"El difunto fundador del derechista partido Alianza Republicana
Nacionalista, Roberto D'Aubuisson, se ha de estar revolcando en su tumba."
(Translation: The dead founder of the ARENA party, Roberto D'Aubuisson, is
rolling in his grave)
Good, I hope he never rests in peace another day! Roberto D'Aubuisson was a member of El Salvador' oligarchy and probably a leader of El Salvador's death squads.
Although the FMLN has won the presidency, it looks as though they will have an uphill battle to make any sweeping changes, at least until they can win more seats in the National Assembly. An article at MRZine by Jay Hartling outlines the challenges.
On Monday, June 1, 2009, El Salvador will turn a new page in its history with the inauguration of the country's first left government, joining the ranks of the majority of Latin America. Representing the FMLN (Farabundo Marti para la Liberacion Nacional), Mauricio Funes and Salvador Sanchez Ceren, president and vice-president elect, will face a national assembly where the FMLN is
outnumbered by more than 2:1. Out of a total of 84 seats, the FMLN has only 35. This will make broad sweeping changes difficult, though not impossible, and may force Funes to use the power of the presidential veto as a bargaining chip. It is important that those of us observing from a distance understand the complicated environment within which the new government will be operating.The new government represents a coalition of interests including the FMLN, its national grassroots system of committees, and a broad cross-section of civil society. As June 1 approaches, more and more information is coming to light that despite the glowing picture painted by the outgoing right-wing ARENA party, the country is bankrupt -- the result of twenty years of failed economic andsocial policies and rampant corruption by ARENA and its allies the PDC and PCN. It is likely that the new government will discover the depth of the corruption and mismanagement after it assumes office.
To further complicate matters, the outgoing ARENA government has been very busy over the last few weeks passing a number of laws and renewing contracts for ARENA's allies and supporters to ensure its continued control of the economy. The FMLN won on a platform of priorities created by the people of El Salvador -- through a lengthy, inclusive, and thorough popular consultation process. The priorities expressed by the people are access to adequate food, medicine/healthcare, jobs, affordable energy, and security. The Funes-Sanchez Ceren government will have to be creative in its approach to solving some of El Salvador's many problems, most of which have been exacerbated over the last twenty years. Continues.....
On a personal note. My first political involvement was with the Central American solidarity movement in the 1980s. In those days I was relatively well informed about the history and then present situation in Nicaragua and El Salvador, and I followed the situation closely. Through those activities I traveled to Nicaragua where I built houses for campesinos for four months. In the states I became friends with a Salvadoran refugee whose family was murdered by death squads. In short the events in Central America took on a personal dimension. They were not just poor people in some distant space on the globe. I actually came to know those people as real live human beings.
The situation of these countries educated in so many ways about the nature of revolutions, class, imperialism etc.. The Nicaraguan revolution captured my imagination, and I was hoping for a guerilla victory in El Salvador. Of course history proved to be much more complicated, the Sandinista's lost the 1990 Nicaraguan elections, and the FMLN wasn't able to sieze power. And now, as we look at recent developments in all of Latin America, the horizon is looking brighter for peoples' movements of the left.
So, Buenas Suerte El Salvador, I wish you peace and social justice and a better future. History knows that you have suffered enough for it.
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