Did Mitt Romney’s Bain Capital Get Funding From Salvadoran Families with Death Squad Connections?

With a little over two months left before the 2012 Presidential Election, the American people must seriously consider if they want a regressive, tax dodging president with such morally bankrupt scruples.

[Speaking Truth To Power]

In recent weeks, presidential pretender Mitt Romney has been dogged by scrutiny because of his suspicious refusal to show the American people his tax returns.

However, as disconcerting as this is, can it be as disturbing as the fact, that, it now appears Bain Capital was financed with seed money from Latin American families connected to right-wing death squads?

For the past two weeks, mainstream media have been busy analyzing Mr. Romney’s pick of Wisconsin Republican Paul Ryan for vice president. Some political analysts are arguing that by picking Ryan, Mr. Romney is advocating a policy that will destroy the lives of middle class and poor people.

But, was Mr. Romney’s Bain Capital in bed with people who were, literally, involved in destroying and killing people in El Salvador? Appallingly, that seems to be exactly the case.

In a recent interview, on Amy Goodman’s “Democracy Now,” Huffington Post Bureau Chief Ryan Grimm  connected Bain Capital and Mitt Romney to the elite De Sola Salvadoran family, which, reportedly, had a direct connection to right-wing death squads.

In the 1980’s, around 75, 000 people were killed in a decade of civil war in El Salvador. The De Sola family is said to be one of the “14 families” that have controlled El Salvador for ages. Mr. Romney, apparently, also took money from the Salaverria, Poma and Duenas families. These elite families were, reportedly, against El Salvador’s popular people’s movements that were struggling for land and government reform.

According to Grimm, Mr. Romney, who was seeking financing to launch Bain Capital, became involved with these rich Latin American families—some of whom had ties to right-wing terrorists like Roberto D’Aubuisson, also known as “Blowtorch Bob.” D’Aubisson—who trained at the infamous School of the Americas—was a Salvadoran military intelligence soldier and a leader of the right-wing ARENA (National Republican Alliance) Party. D’Aubisson was the “godfather” of El Salvador’s death squads.

Apparently, in 1983, when Mr. Romney was attempting to start Bain Capital, his boss Bill Bain told him the bankrolling for Bain Capital could not be funded by any of Bain’s existing businesses, or, its investors. Referring to Romney, Grimm’s reporting found that “40% of the outside capital that he was able to raise for that initial fund” came from these elite Salvadoran families. Mr. Romney received around $9 million dollars from these families.

“The De Solas are another family that originally invested in Bain. We know that at least four members of the De Sola family invested in Bain. We only know the names of two of them. There’s one man named Orlando de Sola who the Romney campaign, and nobody else, denies, was a leader of the death squad movement. There’s no question about that,” said Mr. Grimm.

“What the Romney campaign has relied on is that they say that Orlando de Solo was a black sheep of the De Sola family. The fact that he was running death squads should not besmirch the four De Sola investors, even though they won’t tell us who two of those four were. However, what we found was that one of the two named De Sola investors — his name is Francisco de Sola — was connected in 1990 to the assassination of two left-wing activists.”

Reportedly, Mr. Romney claims to have vetted these families because he was afraid their money was connected to drug trafficking and human rights violators. Yet, he, apparently, took money from these family members who had associations to “Blowtorch Bob”—a name given to him because of his proclivity for torturing people with blowtorches. The former Archbishop of El Salvador, Oscar Romero was one of the thousands killed—on D’Aubisson’s orders—during the Salvadoran Civil War. During this period the Ronald Reagan Administration supported D’Aubisson, who was given an award, in Washington, in 1984, for his “continuing efforts for freedom in the face of Communist aggression, which is an inspiration to freedom-loving people everywhere.”

The revelation—that Romney’s Bain Capital is connected to right-wing death squads—would, probably, be the final death blow disqualification against Romney’s bid to become the next president—if mainstream media were to fully cover this important story. Besides the Huffington Post, the Boston Globe and the Los Angeles Times have also reported on Bain Capital’s connection to these scoundrels. Where is broadcast media on this story?

Seriously, would America really put Romney in the White House if they knew of his unholy, bloody alliance with the backers of right-wing terrorists and murderers?

Many will argue Mr. Romney didn’t know these elitist families, he was taking money from, were involved with the likes of “Blowtorch Bob.” Assuming that’s true, Mr. Romney, at the very least, is guilty of failing to do his due diligence here. After all, we’re told Mr. Romney was worried these elites had ties to drugs and human rights violations. Given that, how could he have failed to uncover the connections between these Latin American oligarchs—and the right-wing death squads who were busy slaughtering thousands of Salvadorans?

And now that the evidence is clear his Latin American Bain benefactors are butchers how can he still, in good conscience, allow them to continue investing in Bain Capital—as they are, apparently, still doing? Isn’t it safe to assume some of this money helped the death squads do their dastardly, dirty deeds? Can America risk electing a president who fails to be morally conscientious with something of this magnitude?

Truthfully, it’s hard to believe Mr. Romney didn’t know who these people were. Moreover, he has previously shown a tendency to throw caution to the wind, when doing so would bolster his bottom line.  For example, in the late Eighties, Mr. Romney sought out the so-called “Junk Bond King” Michael Milken At the time, the SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) and the federal government was investigating Mr. Milken for his corrupt business practices. Yet, that didn’t stop Romney from dealing with a man who was indicted on nearly 100 counts of fraud and racketeering—who was also accused of tax evasion. Anything sound familiar here?

As a vulture capitalist we’ve seen that this presidential pretender had no compunction with closing American companies, and, outsourcing jobs to enrich Bain Capital—at the expense of the American workers he now claims he wants to help spur job growth in America. Marc Wolpow who worked for Mr. Milken and Mr. Romney said this about the current Republican presidential candidate: “Mitt, I think, spent his life balanced between fear and greed.” Did Mr. Romney’s greed cancel out his fear from dealing with these families with ties to right-wing death squads?

With a little over two months left before the 2012 Presidential Election, the American people must seriously consider if they want a regressive, tax dodging president with such morally bankrupt scruples. What message will it sent to the world if America elects a man like Mr. Romney who seems to have Salvadoran blood on his hands?


“Speaking Truth To Empower.”

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