Last year, the IRI presented Antonio Saca, president of El Salvador, with its “Freedom Award” for what McCain called a transformation of El Salvador’s politics and economy. Yet in 2006, just two years after Saca was elected President, crime had reached an all time high in El Salvador. In response, death squads unofficially linked to Saca’s ruling ARENA Party emerged to supposedly suppress the surge in crime. What resulted was rampant corruption, which remains a problem for the Salvadoran government to this day. Despite a questionable record, McCain has praised Saca, claiming, “Advocates of freedom have no better ally in the region than President Saca.” This is a worrisome statement considering Saca has publicly praised people like Colonel Monterrosa, leader of the massacre at El Mazote,

http://www.coha.org/2008/06/a-…..d-the-iri/

Ok El Salvador is technically Central America. Has John never noticed the link between the death squads and the birth of the Salvadoran Gang MS 13?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mara_Salvatrucha

The Mara Salvatrucha gang originated in Los Angeles, set up in 1980s by Salvadoran immigrants in the city’s Pico-Union neighborhood.[4] There is some dispute about the etymology of the name (see below: Etymology). The most common belief is that Mara refers to the Spanish word for gang; it is suggested that Salvatrucha refers to the Salvadoran guerrillas, the source of much of the gang’s early manpower.

My Bold The GOP is blind to obvious unintended consequence No one could have foreseen 9/11, Katrina, the Dow dropping 777 points in a day, that we would need more troops in Iraq, that Saddam did not have WMD etc.
Willful ignorance is not Innocence!

Silly me.

Though Chávez has become more confrontational and his popularity has fluctuated since coming to power in 1999, he took office with and maintains considerable public support. Since 1998, the poverty rate has dropped from 54 percent to 38.5 percent (30 percent if food and health subsidies are considered). The people of Venezuela gained free health care and more than half the population was enrolled in free, public education. Yet, on April 11, 2002 Venezuelan military leaders briefly removed Chávez from power and replaced him with a pro-US businessman named Pedro Carmona. Despite the objections of almost all Latin American nations, the US hailed the overthrow of Chávez as a victory for democracy and the Venezuelan people. Before the coup had even been completed, the IRI president at the time, George Folsom, claimed, “The Venezuelan people rose up to defend democracy

http://www.coha.org/2008/06/a-…..d-the-iri/

My bold Free Education, Healthcare, Poverty rate goes down John McCain why did you your group try and stop Hugo? Is money more important than helping the people?
Are you sure that you and Sarah have read the same Bible I have read?

Sister Dorothy Stang, a 74 year old Ohioan who lived in the Amazon for 22 years, had worked to organize against expropriation and clearing of huge sections of rain forest. She was murdered while on her way to a meeting with peasant farmers.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/2/13/144651/671

The School for the Americas! Pat Buchanan I’m a Contra Nun killer too!

John McCain’s IRC has lots of money to kill people.

The IRI currently operates with a robust budget of $79 million. Though one of John McCain’s goals as chairman of the organization has been to increase private funding for the IRI, the overwhelming majority of funds for the organization comes from two public sources, the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) and the US Agency for International Development (USAID).

Stanley Lucas, the head of the IRI effort in Haiti, was instrumental in the creation of the Democratic Convergence and, thus, the eventual fall of the Aristide government. Lucas has been described by Mother Jones Magazine as “the scion of a powerful Haitian family with long-standing animosity toward Aristide…” Lucas’ family had close ties to the ruthless Duvalier regime that preceded Aristide and has similarly close ties to the Haitian military, which was an important element of the 2004 coup. Two of Lucas’s cousins allegedly were responsible for organizing a massacre of 250 peasants protesting for land reform.

My bold Why isn’t the press asking any questions?

http://www.coha.org/2008/06/a-…..d-the-iri/