Thread: The Mafia-Don and "the 14 Families" Still Run El Salvador under Fake FMLN President

Patience. I'll get to the point. May extend up to 4 posts.

Before FMLN party candidate Mauricio Funes was elected President, El Salvador was integrated into the US dominated world system via DR-CAFTA when the US-backed ARENA party was in power in 2005. Before the vote in Congress Carol Pier of Human Rights Watch commented on DR-CAFTA's workers' rights protections:

Human Rights Watch: DR-CAFTA Falls Short on Workers’ Rights

Rather than playing a game of smoke and mirrors, the Bush administration should renegotiate DR-CAFTA to strengthen workers’ rights protections and provide the funds to make them a reality. For Congress to oppose DR-CAFTA until it does so isn’t protectionist or anti-trade, it’s pro-human rights.

The Washington Post took a different view however. It gushes:

The Washington Post: The Stakes in CAFTA

THE HOUSE is getting ready to vote on the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA), a deal that would bind the five nations of Central America plus the Dominican Republic to the U.S. economy.

While the United States has been focusing on terrorism, a new challenge has been brewing in its own hemisphere. House members should consider this challenge before voting to slam the door on Central America's pro-American leaders.

The peace process in Central America succeeded, ending leftist insurgences in El Salvador and Guatemala and leading to elections in Nicaragua that removed its Marxist leadership. Democracy already had displaced often populist dictatorships across South America; in Mexico, a pro-American, pro-market presidential candidate succeeded against the long-ruling and traditionally leftist Institutional Revolutionary Party.

^^
You would think this editorial was written at Langley. This is the liberal view in mainstreem articulate opinion in the United States.

Among US elites, "democracy" means "a country that is ruled by economic elites linked to the United States". That's it. Nothing else matters. The regime could be murdering and torturing it's population by the tens of thousands and it would still be described as an elected (by 99.7 % of the vote) democratic government, just as Washington's death squads were characterized as "democratic forces".

In contrast, democratically elected nationalist governments that respond to inreasing popular demand for immediate improvements in the low living standards of the masses and gear production towards demestic needs are denounced and condemned as "Marxist-Leninists", "anti-American" and "authoritarian" or smeared, independant of any facts. It just doesnt matter.

The "New Vision" of the "Gatekeeper" of so called Global "Free Markets"

At the end of September 1993, the Clinton Administration finally addressed "the vision thing" in the domain of foreign policy, with major addresses by the President and Secretary of State, and of particular significance, by National Security Adviser Anthony Lake, who laid forth the intellectual foundations of the new Clinton doctrine at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.

A new National Export Strategy was announced that set guidelines for international economic policy, and a White House panel on intervention applied the doctrine in this particular sphere, all within a few days. The seriousness of the enterprise was duly recorded with such headlines as "U.S. Vision of Foreign Policy Reversed", implying a dramatic policy change.

The new vision is based on a picture of the contemporary world that has risen well beyond opinion, to the heights of truism. The picture is sketched eloquently by the New York Times chief diplomatic correspondent, Thomas Friedman:

America's victory in the cold war was a victory for a set of political and economic principles: democracy and the free market. At last, the world is coming to understand that the free market is the wave of the future -- a future for which America is both the gatekeeper and the model.

The term "gatekeeper" has an ominous ring. The whole affair merits some thoughts about how we keep the gates, who we let in, and what kind of model we are to offer to the world. We begin with Anthony Lake's address, recognized to be the centerpiece of the new vision.

A long-time liberal dove, Clinton's National Security Adviser Anthony Lake explained that:

From Containment to Enlargement

Throughout the cold war, we contained a global threat to market democracies: now we should seek to enlarge their reach, particularly in places of special significance to us.

The successor to a doctrine of containment must be a strategy of enlargement -- enlargement of the world's free community of market democracies.

