Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez finally figured out that Latino voters in her districts aren’t all Mexican Americans, after some dozen years in office.
She announced on Monday the endorsement of a number of Salvadoran and other Central American leaders here in the O.C., including Oscar Dominguez, President of the Salvadoran Business Corridor; Raul Claros, Co-chair of the Latino Coalition; Isabel Cardenas, President of the Multiethnic Peace and Reconstruction Fund; Jennifer Carcamo, Statewide Coordinator of the Union Salvadorena de Estudiantes Universitarios; Hector Moran of the FMLN; and Salvadoran business leaders Tito Rivera, Armando Artiga, Omar Corletto, from the Central American Confederation (COFECA); and Luis Cortez.
That’s great – but her independent opponent, Cecilia Iglesias is from El Salvador and she already had a lot of those endorsements. What gives?
Well, Sanchez is utterly panicking now that the latest poll figures show her tied with Van Tran, the Republican candidate for her district. The 5% of the vote that is going to Iglesias is going to determine the victor in the 47th Congressional District, so after a dozen years in office Sanchez finally woke up and started pandering to Central Americans.
Does Sanchez really care about Central Americans? Beats me, but we have video of her running away from a Santa Ana resident who asked her, at the recent Bill Clinton rally, why deportations have gone up under President Obama.
How many Central Americans have been deported under Obama, with not a word of complaint from Sanchez? A lot, in fact deportations have doubled in the last ten years, according to the Medill Reports. As you can see in the chart above, a lot of those deportations have involved Central Americans. But not a word of protest from Sanchez. Figures.
It should be noted that Sanchez voted against CAFTA, the Central American Free Trade Agreement. It passed. Did it help El Salvador? Here is what I found online:
On December 17, 2004, despite strong opposition from the FMLN, El Salvador became the first country in Central America to ratify the Dominican Republic-Central America-United States Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA-DR). El Salvador was also the first country to pass the agreement’s required legislative reforms, implementing CAFTA-DR on March 1, 2006. Some Salvadoran officials have attributed increases in employment, exports, and investment to the agreement’s implementation. Although the country’s apparel exports to the United States declined during the first year CAFTA-DR was in effect, El Salvador saw a 21% rise in non-apparel exports to the United States, with significant increases in ethanol, food stuffs, and metal products. Salvadoran exports to the United States then increased by 10% in 2007 and 9% in 2008 as a result of a slight recovery in textile and apparel exports and an increase in non-traditional exports. U.S. exports to El Salvador have also increased, rising by 16% in 2006, 7.5% in 2007, and 6.5% in 2008.
And here is what El Salvador’s Ambassador to the U.S., René León, says about CAFTA:
“The main reason I came to Washington was to promote trade relations between El Salvador and the United States, with the objective of gaining political consensus on the necessity of a free-trade agreement, and of course we have now done that with passage of CAFTA,” León told The Washington Diplomat, referring to the Central American Free Trade Agreement.
“I think CAFTA is a no-brainer for the United States and Central America,” León said. “One day, the economic history of our region will be divided into before CAFTA and after CAFTA. That’ll be the point of reference.”
According to the ambassador, CAFTA has already generated more than $250 million in direct foreign investment for El Salvador and has boosted exports by 18 percent in the last six months. “It’s also creating a lot of opportunities for Salvadorans living in the U.S., and it’ll strengthen our institutional capacity to deal with labor and environmental issues.”
Sanchez voted against CAFTA. It barely passed.
Well, these Salvadorans endorsed her, didn’t they?
And good for Loretta for voting against CAFTA. NAFTA sure didn’t do anything good for the working people of America or Mexico, or our environments.
Vern,
Didn’t Clinton sign NAFTA? You Dems sure gave him a royal welcome when he came to Santa Ana last week.
Yes he did. NAFTA was/is directly linked to the militarization of the border and increase in forced Mexican migration.
Papi Pulido and Amezcua (and respective bloggers/supporters) were clawing away trying to tie themselves the Slick Willie event.
The whole spectacle made me sick.
For the sake of consistency why did you say Dixiecrat Clinton’s event would be great for Santa Ana and now come with this critique? Also, why spin ARENA drivel on CAFTA in support of Iglesias?
I sure didn’t. Did you see me there? Loretta is actually a lot more progressive than Clinton, who was to the right of Nixon and Eisenhower. Clinton just looked good compared to the guys who came before & after him.
And now that I’m catching up with all these comments about FMLN vs. Arena… Loretta is on the good side of Salvadorans as well. It figures it’s an old Arena guy pushing for CAFTA. Those are the freaking torturing fascists.
Hey Vern:
Did it really take Democratic Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez about 13 years to finally figure out we have a fairly large El Salvadoran community living in the 47th Congressional District?
Given her campaign staffers post links to the “New Santa Ana” blog on Loretta’s Facebook page, suppose Art and I tipped them off when wrote articles critical of the attack on Cecilia?
I guess that’s better than the Orange County Democratic Party only recently endorsing the idea of legalizing pot even though some “third parties” in this state made it part of their platform 42 years ago.
Boy, you folks are sure slow … 🙂
Yeah, that’s for sure, my Party is definitely slow. That’s why I’m in it, to give them a kick in the ass.
> Clinton just looked good compared to the guys who came
> before & after him.
I agree that Bill Clinton was a better looking mass murderer than George W. Bush.
But he did bomb the Hell out of those aspirin factory workers!
Loretta got an endorsement from the FMLN. Ceci invites an ARENA president to her campaign dinner. Loretta voted against CAFTA. Ceci posted a video praising the ‘freedom fighters’ of El Salvador before lawmakers in Margaret Thatcher’s United Kingdom.
