National Intelligence Director: Venezuela to intervene in Salvadoran elections

[Judi Lynn]

National Intelligence Director: Venezuela to intervene in Salvadoran elections
Submitted by WW4 Report on Sat, 02/23/2008 - 03:29.
From the Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador (CISPES), Feb. 21:

In a recent visit to the United States, Salvadoran president Antonio Saca expressed concern about the findings of a recent US intelligence report, which predicts that Venezuela will intervene in El Salvador's 2009 elections. In his Annual Threat Assessment, US Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell states that "we expect Chávez to provide generous campaign funding to the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN) in El Salvador in its bid to secure the presidency in the 2009 election."

Similar US national security reports, later exposed as false and comprised of politically-manipulated intelligence, were used by the Bush administration to justify its preemptive war against Iraq in 2003. Nevertheless, Saca ordered an investigation into the US claims and recalled a diplomat from Venezuela for consultations, declaring, "we are instructing the diplomat to return to El Salvador to provide first hand information on this topic."

Additionally, Saca warned that “any interference of a government such as Venezuela's in El Salvador's domestic affairs is unacceptable.” Conversely, Saca seems to view electoral intervention by the United States government as not only acceptable, but welcomed. In a November 2007 press conference with President Bush, Saca stated that the US "can help out a lot in preventing citizen support for certain proposals in the upcoming elections."

FMLN presidential candidate Mauricio Funes denied the U.S.’s accusations and pledged that his party would not receive financing from Venezuela. Funes promptly proceeded to propose a campaign finance reform package to the Legislative Assembly that would cap campaign spending, mandate transparency in campaign financing and expenditures, and ban donations from foreign sources.

For his part, Venezuelan president Chávez also dismissed the intelligence report, stating that the FMLN did not need his support because it is a "solid" and "well-organized" party with popular support. "It's a lie. We don’t need to do that, and they don’t need it," Chávez said.

More:
http://www.ww4report.com/node/5133

[AlphaCentauri]

1. Same old trick

Mexico, Brasil, Argentina, Ecuador, Bolivia....

All latin american countries get the same pill.

Felipe Calderon - National Action Party (PAN)Mexico
He ran a negative campaign against his left-wing rival, linking him to Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez in TV ads, proclaiming: "Lopez Obrador is a danger to Mexico".

..

SERGIO AGUAYO: Mexico has incorporated the worst of American politics, dirty politics. That's not the kind of contribution that one could respect.

http://www.onthemedia.org/transcripts/2006/05/12/03

U.S. Political Consultants Dick Morris and Rob Allyn Are the Virtual Rapists of Atenco
May 16, 2006
A solid dose of negative campaigning has tightened up Mexico’s three-way presidential race, generating a spate of stories about the influence of controversial U.S. political strategist Dick Morris.

Reports in the Mexican press are raising questions about how connected Morris might be to the campaign of Felipe Calderon. The conservative Calderon is competing with leftist Andres Manual Lopez Obrador and populist Roberto Madrazo in a contest to lead a nation of 105 million people whose exodus of migrants, legal and illegal, are reshaping U.S. politics and society.

Last month, Calderon overtook Lopez Obrador for the first time in the polls when a survey done by the Reforma newspaper gave him a 38 to 35 percent edge over Lopez Obrador. Madrazo held 23 percent. Lopez Obrador has retained a slight lead in other recent polls compiled by opinamexico.org.

Calderon’s surge followed a saturation television advertising campaign aimed at eroding the positive image Lopez Obrador has forged as a popular mayor of Mexico City by linking him to Venezuela’s leftist president Hugo Chavez. In a story headlined “Mercenary Strategists Without Rival,” the newsweekly Proceso (in Spanish by subscription) reported this week that Calderon has contracted Morris and Texas-based political consultant Rob Allyn “to handle not only his image, but the development of his campaign.”

http://www.narconews.com/Issue41/article1817.html

[EFerrari]

2. Stale accusations meant to distract from US interference.

I wonder if anyone even takes them seriously any more.