There is no need to review how we have "contained a global threat to market democracy" in "our little region over here," as FDR's Secretary of War, Henry Stimson, described the Western hemisphere. It is enough to recall a warning issued by Simon Bolivar in 1822, as he sought to liberate Latin America from Spanish rule:

There is at the head of this great continent a very powerful country, very rich, very warlike, and capable of anything. The United States seems destined to plague and torment the continent in the name of freedom.

Back to the Post's Editorial:

The Washington Post: The Stakes in CAFTA

In the past few years, however, an attempt has been made to revive the political challenge once represented by Mr. Castro. It centers on Venezuela's Hugo Chavez, who combines Castroite rhetoric with the financial clout of Venezuelan oil. Mr. Chavez has spread his money around the region, sponsoring anti-American and anti-democratic movements and promoting alternatives to U.S. initiatives. To counter the U.S. trade agenda, for example, he has put forward a "Bolivarian Alternative."

This has given critics of the United States something to advocate. El Nuevo Diario, a Nicaraguan newspaper that is critical of CAFTA, praised the Bolivarian Alternative recently, asserting that "America is for the Americans, not for the North Americans." In Costa Rica, critics of CAFTA who draw inspiration from Mr. Chavez have made no secret of the fact that they oppose the deal because they oppose the United States.

Most House Democrats don't want to hear this; they claim that CAFTA is opposed by "pro-poor" groups in the region. But this claim is troubling on two levels. First, CAFTA would actually help the poor: It would create 300,000 new jobs in shoes, textiles and apparel;

But second, the defeat of CAFTA would help not anti-poverty movements but anti-American demagogues, starting with Mr. Chavez. For them, the retreat of the United States from partnership with Central America would be a major victory.

Yes, that is what the masses in Central America are demanding. More sweat shops and exploitation. The Jesuit Priests have been the voice of the poor majority in the region for many decades:

Report at Jesuit Priest Conference in El Salvador:

Central America today is experiencing globalization, a more devastating pillage than what its people underwent 500 years ago with the conquest and colonization. [The dominant force is not the market but rather] a strong transnational state that dictates economic policy and plans resource allocation.

The IMF, World Bank, Interamerican Development Bank, US Agency for International Development, European Community, UN Development Program and their ilk are all state or interstate institutions of a transnational character that have much greater economic influence over our countries than the market.

The Post has exposed itself as the unnoficial mouthpeace for the IMF, World Bank and WTO. It also highlights the underlying roots of the hostilty towards President Chavez.

The media serve the interests of state and corporate power, which are closely interlinked, framing their reporting and analysis in a manner supportive of established privalge and limiting debate and discussion accordingly.

-Noam Chomsky

We learn more about our role as "gatekeeper and model" from a World Bank study just as the new vision of foreign policy was released here:

stabilisation and structural adjustment have brought magnificent returns to the rich— in a continent with the world's most unequal distribution of income. Failures to act aggressively on poverty will likely encourage distributive conflicts, prompting discontent and perhaps even a return to populism, dirigisme and chaos.

The simple truths were underscored by Clinton's Treasury Secretary Lloyd Bentsen:

We're now going to develop an economic strategy much in the way we developed a national security strategy to fight the Cold War. I'm tired of a level playing field. We should tilt the playing field for U.S. businesses. We should have done it 20 years ago.

In fact, "we" (meaning state-corporate power) have been doing it for two centuries, dramatically so in the past 50 years.

TO BE CONTINUED:

From the very beginning I was suspicious of Salvadoran FMLN party President, Mauricio Funes for a number of reasons. For one thing he is a former CNN afiliate correspondant in El Salvador and he was never part of the FMLN rebels during the civil war.

Some of his early pledges are very instructive. I suspect him of being a US-puppet in FMLN clothing.

Against the popular demands of the electorate, Funes has rejected having close relations with any of Washington's declared enemies. But in interviews to date, he's been seeking to maintain close ties with the US. The following is an interview with Funes by the Nation Magazine:

The Nation: What's the first message you'd like to send to President Obama?

