U.S. Plays Shadowy Role In Salvadoran Security Minister’s Resignation http://www.cispes.org/programs/elections-and-democracy/u-s-plays-shadowy-role-in-salvadoran-security-minister’s-resignation/ 

On Tuesday, November 7, Manuel Melgar resigned from his post as Minister of Security, to which he was appointed by President Mauricio Funes soon after his inauguration in June 2009. No official reason has been given for the resignation; however, evidence points to intervention by the U.S. State Department, which rejected President Funes’ selection of Melgar - a former commander of the Farabundo Martí Front for National Liberation (FMLN) guerrilla forces in the Civil War – as Minister of Public Security from the beginning.A cable from the U.S. Embassy in San Salvador published by Wikileaks, dated eight weeks after Melgar’s appointment, claimed that Melgar had “blood on his hands,” an ironic assertion considering that UN has reported that over 80% of the 70,000 Salvadorans killed during the Civil War were murdered by the Salvadoran military and death squads, whose financial lifeline came from the U.S. government. According to the cable, U.S. opposition to Melgar stems from an FMLN mission carried out under his command in El Salvador’s elite Zona Rosa neighborhood, which resulted in the deaths of four U.S. marines as well as Salvadoran and U.S. civilians. The U.S. Embassy official goes on to say that funding for the Mérida Initiative, one of the U.S. “War on Drugs” initiatives in Latin America, would be “contingent upon guidance from Washington regarding how best to work around Melgar.”Behind closed doors, Washington continued to call for Melgar’s removal into the present day, echoing the unrelenting drumbeat of calls for the Minister’s replacement by El Salvador’s right-wing Nationalist Republican Alliance party (ARENA) – the party founded by the architect of the brutal Salvadoran death squads, Major Roberto D’Aubuisson. According to the Salvadoran digital periodical El Faro, high-level sources within the Ministry of Security claim that Melgar’s removal was a U.S. condition for implementing the Partnership for Growth program, which was officially signed by both countries just four days prior to Melgar’s resignation.The Partnership for Growth program is being touted as a new form of U.S. support for economic development in the country. Since taking office, President Funes and the FMLN have called for economic solutions to the country’s security situation, framing the issue of gangs and violence as a result of the high levels of poverty and social exclusion that must be addressed by creating economic opportunity. In contrast, the Partnership’s first report identifies violent crime as the primary barrier to economic growth in the country; thus turning an economic assistance program into another means for U.S. intervention in El Salvador’s public security.
[CLICK LINK ABOVE FOR REST OF ARTICLE,AND ALSO SEE... USAID-United States and El Salvador Sign Partnership for Growth http://thenakedfacts.blogspot.com/2011/11/us-subverting-latin-america-httpwww.html