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EL SALVADOR:
Crisis, Poverty Huge Challenges for Leftist
President
By Raúl Gutiérrez
SAN SALVADOR (IPS) - The main challenges
faced by El Salvador’s leftwing
president-elect Mauricio Funes are forging
understandings with other political sectors,
adopting measures to deal with the economic
crisis, and especially its effects on the
poor, and strengthening the country’s
institutions, say analysts.
Funes of the Farabundo Martí National
Liberation Front (FMLN) will have to act
fast, even before he takes office on Jun. 1,
to generate confidence at the political
level, among the business community and in
society at large.
The director of research and development at
the Business Foundation for Educational
Development (FEPADE), Joaquín Samayoa, told
IPS that Funes will have to work out
"understandings" with other political forces
to ensure "democratic governance."
He will also have to "creatively" tackle
domestic economic problems that have been
aggravated by the global recession, which
will have a particularly heavy impact on
this impoverished Central American nation,
said the analyst. El Salvador adopted the
dollar as its currency in 2001, and 80
percent of this country’s exports go to the
United States.
The crisis has already been reflected in the
loss of jobs and in a drop in the
remittances sent home by Salvadorans in the
United States, which are "a lifeline for a
large number of families living in extreme
poverty," he added.
Funes, a veteran TV journalist who was not a
member of the FMLN until he was nominated as
the party’s candidate, garnered 51 percent
of the vote in Sunday’s elections, against
the 49 percent taken by his rival Rodrigo
Ávila of the rightwing Nationalist
Republican Alliance (ARENA), which has
governed the country since 1989.
The FMLN insurgency, which fought government
forces in the 1980-1992 civil war, became a
legal political party in 1993.
The war left 75,000 people – mainly
civilians - dead and 6,000 forcibly
disappeared, largely at the hands of
far-right death squads led by the late
founder of ARENA Roberto d'Aubuisson
(1944-1992).
El Salvador, the smallest country on the
mainland of the Americas, which is severely
overcrowded with 5.7 million people in a
mountainous territory of 21,000 square
kilometres, has one of the highest murder
rates in the world: 61 per 100,000 people.
Casey Reckman, associate director of Fitch
Ratings, an international credit rating
agency, said this week that Funes would have
a tough time ahead of him because of the
impact of the U.S. recession, and added that
cooperation among political sectors is
crucial to implementing long-term fiscal
policies and restore the confidence of
investors.
According to the Central Reserve Bank, some
four billion dollars in remittances were
sent home by Salvadorans in the United
States last year, equivalent to 17 percent
of GDP.
But in January, remittances dipped eight
percent with respect to the same month in
2008.
Ninety percent of the 2.9 million
Salvadorans living abroad are in the United
States.
In his victory speech, Funes said he would
build a government of national unity because
"the country belongs to all Salvadorans,"
but clarified that he would put a priority
on the poor, who he said were the victims of
the neoliberal free-market policies followed
by ARENA since 1989.
Analyst Dagoberto Gutiérrez said the
country’s first leftwing president will also
have to dismantle a state apparatus created
by, and at the service of, ARENA.
He said that from its very origins, El
Salvador’s small wealthy elite "has been
primitive in essence," generating political
and social confrontation in a country where
the "opulence" of a few contrasts sharply
with the "disgraceful poverty" of the
majority of the population.
"Funes has to show the people that his
government won’t be just another government,
and to do that he will have to establish a
new state apparatus to overcome entrenched
corruption after two decades of rule by
ARENA, which took advantage of the state to
benefit the dominant class," said Gutiérrez.
The new president will also have to use
referendums as an instrument to give "voters
greater participation in decisions of
far-reaching significance for the direction
that the country will take," he added.
Samayoa said "any party that has been in the
government for a long period of time tends
to act in an arbitrary manner," and called
for "vigilance and intolerance of corruption
on the part of the government."
Outgoing President Antonio Saca said he
would seek a "smooth, expedited transition,"
and has invited Funes to accompany him to
the Mar. 25 summit for the Central American
Integration System (SICA), to be hosted by
Nicaragua.
ARENA leaders have said their party will be
a "constructive" opposition force, while
remaining vigilant to protect the country’s
"freedoms."
In its editorial Monday, the
ultra-conservative El Diario de Hoy
underwent a radical shift in position,
stating that "the proposal for national
unity is welcomed with open arms."
"El Salvador is divided, and requires a
strong dose of wisdom from both halves to
find the best route forward for the
country," the editorial said.
During the election campaign, the newspaper
had accused Funes of being "the candidate of
the party of kidnappers and criminals."
The president-elect will head to Brazil
Thursday to meet with President Luiz Inácio
Lula da Silva, who called him on Sunday to
congratulate him on his triumph and
reiterate his earlier offer of helping El
Salvador in the fight against poverty.
Carlos Gómez, who has been driving a taxi
for two years, remarked to IPS that he voted
for "change" and that he hopes Funes will
live up to his promise to improve living
standards for the poor, through the creation
of jobs, price controls for basic products,
and more effective measures against crime.
The question that should begin to be
answered over the next few months is how
inclusive and participative the new
government will be, and how constructive
ARENA will be as the main opposition party,
said Samayoa.
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