Funes: I will not seek alliances or accords with other heads of state from the southern part of the continent who will jeopardise my relationship with the government of the United States.

He's content with continuing the 50 year tradition of paying El Salvador's protection money to the Don.

In relation to CAFTA, and the dollarisation of the Salvadoran economy, Funes told The Nation:

The Nation: Opinion polls in El Salvador indicate that large majorities of its citizens reject key policies that define, in many ways, the relationship between El Salvador and the United States, specifically CAFTA, dollarization and the Iraq war. What will your approach be to these issues?

Funes: We can't get mixed up in repealing CAFTA...nor can we reverse dollarization, because that would send a negative message to foreign investors, and then we'd be facing serious problems because we wouldn't have enough investment to stimulate the national economy.

He wouldnt be able to repeal CAFTA without US authorization anyways but his voice of support for it is revealing. The dollarization of El Salvador's currency has been a key factor in sinking the country even further into poverty, making it one of the most poor countries in the hemisphere.

The day after Funes’ election win, in an article entitled "Salvadoran leftist president promises moderation", the Associated Press reports:

A charismatic former TV journalist promised to build strong ties with President Barack Obama and promote investor confidence Monday as he took El Salvador into uncharted territory by being elected its first leftist president.

Funes, who gave up journalism less than two years ago to become the presidential candidate of the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front, or FMLN, sought to quell those concerns after his historic victory Sunday.

“Nothing traumatizing is going to happen here,” he said in an interview with local Megavision television. “We will not reverse any privatizations. We will not jeopardize private property. There is no reason at this moment for fear.”

The FMLN, formed from five rebel armies in 1980, is the second former enemy of the United States to take power democratically in Latin America’s lurch to the left. In 2006, Nicaraguans elected Daniel Ortega, two decades after his Sandinista government fought U.S.-backed Contra rebels, and his relations with Washington have remained tense under the Obama administration.

Funes, who was a TV reporter during the war, has stayed away from the firebrand anti-U.S. rhetoric that characterizes Ortega and Venezuela’s leftist President Hugo Chavez. Instead, he has compared his message of change to Obama’s.

Funes, who takes office June 1, promised in his victory speech that strengthening ties with the United States would be a priority. The Obama administration congratulated him Monday.

“We look forward to working with the new government of El Salvador,” said State Department spokesman Robert Wood. “It was a very free, fair and democratic election.”

The overture was a marked departure from the administration of former President George W. Bush, which suggested during the 2004 election that it could not trust an FMLN government.

Funes needs the peaceful transition to last. He will be the untested leader of a country that has known only right-wing governments—all dictatorships until the mid-1980s (Horhey's comment: no, not untill 1993 and that's pushing it. Those elections are well known to have been held under state-terror. The opposition wasnt permited to participate and the army had a "death list" of liberals to assassinate)—since its 1821 independence from Spain.

While the FMLN has long-standing ties to Chavez, Funes kept the Venezuelan president at a distance during the [election] campaign. Last week, Funes told foreign reporters he admired Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva for gaining the trust of the business class despite misgivings when the leftist first took office in 2003. Critics who once questioned the sincerity of such messages gave Funes the benefit of the doubt Monday.

Brazil has also been integrated into the US-dominated world economic system which is why Lula had to reject the program on which he was elected and follow the orders of international financial powers and investors. And that's why the population has become so disillusioned with him.

His hands are tied and there's nothing he can do about. These free trade agreements are well designed to limit the threat of democracy. The US doesnt even need terror any more in these countries.

TO BE CONTINUED: The plot thickens

I am convinced he's either a coward for being affraid of a potential US backed coup or he's an agent of the United States government. And Im far from being the only one who suspects Mr Funes. His own party, the real FMLN apparently smells the stink of Uncle Sam all over him.

President Funes and the FMLN: Neither marriage nor divorce

In March 2009, El Salvador joined the list of Latin American countries with a left wing government when the candidate of the Ferabundo Marti Liberation Movement (FMLN), Mauricio Funes, won the popular vote in the presidential election.

