Citizen Staff Writer
IN BRIEF
GARRY DUFFY
gduffy@tucsoncitizen.com
Rep. Raúl Grijalva was among 30 House members to call on President Obama to ensure U.S. neutrality in the March 15 presidential election in El Salvador.
Grijalva, D-Ariz., was among the House members to sign a letter to the president asking that U.S. officials not try to sway the election, which polls show could be a defeat for the incumbent conservative Nationalist Republic Alliance party (ARENA) by the populist Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN).
ARENA won the last national election in 2004 among complaints by human rights groups that U.S. State Department officials attempted to favor ARENA candidates by circulating reports that U.S. aid to the county would be cut and that Salvadoran immigrants to the U.S. could face deportation.
“Latin America provides a unique challenge for a president that hopes to turn the page on a history of U.S. coups, interventions and disdain for elections that don’t turn out the way some in Washington might prefer,” the joint letter to the president stated.