Related: A Snapshot of the El Salvador Election
What I noticed most about these pieces are the way the AmeriKan MSM totally scrubbed any U.S. involvement in what has become known as the Iran-Contra affair, by which the U.S. sold weapons to the Iranian mullahs in the mid-1980s (using Isreal to deliver the weapons!) and then used the proceeds to secretly and illegaly fund the Nicaraguan contras.
The articles also gloss over the U.S. involvemnet in El Salvador's death squads (much like the coverage of Colombia, Mexico, and other places).
Yup, it is just a REGULAR DIET of WAR PROPAGANDA and POLITICAL FOOLEYS when it comes to AmeriKa's MSM jewspapers!
"Salvadoran leftist leader promises moderation; Wants to have strong US ties, promote investor confidence" by Alexandra Olson, Associated Press | March 17, 2009
SAN SALVADOR - A charismatic former television journalist promised to build strong ties with President Obama and promote investor confidence yesterday as he took El Salvador into uncharted territory after being elected its first leftist president.
Behind Mauricio Funes is a party of former Marxist guerrillas that fought to overthrow US-backed governments in the 1980s and whose rise to power has raised fears of a communist regime in the war-scarred Central American country.
Funes, who gave up his journalism career less than two years ago to become the presidential candidate of the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front, or FMLN, sought to quell those concerns after his historic victory Sunday.
"Nothing traumatizing is going to happen here," he said in an interview with local Megavision television. "We will not reverse any privatizations. We will not jeopardize private property. There is no reason at this moment for fear."
The FMLN, formed from five rebel armies in 1980, is the second former enemy of the United States to take power democratically in Latin America's lurch to the left. In 2006, Nicaraguans elected Daniel Ortega two decades after his Sandinista government fought US-backed Contra rebels, and his relations with Washington have remained tense under the Obama administration.
Yeah, that is the EXTENT of the HISTORY LESSON in the MSM!
And can we have change on SOMETHING, 'bamer? Jesus Christ!
Among the 75,000 people killed in El Salvador's 12-year civil war were a US Navy lieutenant commander gunned down by guerrillas and four Marines who died in a rebel attack on a restaurant.
Well, that's 5 deaths out of 75,000!!! Can the PRO-AMERICAN BIAS be any more BLATANT?
Former guerrillas will almost certainly form part of the Funes government, including Vice President-elect Salvador Sanchez Ceren, a rebel-commander-turned-congressman.
Hey, OUR WAR CRIMINALS become PRESIDENTS SOMETIMES -- or our presidents become war criminals! Really not much of a difference.
But Funes, who was a TV reporter during the war, has stayed away from the firebrand anti-US rhetoric that characterizes Ortega and Venezuela's leftist President Hugo Chávez. Instead, he has compared his message of change to Obama's.
Funes, who takes office June 1, promised in his victory speech that strengthening ties with the United States would be a priority. The Obama administration congratulated him yesterday. "We look forward to working with the new government of El Salvador," said State Department spokesman Robert Wood. "It was a very free, fair, and democratic election."
Let's hope they keep their word.
The overture was a marked departure from the administration of President George W. Bush, which suggested during the 2004 election that it could not trust an FMLN government.
The current US neutrality has deflated one of the major arguments of the conservative Arena Party as it sought a fifth five-year term in power. Arena flooded the airwaves with ads showing Chávez railing against Obama and warning that Funes would turn El Salvador into a Venezuelan satellite.
Chavez's government congratulated Funes on his triumph yesterday and said Salvadorans "showed their clarity and courage, defeating the campaign of lies, garbage, and manipulation."
While the FMLN has longstanding ties to Chávez, Funes kept the Venezuelan president at a distance during the campaign. Last week, Funes told foreign reporters he admired Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva for gaining the trust of the business class despite misgivings when the leftist first took office in 2003.
Critics who once questioned the sincerity of such messages gave Funes the benefit of the doubt yesterday. "Let Lula, and not Chávez, influence the direction of this country," columnist Fabrico Altamirano wrote in El Diario de Hoy, whose pro-government leanings so angered Funes during the campaign that he refused to grant the paper interviews.
