An Eyewitness Report from the Salvadoran Elections May 4, 7 pm

Media Advisory: For Immediate Release, April 17, 2009

Contact: CAAC, 916-457-5018 or caac2 [at] copper.net.


An Eyewitness Report from the Salvadoran Elections May 4, 7 pm


The Central America Action Committee (CAAC) will sponsor a talk and slide show by Susan Scott, "The Salvadoran Elections - Eyewitness Report," on Monday, May 4, 2009 at 7 pm. at the Southside Park Co-Housing Common House, 434 T St. in Sacramento.

Scott was a certified election observer in El Salvador's national March election with the National Lawyers Guild, as part of a delegation organized by SHARE. She learned and experienced more than she ever expected in the days that she spent as an election observer and worked diligently to reduce fraudulent voting.

She'll tell us about her experiences - and why she believes the progressive FMLN victors could have won by 20%, instead of 3%, with a more honest election.

The event is free, though donations are always welcome. For more information, call the Central America Action Committee (CAAC), 916-457-5018 or caac2 [at] copper.net.


Here's my article in the current CAAC newsletter about the Salvadoran elections:

FMLN Wins Presidency in El Salvador

By Dan Bacher

In a historic election that continues a surge of victories by leftist parties and candidates in Latin America in recent years, former journalist Mauricio Funes, 49, won the presidency of El Salvador as the candidate for the Frente Farabundo Marti para la Liberacion Nacional (FMLN) on March 15.

Funes is one of many left and center left candidates winning the presidency in Latin America countries over the past decade. These current presidents include Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, Evo Morales of Bolivia, Cristina Kirchner of Argentina, Fernando Lugo of Paraguay, Michelle Bachelet of Chile, Dr. Tabaré Vázquez of Uruguay, Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua, and Lula da Silva of Brazil.

Funes beat the ARENA candidate Rodrigo Avila, former director of the National Civilian Police. The official results from the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) show the FMLN winning the election by 51.3% over 48.7% for the Nationalist Republican Alliance (ARENA), with a margin of roughly 70,000 votes delivering this historic victory to the left.

“The historical significance of this shift in power cannot be understated in light of the repressive rule that the Salvadoran right-wing has exerted over the people since the massacre of nearly 30,000 indigenous campesinos in 1932,” said CISPES in an analysis. “In electing the FMLN, the political party formed in 1980 as an alliance of popular armed forces that fought back against widespread state repression, the Salvadoran people have created an opportunity to realize the goals of social and economic justice. Furthermore, in rejecting the ARENA party, one of Washington’s closest and longest-standing allies in Latin America, Salvadorans have dealt another blow to the Washington Consensus and to the United State’s presumption of free reign throughout the Americas.”

CISPES said that March’s election results represent a “startling turnaround” from the 2004 presidential elections where ARENA won by a significant margin: 57% to 36%. In 2004 the FMLN received about 813,000 votes; this time they received 1,354,000 votes—a gain of over a half million votes in country of 6.5 million.

The voting trends that emerged from the local and legislative elections this past January rang true for March—urban municipalities supported the FMLN while ARENA carried the more rural areas of the country. According to official TSE figures, every major city in El Salvador went to the FMLN candidate, Mauricio Funes.

The most populous department of San Salvador alone delivered 33% of all votes cast for the FMLN nationwide. Although the capital city of San Salvador produced many of those votes, the five other major cities of the department—all with at least 100,000 inhabitants—overwhelmingly supported the FMLN as well. The citizens of Soyapango, for instance, cast an astonishing 81,000 votes for Funes—just 23,000 votes short of the capital city’s contribution, despite having a quarter million fewer inhabitants.

Even the U.S. government was impressed by the fairness of the election that brought to power a president from a left wing party for the first time in the country’s history.

“The elections were carried out in relative calm and while there were isolated issues at some polling stations, the parties have recognized the results,” according to a news release from the U.S. State Department. “The election campaign was heavily marked by attacks and aggressive accusations between the two parties. The debate also was focused on the doubts whether the possible FMLN victory would trigger a change in the bilateral relations with the US. However, Charge Blau congratulated the people and the government of El Salvador for building a democracy where calm elections were celebrated.”

“Mauricio Funes has won in a fair and free election, “ said U.S. Charge d’Affaires Robert Blau. “We have said many times that our intention is to continue with the good relations with El Salvador from government to government, and from people to people.”

During the State Department’s daily press briefing in Washington DC, the Robert Wood, the acting senior spokesman congratulated the “civic and participatory spirit of the people of El Salvador” who exercised their democratic right to vote during the presidential elections on Sunday, March 15. He congratulated Mauricio Funes for winning the presidential election and reiterated the United State’s “commitment to work with the new democratically elected government as friends and partners of El Salvador.”

Wood also stated that relationship between the US and El Salvador goes "far deeper than from one government to the next government." He highlighted the "shared history of the two countries spanning several decades" (failing to note the role of the U.S government's aid to death squads and the Salvadoran military that killed tens of thousands of civilians during the civil war!) and the fact that there more than two million Salvadorans in the United States.

How did this apparent change in U.S. policy towards intervention in Salvadoran elections take place?

CISPES and SANA, the Salvadoran American National Association, spearheaded a grassroots Congressional campaign to stop US intervention in the 2009 elections, resulting in a letter to President Obama calling for an official US declaration of neutrality signed by 33 Democrats in the US House of Representatives. Less than a week after the letter was released, US House Republicans reverted to the interventionist scare tactics that succeeded in maintaining right wing ARENA party rule in the 2004 presidential elections.

However, the U.S Solidarity Movement's pressure upon the Obama administration and Congress resulted in the defeat of the interventionist Republicans. By March 13, only 48 hours after the Republicans’ fear-mongering statements hit the press, the US State Department and US Embassy in San Salvador both made a formal declaration of neutrality, further promising to respect the results of the elections and to work with whoever won the presidency.

In his press briefing on March 13, Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Thomas Shannon stated: “We’ve also made it very clear that we will work with whomever the Salvadoran people elect...We have made it very clear that this is a choice of the Salvadoran people that we will respect and that we look forward to continuing our very positive relationship with El Salvador, and working with the next elected government.”