El Salvador’s Elections: Is a New Time Coming?

By Tobias Roberts


After nearly 20 years of being governed by the conservative, right-wing government of the ARENA party, the people of El Salvador took a confident step towards a long overdue change when they voted for mayors and representatives to the National Legislative Assembly on January 18th.

From 1980 to 1992, El Salvador suffered a cruel civil war with over 70,000 victims as a conservative estimate. The war was fought between the oligarchy and military against a guerilla movement that arose due to two electoral frauds, the repression of social movements, and massacres against the rural population by the armed forces. In 1989 the rich families of the oligarchy and military led by Roberto Dabuisson (who ordered the execution of the Salvadoran archbishop, Oscar Romero) conformed the ARENA party and won the presidency of the first elections. For the past twenty years, ARENA has continued as the leading political force. With policies such as promoting CAFTA, dollarizing the economy, privatizing virtually every public service, and generally governing for the business elite, ARENA has made El Salvador one of the world’s most violent countries with rampant inequality and massive poverty.

However, on January 18th, the Salvadoran people overwhelmingly demonstrated their confidence that the FMLN, the progressive, left-wing party and ex-guerrilla group, will be the course to creating a more just, equal, and peaceful country. The FMLN, for the governing period 2009-2012, will be the party with most representatives in the National Assembly (35), though they will be unable to form a majority because of the inevitable coalitions of ARENA (with 31 representatives) and other smaller right wing parties. On the municipal level, the FMLN went from governing 51 municipalities to 97 municipalities becoming the primary political force in El Salvador for the first time ever, and giving hope to the population that the FMLN will also be able to win the presidential elections to be held March 15.

Despite this clear victory for the FMLN, the major communication agencies, owned exclusively by the oligarchy families, have done all they can to try and downplay this decisive call for change by the people. The FMLN lost the mayorship of the capital and largest city, San Salvador and this was utilized by the major communication agencies to proclaim the FMLN as a “party in decline” or as a “sure sign of distrust by the people of the FMLN.” The result of this massive campaign by ARENA and the oligarchy has created a generalized feeling of confusion amongst the people who seem to accept that the municipal and legislative elections were a triumph for ARENA when in reality they were a clear indication of popular support for the FMLN .

The electoral process in itself was filled with many irregularities, the majority of which were perpetuated by ARENA. Accusations of people voting outside their established municipality in areas where the FMLN held a slight lead, busses of Nicaraguans with falsified Salvadoran ID´s being stopped and sent back to Nicaragua before they were to illegally vote (most likely for ARENA), and numerous accusations of the ARENA party paying individuals for their votes were only some of the abnormalities presented on the voting day. In fact, in one municipality, the elections had to be postponed due to massive protests by the people who found ARENA bringing their supporters from other municipalities to vote in a municipality thought to be won by the FMLN.

Yet even in the face of such blatant abnormalities (which were not broadcast in any considerable means by the communication agencies), the FMLN came out as the leading political force in the country. Perhaps the most symbolic victory and most decisive call for change came from the municipality of Izalco in the department of Sonsonate. Izalco has traditionally been the stronghold of the ARENA party. It is where they always begin their electoral campaigns because for them it signifies the “defeat of the communists.” In 1932, in the municipality of Izalco, a peasant and indigenous revolt lead by Farabundo Martí against the corrupt military junta was crushed by the government and military forces leaving a toll of over 30,000 killed in a week´s time. This event also marked the beginning of the disappearance of El Salvador´s indigenous Nahuat population since being identified as indigenous also meant “communist” to the government. But on January 18th, for the first time ever, the FMLN won the municipality of Izalco thus taking from ARENA one of its primary ideological strongholds.

Now, all eyes are on the presidential elections set for March 15th. The presidential candidate for the FMLN is Mauricio Funes, an ex-journalist who had no involvement with the guerilla movement during the war. This characteristic has inspired confidence and trust in much of the population whom, with Funes as candidate, are seeing the FMLN as a solid political party and not just as an ex-guerilla group. ARENA, financed by the oligarchy, has begun a massive propaganda campaign. But since they can´t seem to find anything against Funes, their campaign has focused on instilling fear in the population around the figure of the FMLN´s vice presidential candidate, Salvador Sanchez Ceren, who was involved in the civil war. TV commercials showing Ceren as a guerilla fighter accusing him of being a terrorist, showing pictures of bridges blown up by the guerrilla groups during the war, showing speeches of Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua and of course Hugo Chavez in Venezuela, are aimed at trying to depict the FMLN as an unstable and dangerous option that will drive the country into chaos. These images of the FMLN are countered by other ARENA propaganda showing themselves as intelligent, professional politicians, lovers of justice, promoters of equality, and the route to a better future. The campaign slogans of ARENA so far have been: “A more just country,” “Alliance for change,” and “Vote with wisdom”, all of which somewhat ironically depict the exact opposite of what ARENA has stood for during the last 20 years.


Voting in San Salvador on January 18. Photo AlJazeera

In spite of these massive campaigns, current polls continue showing Mauricio Funes having a considerable lead over the ARENA presidential candidate, Rodrigo Avila. This has lead ARENA and the oligarchy into a state of alarm and fear that they could lose these presidential elections. And this surely means that the next month here in El Salvador will be filled with dirty campaigning and electoral violence. And if Funes and the FMLN do come out victorious on March 15th, it will be interesting to see the reaction by ARENA and the oligarch families.


Tobias Roberts currently works with the New Dawn Association of El Salvdor in an HIV-AIDS and community development project. He works in 6 rural communities developing masculinity workshops, beginning women´s cooperatives, and strengthening community organization.