US pledges to respect neutrality in Salvador elections —despite GOP bluster | World War 4 Report

On March 11—just four days before El Salvador’s historic election for president and vice-president—five Republican Congressmen gave speeches on the floor of the House of Representatives threatening that Salvadorans living in the US would lose their immigration status and be outlawed from sending money home to their families if voters in El Salvador elect the opposition FMLN party’s candidate. “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,” stated Rep. Dan Burton (R-IN). Similar threats by US officials were made during the 2004 Salvadoran presidential campaign.

The Republicans’ statements were on the front pages of the widest circulating daily newspapers in El Salvador on the morning of March 12, the day after the presidential and vice-presidential campaigns legally closed—leaving the FMLN unable to respond to the threats. The Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador (CISPES) mobilized its activists in the US to demand public statements of neutrality from the State Department in Washington and the US Embassy in San Salvador.

After receiving what it referred to as an “inundation” of phone calls from citizens around the US on March 12, the State Department released a statement of neutrality, saying “The US government reiterates its official position that it does not support either candidate in the upcoming presidential election in El Salvador on March 15th… The separation of powers and freedoms in the United States allows the debate in which members of the US Legislature have expressed their opinions, which do not necessarily reflect the official position of the United States.” Later that day, the US Embassy in El Salvador also released a statement saying, “The US Government will respect the will of the Salvadoran people and will seek to work constructively with whoever wins that election.”

Then the next morning, March 13, Rep. Howard Berman (D-CA) stated, “As Chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, I am confident that neither TPS [temporary immigration status granted to Salvadorans in the US] 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.”

At a press briefing later that day, Thomas Shannon, the State Department’s top diplomat for Latin America stated, “We are committed to free and fair elections in El Salvador. And we’ve also made it very clear that we will work with whomever the Salvadoran people elect.” All these statements of neutrality were covered in the Salvadoran media, as did a March 5 letter signed by 33 members of Congress calling for the Obama administration to take just such a position. That letter was published in its entirety in El Salvador’s highest-circulation newspaper, La Prensa Gráfica, on March 14

via US pledges to respect neutrality in Salvador elections —despite GOP bluster | World War 4 Report.

Estos cerotes republicanos quienes han tratado de meterle miedo a la gente de El Salvador y diciéndoles por quién votar deben de mejor callarse el hocico y seguir en su tarea de besarle las nalgas a su ídolo Limbaugh.