The Empire Strikes Back
Yesterday marked the end of the 15 year encumbant reign of the PDC (Partido Demócrata Cristiano), or The Christian Democratic Party in my municipality of Sesori. The PDC, an aging party whose original platform of agrarian reform has been slowly fading away inside El Salvadors political relm. In it’s place, known by many names such as, “The Empire” or the “The Evil Empire” as many Peace Corps volunteers believe, has taken yet another stake inside El Salvador. ARENA (Alianza Republicano Nacionalista), or the National Republic Party whose representation of the urban middle/upper class is now controlling yet another important municipality in El Salvador. Other ARENA victories marked the country including a surprise victory (for me anyhow) in the ex-guerilla area of Perkin, home of the revolutionary museum. ARENA now controls most of the municipalities within Morazan (the department where Perkin is located).
This morning I read in La Prensa Grafica that the most important city, San Salvador, has yet to declare a victor due to a dead tie between The Empire, and the far-left FMLN (Faribundo Martí Liberación Naciónal) or the Faribundo Martí Liberation Front, otherwise known as FRENTE (which the composite of 5 guerrilla groups that make the FMLN). Bear with me.
Much talk has been around one particular candidate who broke off from FMLN to form the center-left CD, Cambio Democrático, yup, you guessed it, Democratic Change (a coalition comprised of FDR, Frente Democrático Revolucionario and PNL, Partido Naciónal Liberación) who split the FMLN vote which has caused quite a controversy over the prize of El Salvador, its capital, San Salvador. As of now there is an even draw and both camps have declared victory. More to come on that as I find out the news.
As far as single party dominance, ARENA still has a long way to go as the FMLN has almost equal control of deputies within the legislative branch and ARENA has won many victories by very narrow margins. In the town of Guatejiagua (home to a friend of mine) ARENA won by just three votes.
Because this is only a blog I can state my feeling about this and note that I am speaking as one individual in El Salvador and not as a Peace Corps representative, so here I go:
The growing fear in El Salvador is that it will become a one party government with no real opposition in the horizon. The US friendly ARENA will soon dominate all of El Salvador (this I am sure of) unless a party rises that can truly challenge ARENA. I feel that the far left extremist group FMLN rose in numbers due to the recent death of their leader, Shafik Hándel, but the reality of what I feel is that the FMLN has lost foot and is losing numbers as more and more people embrace capitalism and buy Discmans and Kellogg frosted flakes. My other hope was that FDR, the political arm of FMLN while they were still a guerrilla group could have come back as center-left (that failed, their numbers are even smaller than PDC’s).
Since the death of Shafik I’ve been wearing a lot of red in the hope that these reforms will take place and El Salvador. We’ll, there’s always Chile to look forward to.
The struggle continues,
Your affectionate volunteer,
Scrutape
This morning I read in La Prensa Grafica that the most important city, San Salvador, has yet to declare a victor due to a dead tie between The Empire, and the far-left FMLN (Faribundo Martí Liberación Naciónal) or the Faribundo Martí Liberation Front, otherwise known as FRENTE (which the composite of 5 guerrilla groups that make the FMLN). Bear with me.
Much talk has been around one particular candidate who broke off from FMLN to form the center-left CD, Cambio Democrático, yup, you guessed it, Democratic Change (a coalition comprised of FDR, Frente Democrático Revolucionario and PNL, Partido Naciónal Liberación) who split the FMLN vote which has caused quite a controversy over the prize of El Salvador, its capital, San Salvador. As of now there is an even draw and both camps have declared victory. More to come on that as I find out the news.
As far as single party dominance, ARENA still has a long way to go as the FMLN has almost equal control of deputies within the legislative branch and ARENA has won many victories by very narrow margins. In the town of Guatejiagua (home to a friend of mine) ARENA won by just three votes.
Because this is only a blog I can state my feeling about this and note that I am speaking as one individual in El Salvador and not as a Peace Corps representative, so here I go:
The growing fear in El Salvador is that it will become a one party government with no real opposition in the horizon. The US friendly ARENA will soon dominate all of El Salvador (this I am sure of) unless a party rises that can truly challenge ARENA. I feel that the far left extremist group FMLN rose in numbers due to the recent death of their leader, Shafik Hándel, but the reality of what I feel is that the FMLN has lost foot and is losing numbers as more and more people embrace capitalism and buy Discmans and Kellogg frosted flakes. My other hope was that FDR, the political arm of FMLN while they were still a guerrilla group could have come back as center-left (that failed, their numbers are even smaller than PDC’s).
Since the death of Shafik I’ve been wearing a lot of red in the hope that these reforms will take place and El Salvador. We’ll, there’s always Chile to look forward to.
The struggle continues,
Your affectionate volunteer,
Scrutape
1 Comments:
Hi there, interesting blog. I'm always grateful for Peace Corps volunteers who choose to work in my country.
About the Evil Empire thing: surely you young things must be aware ---that was the epithet Reagan pinned on the Soviets, and Gorby later acknowledged it had been a major psych factor in the collapse of the Wall. I got a chuckle out of you all's usage.
Also: why do you think the campesinos in Morazan consistently vote "Empire", whereas the salaried urban masses in San Salvador largely vote red?
Food for thought-
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