Rewards for a loyal ally

El Salvador is well known for being a US ally who closely follows the foreign policy lead of Washington, including the participation of Salvadoran troops in the war in Iraq. The US rewards such an ally. For the past several weeks, US troops have been working with their Salvadoran counterparts in the country building schools and medical clinics.

According to the US Army News Service,

The New Horizons Exercise in El Salvador will provide two new schools and three clinics in areas of San Vicente that were hit by earthquakes....

Joint Task Force 'Para Los Ninos' is conducting New Horizons in Santa Clara, El Salvador. The New Horizons program started in the mid-1980s with the primary objective of providing joint readiness training for U.S. military engineering and medical units. The program brings together U.S. military units with their host-nation counterparts to build military-to-military cooperation while fostering goodwill between the U.S. and its neighbors.

The conservative El Diario de Hoy newspaper falls all over itself in praising the help provided to the poor of the country by the US troops.

Later this week, El Salvador's loyalty will again be recognized when Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice visits El Salvador for meetings as part of her tour of Latin American countries.