By Pablo Vivanco
El Salvador continues the trend of Latin American nations taking a step to the Left on Sunday, March 15th, 2009 as Salvadorians elected the former left-wing guerrilla’s to fill the role of Presidency by a razor thin margin of 51.27%.
Following a successful campaign in the January municipal and legislative elections which saw them pick up close to 40 mayorships and 3 seat, the Frente Farabundo Marti de Liberacion Nacional, or FMLN had been leading in the polls over the Alianza Republicana Nacionalista. ARENA has been governing the country since the signing of the Peace Accords that ended the country’s civil war in 1992. Founded in 1981 by Roberto D’Aubuisson, the School of Americas trained Military official who is widely recognized to have organized many of El Salvador’s death squads including the group that killed Archbishop Oscar Arnulfo Romero in 1981.
The FMLN, a coalition that included sectors of the Christian Democrats as well as the Communist Party had led a militarily successful campaign against the US backed governments of El Salvador. Despite driving the government to the brink of relinquishing control of the capital San Salvador, the FMLN signed a peace treaty in 1989 and converted to a electoral party. Since the signing of the peace treaty, the FMLN has been able to win seats at every level of government except the Presidency. The FMLN and its supporters have made allegations against ARENA for electoral fraud including the transporting thousands of paid Central Americans into El Salvador to vote.
While previous candidates for the FMLN have been party cadre, the FMLN opted to go with a party outsider in Mauricio Funes, a popular ex-journalist for Channel 12 and for CNN en Español as its candidate. While Funes had never held party office and lacked the political and ideological formation of previous FMLN presidential candidates such as 2004 Candidate and former guerrilla commander Shafik Handal, he held a reputation for biting critiques of the country’s political elite. Funes was fired from Channel 12 abruptly after criticism of the laying-off of a number of staff.
ARENA has presented Rodrigo Avila, a current Member of Parliament for the La Libertad region and former Director of the National Civil Police as well as brother of one of ARENA’s co-founders.
ARENA’s campaign was a classic anti-communist campaign with allegations regarding the alliances held by and hidden intentions of the FMLN. With chants of “Patria Si”, Comunismo No!”, ARENA Candidate Rodrigo Avila makes a call to remember the legacy of the FMLN as a former guerrilla force as well it alleged ties to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and allusions to domination by the Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez.
“They have never renounced their ties with narco-terrorist groups like the FARC” said Avila at the closing of their campaign. “We don’t want out El Salvador to become another part of the authoritarian craziness of Hugo Chavez” said Avila.
A third party group in opposition to Funes called ‘Yo no Entrego a El Salvador’ (I won’t give up El Salvador) covered the capital with doctored billboards of Funes with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and ex-Cuban leader Fidel Castro.
The statements directed at Venezuelan President Chavez stem largely from the success of the ALBA Petroleos program initiated by the Venezuela oil company PDVSA, which has struck agreements around the provision of subsidized oil to Salvadorean munipalities. The municipalities benefitting from this arrangement are FMLN held towns and cities, as they are only party willing to make such agreements with PDVSA. In certain cases the ALBA Petroleos program, named after the Bolivarian Alternative Agreement initiated by Venezuela with Nicaragua, Bolivia, Cuba and Honduras to create a mutually beneficial trade pact between partner countries, have generated benefits for Salvadorean communities that had not been generated by almost two decades of ARENA government’s. ARENA has stated that ALBA Petroleos is a political front.
Funes on the other hand, has opted for the high ground. His campaign has focused on messages directed at the poor in El Salvador, including promises to cut costs of living and improving income. In an ad closing his campaign, Funes denounced what he calls a ‘dirty campaign’ against him and the FMLN. “The dirty campaign was a desperate attempt to win without proposals, without love and without credibility – no one wins an election this way” proclaimed Funes in a final election ad.
The message of the FMLN and Funes appear resonated with the people, who also seem to be increasingly ignoring the smear campaign from Avila and the other right-wing parties which have united behind him. Polls had been consistently giving Funes a lead, including an IPSOS Reid poll from late September giving Funes 47.4% to 23.8% for Avila.
A week a head of the polls, Funes FMLN closed off their campaign with a massive mobilization of an estimated 200 000 people in San Salvador’s Avenida Juan Pablo II. Even as ARENA closed off their campaign the next day with an impressive show at the Cuscatlan Stadium, FMLN organizers kept up their mobilizations and hopes for their parties prospects.
Despite their optimism and the indications that they are maintaining a lead in the polls, the FMLN and its militants know that there will be a fierce battle for every vote on March 15th.
Leading up to the election, there has been a considerable increase in violence as the daily homicide rate has increased by more than 50% from October to February. Also, study done by the Salvadoran National Foundation for Development reported that “For every 100 campaign ads viewed by the public between January 2008 and January 2009, 71% came from ARENA and Fuerza Solidaria, 19% came from the FMLN and Amigos de Mauricio, and the remaining 10% from other political parties.” The climate of fear and instability being generated is cause for concern for the FMLN and its supporters.
With ARENA and its allies in the center including FMLN defectors the Frente Democratico Revolucionario clinging on to the promises of wealth under a ‘free market’, Salvadorian’s like other’s in Latin America appear ready to abandon the neoliberal path which has yet to bring even potable water to 60% of the predominantly rural population.
The program outlined in the FMLN’s 100 page electoral platform outlines commitments to a wide range of social initiatives such as a universal health system with free basic medication, free education up to an undergraduate degree and increasing minimum wages. While the economic platform does not read like the measures taking place in Venezuela (ie. Nationalizations, price controls, massive wage increases), there will certainly need to be some major economic changes necessary in order to fund the FMLN’s election promises. Unlike Venezuela however, the FMLN is a significantly more united party with a long history and organizational discipline. These factors may help the Salvadorian movement avoid some of the difficulties that Venezuelans have faced with corruption and internal division.
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