Report on the National Endowment for Democracy (Volume 21, br. 1-2, 2020.)

Fraud in vote counting gave Barletta the election, even though a count by the U.S. embassy in Panama showed Arias had won by 4-8,000 votes. (26)

Panama was one of the first examples of political intervention by the NED. The U.S. supported candidate Barletta of the military-controlled Democratic Revolutionary Party, who was also a vice president of the World Bank and one-time student of former U.S. Secretary of State George Shultz.

The activities the NED employs in foreign countries would be illegal and prosecutable if they were performed by foreign organizations in the United States.

NED was established after U.S. Senate hearings on illegal CIA activities in the 1970s. It was conceived as an organization which having declared itself a private foundation could thus openly finance those activities the CIA had previously used in its secret operations.

NED endangers the credibility of America's policies, as it uses its money to oppose various governments under the condition that they are not aligned with American interests.