Positive Reactions from the US Government Regarding the Salvadoran Presidential Election

SHARE’s e-newsletter about the US’s response to the Salvadoran elections and the Funes victory is now online. Click here to read it!
Posted by Leslie O’Bray, SHARE Grassroots Education and Advocacy Intern

Mauricio Funes wins presidential election with 51.32%

Mauricio Funes, the FMLN candidate, won the presidential elections on March 15, 2009 with 51.32% of the vote, over the rival candidate from ARENA, Rodrigo Avila. The results from the election are below:

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To see the results from each department, click here.
To see the results from each municipality, click here.

Posted by Leslie O’Bray, SHARE Grassroots [...]

Salvadorans denounce political violence and defamation from the election campaigns

La Prensa Grafica released the findings from a poll on Salvadoran opinions of the electoral campaign. Surprisingly, most Salvadorans felt good about the electoral campaign, with two principle complaints: violence between different party activists and the public defamation messages. People associate violence in the street more with the FMLN and defamation – the dirty campaign [...]

Interview with President-Elect Mauricio Funes

New America Media recently posted the interview below with President-elect Mauricio Funes after his win on March 15, 2009. In the interview Funes discusses immigration, US-El Salvador relations, and why he believes CAFTA should not be repealed.
Immigration has become one of the defining issues of the United States-El Salvador relationship. How will your administration’s immigration [...]

PCN ex-candidates support Funes; party leaders still support Ávila

Tomás Chévez, ex-presidential candidate of the PCN, and his vice presidential candidate, González Garciaguirre, endorsed Mauricio Funes and the FMLN on Thursday, March 7 for the upcoming presidential elections.
In February, the PCN dropped out of the race in support of ARENA presidential candidate Rodrigo Ávila. Disagreeing with the party’s decision, Chévez initially intended to [...]

Call your Congressman to get support for free and fair elections in El Salvador!

A “Dear Colleague” letter is circulating in Congress requesting that President Barack Obama and the US government not intervene in the elections as well as respect the election results. Representatives Raúl Grijalva (D-AZ) and Marcy Kaptur (D-OH) are co-authors of the letter, which Members of Congress have until March 3rd to sign
In the 2004 Presidential [...]

Wall Street Journalist accuses FMLN of following in Chavez’s footsteps; Funes says Venezuela will “not meddle” in El Salvador

Mary Anastasia O’Grady wrote an article in the Wall Street Journal about the supposed threat of an FMLN-win in El Salvador to another “Chávez satellite” in Latin America. There is a claim that Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez sent Salvadoran President Antonio Saca a message after Guatemala inaugurated leftist President Alvaro Colom. The message allegedly said, [...]

NPR article on Salvadoran elections

NPR had a story on All Things Considered about the upcoming presidential election in El Salvador. The article gives a brief overview of the FMLN and presidential candidate Mauricio Funes, whom supporters call “El Salvador’s Barack Obama.”

Corruption has been rampant in El Salvador, and Funes promises to “go after the corrupt government and send them [...]

Organization of American States offers suggestions for the presidential elections

The electoral observation mission from the Organization of American States (OAS), which observed the Municipal and Legislative elections in El Salvador on January 18, issued recommendations for the upcoming presidential election on March 15 to the Council of the OAS, Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE), and Salvadoran society. While the official report on [...]

Campaign ad manipulates US official’s message

One of the tactics the ruling party has used and is currently using in its political campaign is the manipulation of messages from US officials to make a leftist win appear to be a potential threat to US-El Salvador relations. In this recent incidence, comments by Dan Restrepo, an adviser to Barack Obama on Latin [...]