Feb
International Meddling, Politics, Protecting Sovereignty
Embassy Statement about Use of Obama Image: February 2009
US Embassy denounces use of Obama´s Image in FMLN Campaign Ads after ignoring their use in Ads by the Right.
In December 2008, the US- El Salvador Sister Cities Network alerted the US Embassy that ads by the group Fuerza Solidaria included a video of Obama´s Advisor on Latin America, Dan Restrepo, that said that President Obama would not work with Opposition Presidential Candidate Mauricio Funes. The embassy made no response to these manipulative ads.
In February 2009, Antonio Bolainez, who the Salvadoran papers called one of 10 “Spiritual Advisors to Obama” preached to Salvadorans that the election of Mauricio Funes would risk commercial agreements, diplomatic relations and immigration status of Salvadorans in the US. The Embassy made no statements correcting these manipulating and unsubstantiated comments.
However on February 19, 2009, after the FMLN had publicized campaign ads that compared the dirty campaign against Obama in the U.S. to the dirty campaign against Mauricio Funes, the acting Ambassador, Robert Blau, took a position denouncing the use of images of Obama in ads, saying that “the images can give the impression that there is backing from a political party”.
While the Embassy said that they brought up the issue to assure US neutrality, Salvadoran newspaper the Diario de Hoy reported that Robert Blau “Asked the Left not to use the image of Barack Obama because he nor his party supported any presidential candidate in El Salvador“.
When the Embassy denounces the use of Obama in campaign ads by one party but ignores its use by another, it directly contradicts the US Embassy’s overt commitment to neutrality in the upcoming elections. The statements by the acting Ambassador were quickly used to the advantage of the ARENA Party’s presidential campaign by two national newspapers, the Prensa Grafica and Diario de Hoy, which are both owned by ARENA supporters and are known for biased reporting.
U.S.- El Salvador Sister Cities calls on the US Embassy to show a real commitment to neutrality in the upcoming elections by publishing a complete list of all the instances when the image of the US was used incorrectly during the electoral campaign.
