Mitt Romney Started Bain Capital With Money From Families Tied To Death Squads

[kingthlayer]

Romney could also have thanked investors from two other wealthy and powerful Central American clans -- the de Sola and Salaverria families, who the Los Angeles Times and Boston Globe have reported were founding investors in Bain Capital.

While they were on the lookout for investments in the United States, members of some of these prominent families -- including the Salaverria, Poma, de Sola and Dueñas clans -- were also at the time financing, either directly or through political parties, death squads in El Salvador. The ruling classes were deploying the death squads to beat back left-wing guerrillas and reformers during El Salvador's civil war.

The death squads committed atrocities on such a mass scale for so small a country that their killing spree sparked international condemnation. From 1979 to 1992, some 75,000 people were killed in the Salvadoran civil war, according to the United Nations. In 1982, two years before Romney began raising money from the oligarchs, El Salvador's independent Human Rights Commission reported that, of the 35,000 civilians killed, "most" died at the hands of death squads. A United Nations truth commission concluded in 1993 that 85 percent of the acts of violence were perpetrated by the right, while the left-wing Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front, which was supported by the Cuban government, was responsible for 5 percent.

Why attack Bain when Bain is turning out to be a net negative for Romney on its own?

The whole field of PE is secretive, by design, but that just makes it a terrible thing to run on for public office, because all of this stuff will inevitably be aired.

[Lief]

Republicans were/are largely supportive of the death squads though. This should help him with the teabagger base.

[Politico]

Barack Obama paid for cocaine in the 1980s. Of course, that drug money eventually ended up in the coffers of South American drug lords like Pablo Escobar and the Mexican cartels.

[asexual trans victimologist]

Barack Obama paid for cocaine in the 1980s. Of course, that drug money eventually ended up in the coffers of South American drug lords like Pablo Escobar and the Mexican cartels.

Barack Obama isn't running on his past cocaine use.

[kingthlayer]

Barack Obama paid for cocaine in the 1980s. Of course, that drug money eventually ended up in the coffers of South American drug lords like Pablo Escobar and the Mexican cartels.

Barack Obama isn't running on his past cocaine use.

Sig worthy!

[Mr. Morden]

I truncated the OP for copyright reasons.  Please just quote a few paragraphs and provide a link to the rest.

[Beet]

Eh, I'm not sure about this line of attack. How close was Romney actually to these guys, and how close were these guys to the death squads? It seems like a much more solid connection would have to be established for this to stick. Besides, the point is kind of moot as the US government, including Carter and Reagan, were actively supporting the Salvadoran government at the time. This would have to have been worse than anything the Salvadoran military did, which is doubtful. At the end of the day, Obama orders drone strikes, and Romney won't make it an issue because Romney would, too. When it comes to foreign policy, Americans seem relatively apathetic about brown people being killed.

[CultureKing]

Eh, I'm not sure about this line of attack. How close was Romney actually to these guys, and how close were these guys to the death squads? It seems like a much more solid connection would have to be established for this to stick. Besides, the point is kind of moot as the US government, including Carter and Reagan, were actively supporting the Salvadoran government at the time. This would have to have been worse than anything the Salvadoran military did, which is doubtful. At the end of the day, Obama orders drone strikes, and Romney won't make it an issue because Romney would, too. When it comes to foreign policy, Americans seem relatively apathetic about brown people being killed.

Carter was not very supportive of the Salvadoran government... in fact he was pressuring them to negotiate a peace accord and allow free elections (Carter's own ambassador to El Salvador was fired within months of Reagan assuming office). When it comes to the death squads I would say that they were on par with the Salvadoran military when it comes to atrocities, especially when it came to torture/mutilation/disappearances.

Anyways I saw this headline a few weeks ago and it only got my blood boiling for the following reason: Romney used his connections with Central American oligarchs as his way to identify with Latinos in the US, millions of whom fled their countries escaping the violence/repression of said oligarchs. Really speaks to a lack of business ethics (or ethics in general).

Here's another article on the same thing:
http://www.salon.com/2012/01/20/the_roots_of_bain_capital_in_el_salvador/

[LINCOLN REPUBLICAN]

Barack Obama paid for cocaine in the 1980s. Of course, that drug money eventually ended up in the coffers of South American drug lords like Pablo Escobar and the Mexican cartels.

Barack Obama isn't running on his past cocaine use.

No but it is a legitimate issue, as it has obviously impaired his mental capacity to get the U.S. economy on track. 

[IDS Legislator Alfred F. Jones]

Barack Obama paid for cocaine in the 1980s. Of course, that drug money eventually ended up in the coffers of South American drug lords like Pablo Escobar and the Mexican cartels.

Barack Obama isn't running on his past cocaine use.

No but it is a legitimate issue, as it has obviously impaired his mental capacity to get the U.S. economy on track. 

What evidence do you have for this?

[Lieutenant Governor Clinton1996]

Barack Obama paid for cocaine in the 1980s. Of course, that drug money eventually ended up in the coffers of South American drug lords like Pablo Escobar and the Mexican cartels.

Barack Obama isn't running on his past cocaine use.

No but it is a legitimate issue, as it has obviously impaired his mental capacity to get the U.S. economy on track. 

And Reagan's Alzeimers obviously impaired his mental capacity to cut the deficit. How's that feel?

[LINCOLN REPUBLICAN]

Barack Obama paid for cocaine in the 1980s. Of course, that drug money eventually ended up in the coffers of South American drug lords like Pablo Escobar and the Mexican cartels.

Barack Obama isn't running on his past cocaine use.

No but it is a legitimate issue, as it has obviously impaired his mental capacity to get the U.S. economy on track. 

And Reagan's Alzeimers obviously impaired his mental capacity to cut the deficit. How's that feel?

Who cares?  I'm concerned with what's happening now, not a generation a go. 

[Lieutenant Governor Clinton1996]

Barack Obama paid for cocaine in the 1980s. Of course, that drug money eventually ended up in the coffers of South American drug lords like Pablo Escobar and the Mexican cartels.

Barack Obama isn't running on his past cocaine use.

No but it is a legitimate issue, as it has obviously impaired his mental capacity to get the U.S. economy on track. 

And Reagan's Alzeimers obviously impaired his mental capacity to cut the deficit. How's that feel?

Who cares?  I'm concerned with what's happening now, not a generation a go. 

You just said you cared about Obama's cocaine use. He stopped using coke before Reagan got Alzeimer's. So obviously you do care what happened a generation ago.

[J. J.]

Barack Obama paid for cocaine in the 1980s. Of course, that drug money eventually ended up in the coffers of South American drug lords like Pablo Escobar and the Mexican cartels.

Barack Obama isn't running on his past cocaine use.

No but it is a legitimate issue, as it has obviously impaired his mental capacity to get the U.S. economy on track. 

What evidence do you have for this?

The economy. 

[Politico]

Barack Obama paid for cocaine in the 1980s. Of course, that drug money eventually ended up in the coffers of South American drug lords like Pablo Escobar and the Mexican cartels.

Barack Obama isn't running on his past cocaine use.

No but it is a legitimate issue, as it has obviously impaired his mental capacity to get the U.S. economy on track. 

What evidence do you have for this?

The economy. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWyCCJ6B2WE