Left Looking Up in El Salvador
While the world welcomes a new American President, Central American political observers also await the results from the first round of historic elections in El Salvador.
This is the first time since 1994 that Salvadorenos go to the polls to elect a new assembly, new mayors and a new president during the same year. Polls have varyingly shown the candidate of the leftist FMLN party, Mauricio Funes, with a steady and sometimes large lead.
Last week, the country went to the polls for municipal and legislative elections. With 75% of the votes counted, the results so far show FMLN moving into the lead in the assembly with 35 seats to ARENA’s 32 - which would essentially flip the current balance of power - leaving the right-wing PCN as kingmakers again. ARENA also expects to lose 30 mayoral seats in sum, although they scored the major headline of the day by retaking San Salvador, where Funes had campaigned last week in support of the FMLN.
The small Central American nation, and one-time Cold War flash point, has been ruled by the right-wing ARENA party since 1992 peace accords ended a 12-year civil war between the U.S.-backed dictatorship and leftist guerrillas. The war featured some of the most brutal and infamous episodes in recent history. Since ’92, though, the country has remained peaceful and ARENA has mostly dominated the country’s politics; maintaining power over a series of legitimate elections.
Electing a left-wing government for the first time would be a sign of political maturity for a young democracy, as the ruling party hands over power for the first time (although the threat to the party, it should be mentioned, stems largely from concerns about corruption and a steep rise in crime). Funes, who is going up against Rodrigo Avila, represents the moderate wing of FMLN. He is a former CNN freelancer, and he has no connection to the party's old days as a Marxist guerrilla group.
The potential for change has also had the predictable effect of placing El Salvador in the spotlight as possibly the latest in a block of Latin American countries to move away from alignment with the United States; opting instead to elect a leftist leadership. Funes has said he plans to keep market-friendly policies and close contacts with Washington, but the right-wing has not shied away from fear-based campaigning, in particular trying to tie FMLN to Hugo Chavez.
Take, for instance, this ad run by ARENA ally Fuerza Solidaria:
The ad begins with an image of President Obama. The narrator tells viewers that, while FMLN claims to be his "friend," "this man - Obama foreign policy advisor Dan Restrepo - says otherwise."
Restrepo: "Obama is very worried about the anti-American rhetoric and broken policies of Hugo Chavez, in Venezuela...or other places, like El Salvador."
Restrepo never explicitly mentions the local political context. But that's politics.