Nice spin on Neoliberal policy. Look what I found online too:
http://www.zcommunications.org/resisting-cafta-and-metal-mining-in-el-salvador-by-leah-wilson
Ceci’s now getting criticized for her support of Nut Meg as DREAM Team activists seem to be calling her out on that. How can one be for immigration reform and back a candidate for governor who is against it and the state version of the DREAM Act? How do you reconcile that, Art?
I don’t personally like Loretta Sanchez, but she is clearly the least conservative candidate in the race. People can vote on that account as they see fit, or they can leave the check box empty.
gabriel,
LOL! You’re right…Sanchez is the least conservative but that is pretty damning, isn’t it? If she loses I won’t shed any tears for her. She did this to herself.
As for Nut Meg, I know Ceci posed with her, which is no bueno, but did she really endorse her? I think Ceci was just looking for free publicity.
It’s deeper than a photograph.
And what party does Rene Leon belong to? ARENA…
Ahhh, will people ever put two and two together when it comes to migration and neo-liberal trade policies?
What good is it to support immigration reform without addressing root causes? There’s no such thing as an illegal human being. And undocumented immigrants from Mexico are actually NAFTA refugees. Imagine that term and the effect it would have on popular discourse if used in major media circles.
This is wonderful news! After having insulted the Vietnamese community with her racist comments a few weeks ago, now she makes things worse by pandering to a group of leftist gerrilla communists from El Salvador and celebrating their endorsement? Doesn’t anyone of you know about the FMLN? They are the communist killing machine from El Salvador! Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN).
Read for yourself: http://bit.ly/diIzAQ
Congratulations stupid congresswoman, you should have done a little due dilligence before sending out a press release celebrating the endorsement of communist organizer Hector Moran of the FMLN! This will be the nail in your coffin, Loretta. Pack your bags and get ready to enjoy your retirement in Italy with your loverboy, you home wrecker! You are an embarrassment and give us conservative Latinas a bad name.
LORETTA SANCHEZ PANDERS TO COMMIES!!!
What’s ARENA’s rosy political past? (and present) The current FMLN president was never a guerilla and is no Schafik Handal. Let’s get real. Sec. of State Clinton attended the current president’s inauguration. She can still support a good ol’ coup like in Honduras, though.
Hey Wait!!!
Isn’t Loretta against the communist regime and she is being Endorsed by these Los Angeles RESIDENTS SALVADOREAN COMMIE
S! So now she is supporting Communism!!! Go Figure Loretta…..and Loretta states she is the Independent voice. D47 Voters Open Your Esto the
It’s quite funny to see people not understanding that Loretta has worked for all her communities in the district. Cecilia is actually taking votes away from Van. And, Art, that poll you mentioned….It was commissioned by The Lincoln Club who used a biased (with no credibility) GOP firm. They wouldn’t release their methodology to any press beause they actually only polled white people in one city in the district. So, Loretta is even, without counting any Hispanics. Van’s in trouble. Big trouble. He polled but won’t release his numbers because he’s out of money and falling behind every day. I predict Loretta by !) points. Maybe then the GOP will stay out of central OC.
Hey Wait!!!
Isn’t Loretta against the communist regime and she is being Endorsed by these Los Angeles leaders that are SALVADOREAN COMMIES!!! So now she is supporting Communism!!! Go Figure Loretta…..and Loretta states she is the Independent voice. D47 Voters Open Your Eyes to the TRUTH!!!
God forbid she would EVER forget about the very important Salvadoreans!
FIRST I HOPE YOU PEOPLE IN THIS DISTRIC GET RID OF THIS BUBBLE HEAD .. ALSO BY THE POSTS ABOVE IS IT A BAD THING TO HAVE A MILITARIZATION OF THE BORDER . YOU HISPANIC ACTIVIST WOULD JUST LOVE THAT SO THEY CAN SNEAK IN HERE EASIER .. ALSO NO SUCH THING AS A ILLEGAL HUMAN . I BELIVE THERE ARE ABOUT 20 MILLION OF THEM HERE . MOSTLY IN SANTA ANA .
Ceci is a very strong canidate, the people chose her to be on the ballot. Her platform is questionable, she wants to sound conservative, but she’s far from it her and SANCHEZ have the same core beliefs, just do your own fact finding.
There is a popular saying among some immigrants (read SOME, not all) that goes:
“there are three ways to get lied to:
1) Hire a Lawyer
2) Use a Headhunter (for a job)
3) Marry a Salvadorian
Man the women who work for us who are Mexicanas are vehemently suspicious of Salvadorian women.
I just like the food!
It’s the tribal mentality!
I laughed when they said that America has now the fastest growing poverty rate!
Really???
It really does not take a brain surgeon to figure out; if you allow millions of third world people into the country it’s going to notch up the welfare a titch!
Loretta Sanchez proud to be endorsed by FMLN terrorist! You should be ashamed of yourself, communist lover.
She is LIBERAL!
What do you people not get?????
Thousands of people lost their lives in the hands of their own; including the latino’s!
“Judge a man NOT by the color of his skin but the content of his mind”
Loretta how much did you have to pay Clinton to speak on your behalf? And are you that desperate enough to pay Salvadorean Communist to support you? And you say you stand for Human Rights!!!??? You say you support the dream act but you are against immigration reform!!!??? You ignore D47 residents and only remember us two weeks before the election!! C’Mon Loretta, You ARE History and us D47 voters are tired of your False Representation!!! You hide behind you party because you have no backbone. Pack your bags because the D47 voters are sending you home.