Whatever.
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Actually, here is why the Globe gave their election so much print and a second day of coverage:
"Long effort to seat Salvadoran leftist pays off for Boston-area activists" by James F. Smith, Globe Staff | March 19, 2009
Cambridge activist David Grosser had worked for this day for more than two decades. And when it finally came - when the left-wing FMLN party won the presidency in El Salvador on Sunday - "it was one of the sweetest days of my life," Grosser said.
Grosser is one of five Boston-area activists who traveled to El Salvador to support the FMLN and help it guard against election tricks that might deny it victory, despite a big lead in opinion polls.
Such a shame that citizens must guard against suh things.
The ruling right-wing party, ARENA, had won every presidential election since it was formed in 1982. Backed by the United States, the ARENA government battled the FMLN guerrillas in a 12-year civil war that claimed more than 70,000 lives until a peace treaty in 1992.
But this time, Mauricio Funes, the FMLN candidate, defeated ARENA's candidate, Rodrigo Avila, by just a couple of percentage points, in what international analysts widely described as a relatively clean election.
How come we can't have on hear, America?
Grosser's team was part of a delegation of more than 60 members of the Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador, or CISPES, an American organization that has long mobilized US support for the FMLN. (FMLN is the Spanish acronym for the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front; ARENA is the National Republican Alliance.)
In a telephone interview from the capital, San Salvador, Grosser said the change in US policy toward El Salvador since President Obama's election played a key role in the outcome. Grosser said CISPES had joined in calls for the United States to make a clear declaration of neutrality, and to break from the Bush administration's open support for the right-wing governing party.
Before the vote, a group of Republicans in Congress said an FMLN victory should prompt restrictions on remittances from the United States; Democrats responded with a letter demanding US neutrality. Indeed, the US Embassy and the State Department made public declarations of neutrality in the days before Sunday's vote.
"Basically, the system is structured so that the capacity to commit large-scale fraud only resides with ARENA," Grosser said. "So a level playing field allowed the Salvadoran people to make their choice clearly and without fear."
Grosser, 55, has worked with CISPES since he helped Cambridge establish sister-city ties in 1986 with San Jose las Flores in the Chalatenango District of northern El Salvador, one of the hardest-hit in the civil war and an FMLN stronghold. CISPES was the target of lengthy Reagan administration surveillance and allegations of inappropriate involvement with a foreign "terrorist organization," which were later dropped without action against the group.
Oh, HOW LITTLE THINGS HAVE CHANGED!!!!!
Grosser had thought the FMLN's victory would come in the previous election in 2004. "I was here then and I was bitterly disappointed, and infuriated by the role our government played, intimidating voters, threatening to retaliate economically. That was not the only reason why they held onto power, but it was significant."
Because it was STOLEN, wasn't it?
He said CISPES would reexamine its own role now that the FMLN will hold the presidency for the next five years - the latest in a series of left-wing parties to win power in Latin America.
Translation: WE REJECT U.S. IMPERIALISM!!!
The Salvadoran National Assembly will still be controlled by right-wing parties, so Funes will need to compromise to get legislation adopted, and to cope with terrible problems of gang violence and drug trafficking.
Oh, they go that, too, huh?
"We're certainly hopeful that the kind of positive outreach that the Obama administration has shown will continue, and we won't have to be as vigilant against our own government as we did under Bush," Grosser said. But he added: "We do not expect the right here to give up."
They NEVER DO!
"We expect the kind of social reconstruction that the FMLN will carry out will be extremely inspiring. I don't think the FMLN is really interested in provoking conflict where it doesn't exist. They are extremely pragmatic. They know that they face a lot of difficulties with a bankrupt state apparatus thanks to the outgoing administration, and with the world economy teetering on the brink. So they are treading somewhat cautiously."
Translation: If ANYTHING ODD HAPPENS, look for the FALSE FLAG!!!
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