In recent months, it often seemed as if the political debate in El Salvador was stuck in a time warp back to the 1980s. Conservative politicians warned that the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN) was a “communist” outfit that would ruin the country. FMLN supporters countered that the party would bring social justice to Salvadoran society. In the 1980s, there was a civil war raging, and the FMLN was a militant guerrilla organization. Now it is El Salvador’s largest left-wing political party–and, for the first time ever, it has won the presidency.
The center-right ARENA party has controlled the presidency for 20 years, winning elections in 1989, 1994, 1999, and 2004. In El Salvador, presidents are limited to one five-year term, so the incumbent, Antonio Saca, could not run for reelection. The FMLN shrewdly picked a non-party member as its candidate. Mauricio Funes was famous in El Salvador from his days as a television newsman. He was also a moderate figure who did not resemble the ex-guerrilla radicals who have long dominated the FMLN. Funes was running against ARENA candidate Rodrigo Avila, El Salvador’s former national police chief.
