¡EL CAMBIO ES HOY!

"Hermano Dame tu Mano" (Brother Give Me Your Hand)

Los Guaraguao means a lot to many Salvadorans because its music became a symbol of resistance during the violent years of US backed right-wing dictatorships. Anyone caught listening to “Las Casas de Carton” (The Cardboard Homes) or “No Basta Rezar” (Praying is Not Enough), could get arrested and face violence from the Salvadoran State police and paramilitary including torture and even death.

Students caught listening to “Que vivan los estudiantes” (Long Live the Students) were accused of terrorism, and it was once used as an excuse for the Salvadoran military to invade the National University in El Salvador.



"For anyone who witnessed the horror show of El Salvador's 12-year civil war, the ballot-box victory of former leftist guerrillas there on Sunday was a stunning development. Though it took another 17 years after the war ended, the country now joins Northern Ireland in demonstrating that it is possible for a rebel group to effect political change and assume power through peaceful means. That's a gratifying development. We are especially pleased that the outgoing National Republican Alliance, or Arena party, chose to respect the results."

--from the Los Angeles Times editorial, 3/17/09. For the rest of the editorial, click here.

We will continue to follow this story as news develops.

FELICIDADES!

Gwyneth Paltrow, or a small brown country of no consequence

In case you missed it, Salvadorans voting in Sunday's election put Mauricio Funes of the FMLN, the former rebel party, in control for the first time, ending two decades of right wing Arena party rule.

The US media didn't highlight the story, and it figures. The U.S. should be ashamed of its history with the tiny Central American country. The U.S. isn't very good at finishing things (Afghanistan, Iraq, V...) but it sure jumps into bed with plenty of nasty people for expediency sake.

Jennifer Anniston, or the CIA secretly torturing prisoners at "black sites"

According to CNN ("Leftists Claim El Salvador Presidency," a nice value-laden header):

"Mauricio Funes, a member of a political party that waged guerrilla war against the government 17 years ago, claimed the presidency of El Salvador on Sunday night." It goes on, almost in passing. "The FMLN, which is the Spanish acronym for the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front, was formed in late 1980 as an umbrella group for five leftist guerrilla organizations fighting a U.S.-backed military dictatorship. The guerrillas and the government signed a peace pact in 1992 and the FMLN became a legitimate political party. By some estimates, 75,000 Salvadorans died during the war."

Mauricio Funes, or the cast of "Friends"

Bury that below the fold. A newsreader might stumble upon the phrase "U.S.-backed military dictatorship" in a country where "75,000 Salvadorans died." It's kind of messy and requires explanation, and we Americans (Norteamericanos, that is) are so busy, go, go, go. We don't have time for the follow-up story. Or the backstory, for that matter. Or history in general.

Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt, or thousands of "disappeared" dissidents

Dictatorships are depressing, and our attention span is short. News crews need to cover more important things, such as the ongoing love story of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, and poor jilted Jennifer Aniston. Or the woman with octuplets. Or anything that affects our pocketbooks, and jostles our Comfort Zone. Besides, news needs to be flashy to compete with "America's Most Idle" and "Big Fat Loser." A few important stories slide.

Don't get me wrong. The El Salvador story is out there. But not nearly as prominently displayed as one would think considering our history propping up this quasi-fascist police state for so many years. I'm not naive; I don't expect the news to trumpet shameful episodes of our past, but I expect some sense of recognition and historical responsibility, especially regarding conditions we've helped create. We can be a force for great good, or we can continue to support convenient bullies, and we won't know the difference without a truly independent news media asking tough questions.

Julia Roberts or nameless Salvadoran exercising democracy

Jack Kennedy once said that those who make peaceful revolution impossible make violent revolution inevitable. In this rare instance, the revolution was peaceful and that should be celebrated.

¡El Cambio es Hoy!

DEMOCRACY NOW

El Salvador will elect a new president this weekend. And it looks like the revolutionaries--who gave up the bullet for the ballot box--will win fair and square. Abrazos all around.

For the first time since the civil war ended in 1992, a left-wing former rebel, Mauricio Funes, is leading in the prediction polls. Funes is a member of the FMLN, a revolutionary organization that became a political party after a ceasefire established by the 1992 Chapultepec Peace Accords.



President George W. Bush used economic strong arm tactics to influence the last election, in 2004. He was promoting a "pro-US business" Arena party. This time around, the Bush Doctrine is out, and with the US remaining neutral it looks like the FMLN will win. After years of struggle, the people of El Salvador will finally be able to vote for the revolution.

Mauricio Funes at May Day rally in 2008

The FMLN (The Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front) was named after the rebel leader Farabundo Marti, who led workers and peasants in an uprising to transform Salvadoran society after the devastation caused by the eruption of the volcano Izalco in 1932. In response, the military regime led by General Maximiliano Hernandez Martinez, who had seized power in a 1931 coup, launched "La Matanza," ("The Massacre") killing some 30,000 people under the guise of being supporters of the insurgency. The price of rebellion was clear.


Violent repression in the streets of San Salvador; the weapons came from the USA.

In recent years, the FMLN fought a guerrilla war, going underground like the French Resistance. Ronald Reagan portrayed the rebellion as "communist," meaning Soviet-directed, which simply wasn't true but this pitch garnered the support of conservatives with a Cold War mindset. If not for the Russians, he seemed to say, why would peasants even think of revolting?

George Bush, wrong again

George W. Bush continued this mindset, supporting the right wing, Arena party, because it was pro-business and anti-communist. Arena was started by Roberto D'Aubuisson, the man who brought the term "death squads" into our vocabulary, and the man widely believed to be responsible for the assassination of Archbishop Romero while he served mass. A fascist in the true sense, he admired Hitler for his Final Solution, and once told the Washington Post of "the need to kill 200,000 to 300,000 people to restore peace to El Salvador." D'Aubuisson died of cancer in 1992, but his party has remained in power.

The rape and murder of four American nuns by the military helped cut off US military aid--for a time

The reason for rebellion wasn't a directive from Moscow. People were forced to fight a corrupt government after decades of extreme poverty, repression, military juntas, death squads, and the "disappearance" and torture of dissidents. The Salvadoran oligarchy--the infamous "fourteen families" that ran the country as a private plantation--gutted the poor with the help of the United States government. Their recent attempt to "privatize" water was the last straw.

Viva la revolucion.



Read a good article on the Salvadoran election from Frontline here.