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NEWS & LETTERS, April 2004Our Life and Times by Kevin A. BarryEl Salvador electionsShafik Handal of the FMLN lost the presidential election in El Salvador on March 21 to Antonio Saca of the right wing ARENA party, 39% to 60%. The result portends another five years of amiable relations between ARENA, which has controlled the presidency for 15 years, and the U.S., which warned of a deterioration in relations if Handal won. The campaign was characterized on ARENA’s part by references to the FMLN as a "communist" party that would inevitably lead the country into the kind of conflicts seen in Venezuela between Hugo Chavez and the right wing in that country. Television ads warned that the U.S. would cut off remittances from Salvadorans in the U.S. (El Salvador’s largest source of income), and the FMLN would supposedly end the free trade agreements with the U.S. whose benefits are "soon to materialize." This was the most hotly contested election since 1992, when the civil war was ended and the FMLN was transformed from a guerrilla force to a political party. Last year the FMLN made a strong showing against ARENA in legislative elections, winning 31 of 84 seats, while ARENA won 28. In the past two years the FMLN has aligned itself with movements against neoliberal restructuring, a change that has garnered support and led to speculation that it could win the presidency. However the FMLN’s choice of 73-year-old Shafik Handal, head of the Communist Party since 1973 and one of the five- member directorate of the FMLN during the brutal civil war that claimed some 75,000 lives, made it easy for ARENA to succeed with its campaign of fear. --Mitch Weerth |
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