Strategists advise Trump, Cruz, and Baldizon campaigns

Paul Lewis and Nina Lakhani explore links between the Guatemalan and US right with Trump, Cruz aides advised Guatemalan candidate vowing televised executions for The Guardian. Tim Clark and Ron Nehring advised Manuel Baldizon's 2011 presidential campaign. Now the two are on opposite sides in California with Clark working for Donald Trump and Nehring for Ted Cruz. In The Guardian article, both men downplay their role in Baldizon's campaign. From their responses, it doesn't look like they had any idea what they were getting into when they joined Baldizon's campaign.

They didn't seem to know much about the corruption allegations against Baldizon. Their comments about the poverty and security situation in Guatemala also made it sound as if their 2011 work was the first time that they got to know anything about the country.

“Ron called and asked me to come down. He had the contact,” Clark said. “‘Hey Clark, I could use a little help down here. What do you think?’”

“We had bodyguards. We had translators. We drove around in a black SUV full of semi-automatic machine guns in the back.”

“It was interesting,” Clark said of the experience. “Glad I came out alive.”

I'm all for adventure but these guys sure picked an unusual candidate and time to get involved in Central America (if that's actually the case). During the Cold War, the US "advised" numerous campaigns throughout the region. When I was in El Salvador in 1997, I went to a conference where, if I remember correctly, I listened to campaign strategists from Mexico who worked on the ARENA and FMLN campaigns in that year's legislative elections.

Take a read; there are even some comments from me on Baldizon.