Bain’s Birth by Death Squads

from In These Times:



Bain’s Birth by Death Squads
Romney scrutinized over investments from Salvadoran families that ran a corrupt government, 12 years of murderous civil war and death squads.

BY Terry J. Allen


Mitt Romney has a debilitating condition that won’t show up in his medical report: severe cognitive dissonance—simultaneously holding conflicting ideas, beliefs and values.

His problem goes deeper than routine hypocrisy and expedient “flip-flopping.” Romney believes that free enterprise serves justice and the public good—and that he and Bain Capital embody beneficence. He also believes that people like him, and businesses like his, make it on the strength of their bootstraps.

And yet the arc of Mitt Romney’s life and wealth betrays the delusions inherent in those myths. First, of course, he was advantaged by birth into a wealthy, powerful family. And then, in 1984 when he started Bain Capital, the company that made him rich, he got significant help from a source antithetical to his Mormon principles—members of Salvadoran families that ran a corrupt government, 12 years of murderous civil war and death squads.

During the civil war, some members of the Salvadoran ruling families sought safe haven for their assets—and asses—in Miami. In 1984, Romney, seeking cash, visited this popular harbor for storm-tossed Latin American oligarchs. The Salvadorans, along with other Latin Americans, invested somewhere between $6.5 million and $9 million in Bain (sources differ), accounting for 33 to 40 percent of outside capital. ..................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/13807/bains_birth_by_death_squads