The change has begun

Late last night, Mauricio Funes was declared the winner in El Salvador's presidential elections.

His victory is historical for several reasons.

Funes is a former television reporter who asked to be the candidate for the leftist FMLN party because of his disillusionment with the policies and actions of the rightist ARENA government. He was the party's first presidential candidate who is not a former guerrilla*. As the first FMLN candidate to win the presidency, his electoral victory is seen as the ultimate realization of the party's original goals.

In 1980, the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN) was created out of five leftist guerrilla groups fighting the government forces of El Salvador. They fought in a civil war which claimed the lives of over 70,000, and forced hundreds of thousands of civilians to be displaced, and eventually ended in a stalemate. In 1992, U.N. chartered peace accords were signed, and the FMLN was transformed from militia to political party.

Yesterday, despite fears of fraud, the elections went off smoothly, with approximately 60% of the eligible population showing up to vote. Only minor irregularities were reported. With over 99% of the results tabulated, Funes has a 2% lead over the rightist candidate, Rodrigo Avila, former chief of the national police.

Throughout the campaign season, Peace Corps volunteers have been discussing the various pros and cons of a victory by the left (which the polls had been predicting from the beginning). Would El Salvador join the “leftist bloc” of Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Cuba? Or would party leadership align with the center-left governments of Honduras and Brazil? Would Funes wield true power, or would the more militant elements of the FMLN, along with the vice president, a former guerrilla, boss him around? Would the legislative assembly, still controlled by the right, be able to accomplish anything under Funes? Would a transfer of power go smoothly?

According to the two major national newspapers, both of which are rightist, a victory by Funes would align El Salvador with Castro, Ortega, and Chavez, end the Temporary Protective Status of Salvadorans in the US, and end the flow of their remittances. However, the week before the election, the US embassy officially assured Salvadorans of the United States' neutrality, stating that remittances and TPS would not be affected by the outcome of the election.

Funes and his new administration will take power on June first. In the meantime, Tony Saca, the current president, has already begun work to transfer power. By all appearances, things are going smoothly.

Here in Torola, despite all the hype, the elections last night were quieter than the local elections which took place in January. And this wasn't because of a lack of enthusiasm—more people showed up to the polls here, and the FMLN won just as soundly as they had in January.

I stayed with Marleni and Josue, my neighbor and her son, to watch the election coverage on TV. She asked if I thought remittances would be cut off, but was by no means fearful. And even though she stayed up later than I to watch the coverage, she showed little emotion, positive or negative, once the results had been announced. She had not voted, and when I asked her son, who is seven years old, who he would vote for, he said, “No one. I don't like politics. They all do lots of dirty things.”

This morning, I asked the maid what she thought. “Even the sky is sad today,” she said, referring to the covering of clouds above us. We discussed the results, and while she was disappointed that her party's candidate had not won, she remained hopeful that Funes would respect the laws and constitution of the country.

One person Melinda talked to was more pessimistic. When she, trying to be positive, reminded him that the country could choose a new president in just five years, he told her he didn't think so: “there won't be another election in El Salvador.”

Friends of mine, supporters of the FMLN, were joyful but sober. Asuncion, an employee at city hall who is always talking about Che Guevera, Cuba, and communism, spoke to me about the need for cooperation between the two halves of the population (right and left) under the reforms that Funes has promised to bring. “We're either [leftists] or [rightists], but we're all Salvadorans.”

Throughout his campaign, Funes promised to bring change. As the country's first leftist president in decades, this is one promise that will of course be fulfilled, for better or worse. Regardless of Funes' quality as a president, the transfer of power that will result from his victory will be a necessary test of the strength of the Salvadoran democracy.

Perhaps the most profound aspect of this election is the fact that yesterday, the FMLN, whose founding coincided with a bloody civil war, has now successfully won control of the nation in a free, fair, and transparent election, and that the current administration is already working towards a peaceful transfer of power on June first. This is a testimony to the strength of the hard-won peace, and the sense of “God, Union, and Liberty” which the Salvadoran people share as their motto.

UPDATE 19 MAR 2009: *Actually, I just found out this is misinformation. To quote Tim of Tim's El Salvador blog, the first FMLN presidential candidate who was not a guerrilla was "Rubén Zamora, who forced Arena to a run-off election but lost to Armando Calderón Sol in that second round. Zamora was a prominent member of the Christian Democratic party before the war, but in the 1980's joined the FDR, a non-guerrilla grouping of leftist parties. He became well known for participating in the peace talks. (Thanks to Solava for pointing this out in a comment)."