Paul Dillon reports on the political dynamic between the President and the FMLN.

Every Friday afternoon in a park in central San Salvador, the capital of El Salvador, FMLN Deputies hold an open meeting with supporters to discuss the issues of the day. When I arrived on the lat Friday afternoon of April, Tania Handal, partner of the legendary Schalfik Handal, the man who led the FMLN both in combat and in parliament before his death in 2006, was addressing the crowd. She spoke of the need to mobilise the left movements to make a show of force in the forthcoming May Day Demonstrations

The show of force was clearly evident on May Day. Attending a May Day in Dublin is akin to attending a funeral of a very old person you know well. There are plenty of old people in attendance, and you get to see all your old mates. The show of force Tania had urged, encompassing campesino organisations, urban based unions, and masses of members of the FMLN and the youth wing of the party, the Juventud Ferabundo Marti, gave the clear impression that El Salvador’s left wing movement is vibrant, powerful and relevant to broad swathes of the El Salvadoran population.

But an inspection of the banners revealed dissatisfaction with President Mauricio Funes.” Where is the President?” demanded one, a reference to the Presidents much publicised absence from the May Day march, despite his pledge to attend prior to his election. Others demanded that the President followed FMLN policies, while others suggested he move away from the polices of the IMF.

The banners symbolised the ruptured between the President and the FMLN and by extension the broader Labour movement. The FMLN and the President have clashed on a number of highly symbolic issues. The FMLN continues to insist that President Zelaya of Honduras was overturned by a military coup and should be returned to office. Funes, meanwhile, has recognised the new President of Honduras.

There are other disagreements, centred mainly on Funes relationship with non left forces and the general feeling that Funes is too distant from the party that holds responsibility for his election. Funes has repeatedly stated that he is “the President of the whole country, not the FMLN”.

Funes is not of FMLN stock. He was a high profile journalist before becoming the FMLN presidential candidate in 2009. His nomination was part of an FMLN strategy to pursue relationships with “non revolutionary actors” to democratise El Salvadorian society, before moving more firmly towards socialism in the long term. Schalfik Handal, who came within a few per-centage points of winning the 2004 presidential election was reportedly opposed to Funes nomination.

In the long term, this uneasy marriage is likely to come apart. In May, Funes organisation, Amigos de Mauricio Funes held a series of meetings and rallies around El Salvador. The umbrella group included politicians from the right on its platforms. The formation of this alliance obviously lessens Funes reliance on the FMLN. 12 Arena members in the legislative assembly recently resigned form that party, and speculation has emerged that co-operation between this new party, GANA, and Funes could deepen to the point where they support his candidacy in 2014.

FMLN deputies for their part, both in the assembly and in meetings with party members, are saying they are now working towards the election of a “Red President” in 2014”. The party is increasingly organising independently of Funes. They organise around resolutions put forward in parliament and actively takes up causes that Funes himself eschews. Funes opposition to El Salvador joining the Venezuelan led ALBA (The Bolivarian Alliance for Latin America and the Caribbean) did not impede local communities led by the FMLN making an agreement with ALBA petrol.

But even FLMN critics of Funes are slow to urge an immediate break with Funes. Many FMLN activists, even those critical of aspects of Funes presidency, place his conservative action in the context of the recent coup in Honduras. The 2009 coup giants President Zelaya of Honduras weighs heavy on the mind of militants in neighbouring El Salvador. “He may be too conservative for us, but we realise that he is scared of going too fast, or he will end up like Zelaya”.

The FMLN candidate is in office, but the party is not in power. The party will be hoping that their gamble in 2009 pays off: that the Funes government contributes to the democratisation of El Salvador, a country often described as being run by “The 14 families” and that their independent action and activity in parliament can elect a “Red President” in 2014.

