Roger Noriega, former Bush Administration official and current fellow at the American Enterprise Institute recently published this opinion article in the Miami Herald.  CISPES's response, sent to the Herald, is below.

Election could hand power to leftists: http://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/other-views/story/872317.html

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Roger Noriega's op-ed of January 26 presented a disturbing inversion ofthe history of El Salvador. As many people will remember, Reagan's"dirty wars" of the 1980s included a war that targeted the RomanCatholic church in Central America and included the killing ofSalvadoran Archbishop Oscar Romero and some 70,000 other Salvadorans.The death squad party to which Reagan sent aid was known as theNationalist Republican Alliance (ARENA).

Noriega would have uspraise the ARENA party for increasing El Salvador's score on theirIndex of Economic Freedom. But whatever minor gains El Salvador hasmade have not benefited the majority of the population. According tothe UNDP's Human Development Index, El Salvador scores 101st out of 179countries; increased poverty has lead to displacement, gang violenceand migration to the US, and the government has offered no solutions.Even if they had, ARENA's bloody past would be unforgivable.

Whicheverparty wins the upcoming elections, the U.S. should not interfere, asNoriega himself did as Assistant Secretary of State in 2004 by smearingthe FMLN and threatening to cut off relations if the party won. In ElSalvador, democracy has been thwarted far too often - it's time for thepeople of El Salvador to decide their own destiny.

Burke Stansbury
Executive Director, Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador (CISPES)