Leftists seemingly post big wins in El Salvador

Unofficial results show that El Salvador’s leftist FMLN made significant gains during yesterday’s local elections.

According to preliminary numbers, the right-wing ARENA lost its slim control of the country’s federal Legislative Assembly to the FMLN. Additionally, most local posts nationwide were won by the FMLN candidates though ARENA seemed to salvage a win in the election for San Salvador mayor.

The FMLN would become the favorite to win El Salvador’s presidency in two months assuming that the electoral results hold. Poll results published earlier this month owed that FMLN presidential candidate Mauricio Funes has a 17-point lead over his closest rival. (Current president Tony Saca is allied with ARENA).

What would an FMLN win signal for the U.S. and the rest of the Americas? According to CNN:

"There's another possibility that yet another country will join the pink tide and go leftist," (Council on Hemispheric Affairs director Larry) Birns said. "What Washington worries about is momentum building up behind one election after another for leftist candidates" in Latin America: "institutional" governments, such as Brazil's, that "have made peace with the free market" while still championing social programs, and populist, more radical governments such as Venezuela's...

Heather Berkman, a Latin America analyst with the Eurasia Group, thinks the FMLN would take a pragmatic approach. The nation relies too much on outside investments and remittances from Salvadorans living abroad for the FMLN to adopt too much of a radical approach.

Image- AFP (“FMLN supporters cheer at the close of voting in San Salvador.”)
Online Sources- Angus Reid Consultants, El Faro, Prensa Latina, Bloomberg, CNN

American Academics for the Frente?

The Council on Hemispheric Affairs (COHA) today sent out an interesting, 4-point open letter signed by dozens of Latin Americanist university professors from US universities; the letter forewarns against US interventionism and the possibilities for fraud in the upcoming Salvadoran elections (legislative in January and presidential in March 2009)

The full letter and list of signatories can be viewed here. A cursory view of the list will reveal the political leanings of the majority, though the list includes enough well-respected and apolitical names not to be discounted.

Personally, I'm not quite sure what the context or impetus for this letter are -- does anyone know more details?

My initial thoughts are: ok, there is a new US administration coming in January, but (a) the four problematic issues laid out in the letter, while not invented, are a far cry from the sort of meddling we all know the US used to be involved with in Central America, and (b) the timing still seems off; the statements referenced are from months ago and there is no indication in there that now -- a month before the legislative elections (and 3 before the presidential) -- that there is any new cause for concern, or even if there were, that there is much that anyone in the US could do about it now.

In any event, all signs point to Mauricio Funes' becoming the first ever FMLNista president in El Salvador, though there remains a wide debate on the type of presidency and administration he will foster.

Sources: COHA, The Latin Americanist