The FMLN was formed in 1980, by a merger of 5 different leftist organisations. It spent the next 12 years in combat with the El Salvador’s right wing military, who were backed to the tune of 1.5 million a day by the US government. After the peace accords in 1993, the FMLN emerged as a fully fledged political party and has been edging ever closer to victory in each presidential election since.

iII Zelaya, who had allied himself with Chavez and began to introduce mild reforms, was ousted by a military coup supported by local elites. The coup had at least the tacit approval of the United States.

Aii ARENA is El Salvador’s dominant right wing party. They controlled the presidency of El Salvador from 1989 to 2009.

The Los Angeles Times: Leaked U.S. cables recount tensions between El Salvador's Mauricio Funes, FMLN



El Salvador's first leftist president, Mauricio Funes, harbored fears for his personal safety last year and suspected his offices had been bugged, newly disclosed secret U.S. cables reveal. However, the perceived threat was not from El Salvador's right wing but from members of the very coalition that brought Funes to power, the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front.

The cables, part of the WikiLeaks trove published this week in El Pais newspaper, recount the growing tensions between the moderate Funes and the more hard-line wing of the leftist FMLN coalition of former guerrillas.

The Salvadoran government "can best be characterized as schizophrenic," U.S. diplomats wrote in a communication dated Jan. 26 of this year. FMLN hard-liners, led by Vice President Sanchez Ceren, have been making anti-U.S. speeches and frequent contacts with leftist governments like those of Venezuela and Cuba, without Funes' authorization, the report says.

Another cable, from last year, quotes a close aide of Funes (whose name is blacked out) as saying the president is worried about his "physical security" and asks for protection from the United States.

"The message from [the unnamed associate] on behalf of Funes was clear: we have great confidence in the USG [United States Government], real security concerns, and need your help," the cable said.

Tensions between Funes and the FMLN, which fought against the U.S.-backed right in El Salvador's long civil war, have been mounting for months. He never belonged to the party but was its candidate in historic elections in March 2009 which put a leftist in the presidential office for the first time in the country's history.

And then, here we go! The KISS OF DEATH!

The Economist: El Salvador's president - So far, so good

El Salvador gettin' tough on crime...

El Salvador gets 'tough' amid worsening crime
February 6, 2012 - President Mauricio Funes has appointed career military personnel to head the police and national security. Many fear a return to failed policies of the past, writes guest blogger Hanna Stone.

El Salvador’s government says it is taking a radical stance on crime, using the military to police the country's most violent areas and now appointing military men to top security posts. But the changes sound more like a return to the failed “iron fist” policies of the past. In November, Mauricio Funes -- the first president elected under the banner of guerrilla group-turned-political party FMLN since the civil war ended in 1992 -- named David Munguia Payes, a retired general and former defense minister, as security minister. On January 23, Funes selected Francisco Ramon Salinas Rivers as head of the police (PNC) (in Spanish), a former army general who had handed in his resignation just days before.

Since he took power two and a half years ago, Funes has also expanded the army by some 57 percent to more than 17,000 people, and has periodically deployed the military onto El Salvador’s streets to share policing duties. The trend began prior to Funes' term. As El Faro reports (in Spanish), the defense budget has risen 32 percent in the last 10 years. And Funes is also following a region-wide pattern. Former General Otto Perez was elected Guatemala's president last year, while Honduras’ President Porfirio Lobo has given policing powers to the armed forces in Honduras.

But putting ex-military men at the head of both the police and the security cabinet struck opponents as a dangerous move to militarize the country’s security. And in a stinging rebuke over the Munguia appointment, members of Funes' own FMLN party said it appeared to be “a decision that was made somewhere in the U.S. capital.” Funes’ justification for the move is simple: The country’s deteriorating security situation requires a "more forceful" approach (in Spanish). His work to strengthen the armed forces seems to be inspired by the desire to take, and to be seen taking, decisive action.

MORE

And this is listed under "Military" because?

excellent stuff there.thanks for posting it.