In El Salvador the U.S.-backed right-wing candidate Tony Saca easily won in national elections on Sunday beating former guerilla leader Schafik Handal. The Bush administration was accused by some as meddling in the election by publicly backing Saca.

A week ago, White House Special Assistant Otto Reich gave a phone press conference at the headquarters of the right-wing party. He told Salvadorean reporters he was worried what kind of impact a victory by the left could have on the country’s “economic, commercial, and migratory relations with the United States.”

Last month Assistant Secretary of State Roger Noreiga told voters to “consider what kind of a relationship they want a new administration to have with us.”

This prompted 28 members of Congress to send a letter to Secretary of State Colin Powell warning that Noriega’s remarks were perceived as “interference in Salvadoran electoral affairs.”

One of the signees of the letter Dennis Kucinich said “Unfortunately, what is going on in El Salvador is representative of a Latin American policy that is not about promoting healthy democracies, but instead focused on making Latin American nations bend to U.S. commercial interests.”