El Salvador: A Historic Election

(Latin Pulse: April 30, 2009) The Latin Pulse Team brings you a special report on the historic election in Latin America. El Salvador, a tiny Central American country of 7 million inhabitants, recently elected Mauricio Funes, its first leftist president. Not unlike the evening Barack Obama was elected as President of the United States, the crowds in the capital city of San Salvador were chanting "Sí se pudo" - "Yes we did!"

The Funes party, the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front, or FMLN, defeated the rightwing Nationalist Republican Alliance, the ARENA party, who has ruled the country for 20 years. In the 1980s, the FMLN, a coalition of former Marxist guerillas, fought a bitter war against the U.S. backed Salvadoran government. Thousands were killed, tortured, and disappeared. Salvadoran voters were voting for the FMLN candidate because they wanted change. They were worried about poverty, unemployment, and raging crime, and were not impressed by the right wing's well-financed media campaign, which stressed the dangers of communism.

The U.S. government has always had a presence in Salvador's electoral process. For that reason, the FMLN publicly asked the American leadership to stay out of the 2009 election more than a year ago. It appears that they did. The next day, President Barack Obama called Funes to congratulate him on his victory.

For a long time, El Salvador has been a staunch U.S. ally. Now, the smallest country in Central America has joined the increasing number of Latino American countries that have chosen to explore a change to the left. However, with a new U.S. president warmly shaking hands with Funes, Brazils Lula, and Venezuela's Hugo Chavez, many are hopeful about the future of Latin American-US relations.

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News & Politics

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• election
• latin pulse
• link tv
• linktv
• mauricio funes

[reyzangano999]

arenarcos,arrastrados,viven como pobres,comen como pobres duermen como pobres,pero piensan como ricos.

[Matheus30741]

Não sei se foi uma boa este novo governo de El Salvador, mas de uma coisa eu tenho certeza: a influencia dos EUA contra a democracia dos países na América Latina é bem conhecida e enojante.

Desejo boa sorte ao povo de El Salvador, e tenham os olhos abertos. Honduras recentemente sofreu um golpe de estado e bases militares dos EUA estão espalhadas por toda américa latina...

[mrGuanaco775]

@MauriceXVX Stupido la meirda que sale de tu voca no te hace hacer mas inteligente. pero mira si tienes un problema con lo que yo o otros que piensan como yo escribimos aqui pues chinge a su madre hijo de puta. i dont give a fuck if you went here or there i can care less. and as for your china shit fuck that too go suck off HU JINTAO..ya basta con tus putadas.

[mrGuanaco775]

@arenamierda Viva loco .....FMLN will forever live

[mrGuanaco775]

@MauriceXVX the bullshit you write is NOT the answer... stop just stop the stupid voices in your head. understand that el salvador, MY COUNTRY, will never be as successful as america. would you like to know why well maybe its the fact that no one wants to be an imperialist that advocates change but destroys countries for being different. communism is the answer and america is next ....sleep with 1 eye open

[moskablzit]

viva latino amerca unida. and long live karl marx.

[arenamierda]

I´ve also seen lots of gringos going to Canada for a better living and to get a Universal Health System which is given FOR FREE in Cuba... and guess what! is the COMMUNIST country.

So check your facts before giving unaccurate and biased info...

Viva Cuba socialista!

[reyzangano999]

quien estas lumbreras,que vienen a explicarnos,que es comunismo,creen que estamos en el siglo pasado.

[DSD1v57BG32]

Venzuala no es un estado comunista, le están diciendo mendiras hecha por la derecha que controla los medios de comunicación, me da pena que los EE.UU. ha hecho ustedes esto, y cuando Chávez llegó al poder, nosotros tratamos de deshacerse de él también.

Our media has told us chavez is communist, maybe if you studied what we did to latin america you would notice something.

[DSD1v57BG32]

ha, puppet democracy.