all of the globe). This is why the U.S. has been waging covert war on Cuba since 1959 when the Castro regime had the audacity to take matters into their own hands. I would not be too jubuliant.
Obama would be pretty cool...had it not been for the zionist ballgrab on our government, our media and our banking system...all the SAME THINGS that terrified Hitler so much about them.
Until we bring the CHOSEN ONES down where the rest of us humans are, the world is in deep shyte.
--Amir