In 2009, 20 years after the negotiated end to a brutal civil war, the left-wing Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN), former guerrillas turned political party, finally won the presidency of El Salvador. But, writes David Grosser, with the second FMLN administration nearing its end, a third term after next year鈥檚 presidential vote is very much in doubt.
Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN)
The US-based Committees in Solidarity with the Peoples of El Salvador (CISPES) sent international observers to El Salvador鈥檚 March 4 legislative and municipal elections. Drawing on their experiences and meetings with social movement organisations, the CISPES delegation published the following report on the elections and the challenges facing the left in the context of big gains for the right.
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鈥淗istory has shown that those who offend like this end up eating their words.鈥
There were innumerable horrors committed by El Salvador鈥檚 right-wing death-squad government during the civil war that raged from 1980 to 1992. Alongside the peasants and workers killed or disappeared and the nuns raped, were the priests who were executed. The most sensational execution of all was the murder of Archbishop of San Salvador Oscar Romero, gunned down while celebrating mass.
El Salvador鈥檚 ruling Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN) warned the US Embassy in San Salvador on February 27 to stop supporting the country鈥檚 right-wing Nationalist Republican Alliance (ARENA) party. FMLN leaders accused the US of meddling in the country鈥檚 affairs by supporting ARENA youth working to destabilise the government.
Workers in El Salvador won a big rise in the minimum wage on January 1 鈥 in some cases doubling their pay.
But before they had time to celebrate, the multinational companies who thrive on the country鈥檚 still-low wages counterattacked with mass layoffs, judicial manoeuvres and a bid to undermine the eight-hour day.
FMLN congress, November 6. Photo: FMLN.
El Salvador's governing left-wing Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN) concluded its first national congress on November 8 with plans to advance its struggles against inequality, exclusion and neoliberalism.
FMLN supporters celebrate election victory. March, 2014.
Thirty-five years after its founding, El Salvador's historic Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN) is set to hold its first national congress at the end of October.
Political parties in El Salvador formally wrapped up their campaigns on February 25 ahead of local and legislative elections schedule for March 1, with polls showing the left-wing Farabundu Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN) ahead of right-wing rivals.
Electors in Latin America's smallest country will head to the polls to elect mayors as well as representatives to the country's Legislative Assembly.
As Colombia launched its new offensive against Venezuela, an emergency summit of Central American presidents on July 20 restored Honduras to 鈥渋ts rightful鈥 status. That status was lost internationally when former president Manuel Zelaya was overthrown in a military coup in June 2009.
Using the pretext of the relaunch of the Central American Integration System (SICA), the presidents of Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala and Panama agreed to reincorporate Honduras into the regional bloc and encouraged the Organisation of American States (OAS) to do the same.