Wikileaks: McDonald's Used The U.S. Government To Pressure El Salvador Case

According to Wikileaks, McDonald's attempted to convince the United States government to delay the implementation of the Central America-Dominican Republic-United States Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA-DR) in order to pressure the government of El Salvador to give them a fair trial against a franchisee. According to the Miami Herald, Latin America's first McDonald's franchisee, Roberto Bukele, was awarded $24 million in damages after an appellate court ruled that McDonald's illegally terminated their contract with Bukele. But McDonald's appealed the decision asking the country's Supreme Court to overturn the award. When they were given a judge for re-trial with a staunch anti-American history, they began lobbying local businessmen and government officials to try to persuade Chief Justice Agustin Calderon to name three impartial judges to the civil chamber to hear the case. They also implored the American ambassador to El Salvador, Hugh Barclay, to delay the CAFTA-DR.

Barclay told McDonald's representatives that he had already raised the issue with President Saca, "emphasising the stakes at play for a government in desperate need of foreign investment". He also said that what they were doing ran counter to American interests of implementing CAFTA as soon as possible.

For its part, McDonald's denies the accusation that they were trying to delay implementation of CAFTA-DR, insisting that they would have brought their case to the embassy under any circumstances.

"Our purpose was to raise awareness of our concerns with the rule of law in El Salvador and our lawsuit specifically," said a spokesperson. "We had no interest in delaying CAFTA. Our hope was that our legal issue could be included in the CAFTA discussions already taking place between the two governments at that time."

Source: Guardian, Tim's El Salvdor Blog