(Read the unofficial CISPES translation of the original El Faro article here.)
On Monday, May 23, the Salvadoran digital news magazine El Faro published a series ofconfidential cables sent by the U.S. Embassy in San Salvador to various officials at the U.S. State Department that were leaked as part of Wikileaks Cablegate. According to thedigital publication, the published cables demonstrate that “U.S. interventionin Salvadoran electoral processes has been calculated and sustained over time”and that “from 2005 to 2008 their diplomats analyzed practically every facet oftheir bilateral relationship with El Salvador in light of its effect on thepossibility of victory for ARENA—the party that guarantees U.S.-backed economic policies.”
For years, CISPES has denounced U.S. intervention in ElSalvador’s electoral processes as an egregious violation of the country’snational sovereignty and the self-determination of the people of ElSalvador. Whether it is throughdirect statements by high-ranking State Department officials that attempt tosway Salvadoran voters’ decisions or through the manipulation of internationalaid, economic and trade policy, and the stability of Salvadoran immigrantsliving in the U.S., the leaked cables demonstrate, as El Faro says, “the constant effort of the Embassy to make thepolitical tempo of the bilateral relationship coincide with the Salvadoranelectoral calendar.”
The leaked cables, published byEl Faro, illustrate exactly how the U.S. has used policies such as TemporaryProtective Status (TPS)—a program that allows more than 200,000 Salvadorans tolive and work in the U.S.—and the disbursement of U.S. assistance fordevelopment projects as leverage to ensure electoral victories for theNationalist Republican Alliance (ARENA) party in an effort to ensure that theFarabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN) party did not make politicalgains.
Fortunately, these efforts could notcompete with the steadfast organizing of the people of El Salvador, who in 2009tenaciously worked to defeat the right-wing in the presidential elections forthe first time in history and elected more legislative deputies from the FMLNthan from any other party.
CISPES remains committed to supportingthe people of El Salvador in the face of U.S. foreign policy that attempts toundermine their sovereignty and self-determination. Moving forward, wecall on the U.S. government to break away from this pattern of electoral andpolitical intervention and design its relationship with El Salvador and itsimmigration, economic, and aid policies to benefit El Salvador’s entirepopulation, rather than serving partisan and ideological interests.
You can read the original article aboutthe cables by José Luis Sanz in El Faro here: http://www.wikileaks.elfaro.net/es/201105/notas/4159/#
