Wikileaks El Salvador

Cables between the US Embassy in El Salvador and Washington, D.C. have begun to leak out.  Spain's El Pais has coverage here .  There are links to the cables at the bottom of the page.  I am in the middle of grading, so I'll probably just take a stab at one cable per day.

The first cable is dated August, 21, 2009 and deals primarily with relations between President Funes and the FMLN.  The cable's subject line is "FRIENDS OF MAURICIO: FUNES NEEDS YOUR HELP."  While Funes did not write it, I can't imagine how this is going to win him friends among the FMLN.



First, the cable enters in to a bit of a discussion about the then recently constituted Citizens Movement for Change, formerly the Friends of Mauricio Movement.  It's unclear who the US Charge d'Affairs Blau met with, but the source concluded that

the near-term goal of the organization was to accompany President Funes as he governed and to provide him non-FMLN political support during his term.

A second area of the cable dealt with Funes' concerns about his physical security and that of the integrity of his officials' communications.  Funes is worried about the physical security of the president's house.  In one failure, intelligence officials did not provide him with advanced warning of protestors camping out in front of the presidential compound.  Funes was disappointed that Eduardo Linares (aka Douglas Santamaria), the Director of the Salvadoran State Intelligence Organization (OIE), failed to learn of the protestors ahead of time.  Linares also withheld information from the president including daily intelligence briefings and even information about a visit to the country by the Venezuelan Foreign Minister shortly after the Honduran coup. 

Funes was also concerned that hard-line members of the FMLN were listening in on his phone calls as well as those of other non-FMLN members of the Government.  Interestingly enough, he was asking the US Government for assistance and the US was open to the request.

Funes also wanted US assistance in interrupting phone calls from prisons, presumably involving extortion rackets.  However, the US was reluctant to work with the Manuel Melgar, the Minister of Public Security and Justice.  The source told Blau that

Melgar's appointment was not taken to display any disrespect to the U.S., but had been a compromise with the FMLN, which had sought appointment of FMLN hard-liner Jose Luis Merino (aka Ramiro Vasquez) as Public Security Minister.

Funes, he said, had pushed back and preferred to name Melgar to that position because he had developed a certain rapport with Melgar during the campaign. XXXXXXXXXXXX described Melgar's behavior around Funes during the campaign as compliant and loyal to Funes, characteristics he said would not have been the case with Merino. XXXXXXXXXXXX said Funes would consider new information on Melgar and take appropriate action, fully cognizant of Melgar's linkage to the 1985 Zona Rosa killings.

From this August 2009 cable, it's clear that Funes' relationship with the FMLN was a clear concern for the US Embassy just a few months into his administration.  This isn't much of a surprise.  I think that this was (and is) a topic that everyone was interested in learning as much about as possible.

The information is nothing extraordinary, but the extent to which Funes was reaching out to the US for help and his mistrust of FMLN hardliners are likely to increase tensions between him and the FMLN.