Below is an unofficialtranslation of Jose Luis Sanz’ article in El Faro “Embajada procuró favorecer una victoria deArena en 2006 y 2009” as well as links to the actual leaked cables.  Original text here: http://www.wikileaks.elfaro.net/es/201105/notas/4159/)

Embassy tried to help procure avictory for ARENA in 2006 and 2009

José Luis Sanz

Published May 23, 2011

From 2005 to 2008, the United States Embassy in ElSalvador tried to use donations and migration benefits to influence ElSalvador’s internal elections and asked Washington for “political coverage” forthe ARENA strategy in 2009.  The Councilor of Political Affairs MichaelButler even suggested in 2007 that George W. Bush personally convince Saca tonot put forth René Figueroa as a candidate.

U.S. intervention in El Salvador’spolitical processes, at times far from subtle, is nothing new.  Justlooking at the past decade, on February 6, 2004, six weeks before thepresidential elections, then-Assistant Secretary of Hemispheric Affairs at theState Department Roger Noriega visited El Salvador and publicly called onSalvadorans to “measure the consequences” of a potential victory of the FMLNcandidate Schafik Handal.  A few days later it was his predecessor OttoReich who made a quick visit to the country and suggested that an FMLN governmentwould be a blow to “commercial, economic, and immigration” relations betweenthe U.S. and El Salvador.  Throughout the campaign, ARENA had broadcasttelevision spots that claimed a change in government would result in the lossof TPS, a temporary benefit that allows more than 200,000 Salvadorans to liveand work legally in the United States.