Leftist Mauricio Funes Declares Victory in El Salvador

Posted on March 16, 2009
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March 16, 2009, Leftist Mauricio Funes Declares Victory in El Salvador Election. [Update: Funes took office June 1, 2009]

On Sunday night, Frente Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN) candidate Mauricio Funes, a former CNN newsman who has compared himself to President Obama, declared himself the winner of El Salvador’s presidential election. Much like Obama, Funes won with just over 51 percent of the vote. Another non-mandate which will invite overreaching, as Obama and the Congressional Democrats are currently starting to trip up on.

The FMLN is a revolutionary communist/socialist political party in El Salvador. The FMLN was formed in 1980 as a fusion of five left wing guerilla organizations. In 1992, all armed FMLN units ceased operations and were formed into a legal political party, one of two major political parties in El Salvador, the other being the Nationalist Republican Alliance (ARENA). The five guerilla organizations included the Communist Party of El Salvador (PCS), National Resistance (RN), People’s Revolutionary Army (ERP), Popular Liberation Forces (FPL) and Revolutionary Party of Central American Workers (PRTC). The names here were translated from their Spanish names, found at Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front on Wikipedia.

This election ends twenty years of a moderate to conservative government and coupled with the FMLN gains in their legislature in January, El Salvador is well on the way to emulating the changes that have wreaked havoc in Venezuela under the authoritarian socialist Hugo Chávez. Along with Nicaragua, which has been run by Daniel Ortega and his Sandinistas (FSLN) from 1985-1990 and from 2007 to the present, these countries are friendly with Cuba and share many ideological views with our new administration. My question is, will Columbia or Argentina be next?