Leftist FMLN Candidate Mauricio Funes Wins El Salvador Presidential Election

[GracchusBabeuf]

.

[proudhon10]

cool! another latin american leftist. We have Fidel, Hugo, Evo Morales, Lula, Kirchner and many more...:)

[Crux]

It's great that the FMLN, a party with a fairly strong revolutionary wing, has risen to power in El Salvador. It's too bad their president is obviously a fucking tool. However, more rigthwing people than him has been forced to the left under the pressure of the masses.

[Guerrilla22]

Yeah, the problem is they don't really have anything to work with and the country is overly reliant on the US. Glad to see the previous regime get booted out though.

[el_chavista]

After 12 years of guerrilla (1980-1992) still they have old leftist leaders like Salvador Sánchez Serén (former comandante Leonel González) as vicepresident to socialdemocrat president Mauricio Funes.

[Iowa656]

A victory for the left?

He's no where near perfect, but I think there will be some "progressive" changes in El Salvador in the near future.

18 years of right wing ARENA rule is long enough.

[PoWR]

What makes Funes a "leftist"? Is it because he says he's one, because the media calls himself one, or because the FMLN fought a guerrilla war at one time in history?

He says openly he will be "moderate." He'll seek close relations with the U.S., strengthen CAFTA (the "free trade" agreement with the U.S.), create an "improved environment" for investment (read: capitalists), "respect private property," preserve privitizations that have already occured and stay away from any nationalizations of any kind.

Where is the "leftism"??

Labels are completely meaningless.

There are "leftist" leaders in Brasil, Nicaragua, Venezuela, Chile, Bolivia, Argentina and Ecuador. We also have capitalism in Brasil, Nicaragua, Venezuela, Chile, Bolivia, Argentina and Ecuador.


He's no where near perfect, but I think there will be some "progressive" changes in El Salvador in the near future.

Yeah, if we're really lucky, maybe he'll support an absolute and total ban on abortion the like his "progressive" "leftist" "former guerrilla" counterpart in Nicaragua.


18 years of right wing ARENA rule is long enough.

Hundreds of years of capitalist rule is long enough. This is just a (slightly) different variety of the same old.

[DiaMat86]

He sounds like a bourgeois politician to me.

[Davie zepeda]

The point of his victory wasn't for the fact of the party but the people. This in the end will help us only get a step closer to real socialism in Latin America with the united state's key Allies trading with Cuba and other left leaning blocks. This only helps Latin America and south America, to gaining real independence from imperialism. Plus he has no majority so what can he do. This year will be about regulating and trade with other countries.

[Glenn Beck]

I expect no better from Funes, who was specifically chosen as a moderate to win the elections in the toxic anti-communist and pro-US political climate that pervades most of Central America. Nevertheless this is still an important step for the people of El Salvador. Regardless of the incoming Funes regime's compromised nature the USA was still starkly opposed to them and played their usual tricks to keep an FMLN government from coming to power.

The fact of the matter is that having the death squad butchers ARENA out of power is a step forward for the people of El Salvador and in the international context helps break the US stranglehold on the region both economically and politically. Funes will not bring socialism to El Salvador and I doubt anybody expected him to. However his government can respond to the needs of the population in ways ARENA can't and won't and gives an opening for future progress.

With this election out of the way it's now up to the people of El Salvador to make their new government accountable and find their own voice and their own way out of this mess.

[MarxSchmarx]

Man's got 100 days in my book to do something of merit. It can even be symbolic, that will give him an extension. But I'm not holding my breath.

[PoWR]

Someone else wants to join you in congratulating the new President of El Salvador.



WASHINGTON (AFP)--The U.S. on Monday congratulated Mauricio Funes as the winner of El Salvador's presidential election and said it wanted to work with the new government, which will be led by a former leftist guerrilla group.


Funes, a former journalist and the candidate of the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front, defeated Rodrigo Avila of the conservative Arena party Sunday with 51.2% of the vote against 48.7%, according to the Supreme Electoral Tribunal.


Robert Wood, a State Department spokesman, said the elections were "very free, fair and democratic."


"I want to specifically congratulate Mauricio Funes as the winner of the presidential election and also his opponent, Rodrigo Avila, for participating in the election and for respecting the election results," he said.


"So we look forward to working with the new government of El Salvador...on our bilateral agenda," he said.


Regardless of the incoming Funes regime's compromised nature the USA was still starkly opposed to them and played their usual tricks to keep an FMLN government from coming to power.

No, actually they didn't. A few politicians said his victory would endanger "U.S. interests," but the U.S. government didn't do anything even remotely approaching its past meddling in the affairs of El Salvador.

The message is clear: if you fight a revolution to smash the capitalist state and construct a workers state in place we will oppose you with all the force we can muster. If we can't defeat you, we will wear you down and co-opt you until you're no longer a threat. Then you can win thus dissipating the anger of the exploited masses while at the same time keeping everything safe for capital.


However his government can respond to the needs of the population

You're arguing that capitalism can be modified to meet human need?

What are you doing here?

