Original sentence: He was the FMLN's candidate in El Salvador's 2004 presidential election, held on March 21, running on a leftist platform that called for a more distant relationship with the United States and a closer relationship with Communist states Cuba and North Korea, as well as socialist countries including Libya and Venezuela and left-leaning countries Brazil and Argentina
Edited sentence: He was the FMLN's candidate in El Salvador's 2004 presidential election, held on March 21, running on a leftist, calling for a closer relationship with socialist countries including Cuba, Venezuela, Brazil, and Argentina.Opponents claimed Handal was exploiting anti-American sentiment, while supporters alleged the United States of meddling into interior affairs, since the US threatened to take measurements against El Salvador if Handal would win