[Davie zepeda]

Are you saying the US let them? How absurd this is nothing but slander. El Salvador is not ready for revolution. The conditions call for unions and trade unions then we begin to talk of revolution but the peasant and poor are not unified at this point they still live divide into classes.
Yes there will not be a revolution but, yes one can build. The movement is getting ready and i promise El Salvador will be with Cuba, and in Alba soon enough. We support revolutions but remember the conditions we live in differs from others. Revolutions cannot be placed on us because as history as told us no revolution is the same.

[PoWR]

Of course they let them. If they really wanted to prevent it, they could resort to death squads, coups and military dictatorships as they have in the past. All out invasion is also something they could have done (eg. Dominican Republic 1965).

As I said, they didn't even resort to some of the lesser things they've done in the past to try to sway people like threats from the U.S. ambassador, newspaper advertisements, statements from the Department of State.

Look at the difference between the reaction of the State Department to the Cuban Revolution and the election of Funes (or even Allende). See any differences??


El Salvador is not ready for revolution.This is a typical argument of reformists. They've been saying this everywhere anyone has ever brought up the idea of revolution. Real change is put off until the indefinite future while the focus is put on electoral campaigns to get this or that guy into office.

“[S]ome people offer limited formulas: minor election campaigns; an election victory here or there; two deputies, a senator, four mayors; a large popular demonstration broken up by gunfire; an election lost by fewer votes than the preceding one; one labor strike won, 10 strikes lost; one step forward, 10 steps back. And then, at any precise moment, the rules of the game are changed and one has to start all over again. ... There is the hill of parliament, of legal economic strikes, of salary increases, of bourgeois constitutions, of the liberation of a popular figure... and worst of all, in order to gain these positions one must enter into the political games of the bourgeois state. In order to get permission to play this dangerous game one must show that one is a good child, that one is not dangerous, that one would never think of assaulting army garrisons or trains, destroying bridges, or bring revolutionary justice to hired thugs or to torturers, or going to the mountains.” - Ernesto 'Che' Guevara

Capitalism is no longer a progressive system. It is in decline and no longer has anything to offer. It's overdue for replacement, everywhere.

[Comrade_Red]

i'll wait and see. We'll see. i do find it interesting that the party that the US used death squads on in the 80's is now in power. there's always the possibility that they're uncle toms, that they've sold out. But i have a more optimistic view. i have long thought that you people are simply too cynical.
i do think it's a good thing though at the present time.

As far as socialism/capitalism goes...i would take welfare capitalism over Bush/Obama capitalism anyday. You can't expect a government to adhere to socialism in the exact abstract way that you see it immediately, in the current state of things....just because a government doesn't doesn't mean that it's to be discarded.

[R_P_A_S]

good to see El Salvador restoring relations with Cuba. thats a fucking good change.

[fatpanda]

funes is a social democrat
he is more like luiz inacio da silva than chavez

[Davie zepeda]

Of course they let them. If they really wanted to prevent it, they could resort to death squads, coups and military dictatorships as they have in the past. All out invasion is also something they could have done (eg. Dominican Republic 1965).

As I said, they didn't even resort to some of the lesser things they've done in the past to try to sway people like threats from the U.S. ambassador, newspaper advertisements, statements from the Department of State.


They did do the same act's they killed a mayor, militants, students attacked voters. Threaten that the US relation would be gone if the fmln won.

Look at the difference between the reaction of the State Department to the Cuban Revolution and the election of Funes (or even Allende). See any differences??
Ha! Look at you... The Cuban revolution was embraced at first remember and allende was a victim of the cold war. We are in different conditions.

This is a typical argument of reformists. They've been saying this everywhere anyone has ever brought up the idea of revolution. Real change is put off until the indefinite future while the focus is put on electoral campaigns to get this or that guy into office.

The point is not reformist the point is to have a real revolution of the people not of big headed leaders who think there word is right compared to other common men. Your mistake is you are like a rock sticking to one ideology when revolution calls for us to be like water going with the conditions. I know my country Ive seen it is not ready right now because the majortiy are un skilled labor. There is no working majority the workers are the vangaurd not the peasants and poor.

“[S]ome people offer limited formulas: minor election campaigns; an election victory here or there; two deputies, a senator, four mayors; a large popular demonstration broken up by gunfire; an election lost by fewer votes than the preceding one; one labor strike won, 10 strikes lost; one step forward, 10 steps back. And then, at any precise moment, the rules of the game are changed and one has to start all over again. ... There is the hill of parliament, of legal economic strikes, of salary increases, of bourgeois constitutions, of the liberation of a popular figure... and worst of all, in order to gain these positions one must enter into the political games of the bourgeois state. In order to get permission to play this dangerous game one must show that one is a good child, that one is not dangerous, that one would never think of assaulting army garrisons or trains, destroying bridges, or bring revolutionary justice to hired thugs or to torturers, or going to the mountains.” - Ernesto 'Che' Guevara
We are not living in the time of armed inserection we are living in the time of democarcy!

Capitalism is no longer a progressive system. It is in decline and no longer has anything to offer. It's overdue for replacement, everywhere.
Captalism is nothing more than a word and soon it will be only in the books