Sigfredo Reyes and Salvadoran Congress

I kept meaning to get around to Sigfredo Reyes and the FMLN assuming the presidency in the country's Legislative Assembly. Even though the FMLN has held a plurality of seats on the Assembly for the last few years, Reyes became the first member of the FMLN to occupy the presidency on February 1st.

Omar Nieto has a nice round up at Global Voices from around the spectrum on the event's importance and expectations for the enxt fifteen months.One of Reyes' promises was to increase transparency in the operations of the Assembly. As a result, we now have some information on salaries at legislative staff.



(See here for the rest of the speech.)

Prior to assuming the presidency, Reyes gave an interview to ContraPunto's Nelson Rentería/Fernando de Dios. In the interview, Reyes talks about how he became political aware of the conditions in El Salvador with the February 1975 electoral fraud that prevented Jose Napoleon Duarte from winning the presidency. He was eleven years old at the time. There's also his involvement in student protests, the importance of Archbishop Oscar Romero, study abroad in Moscow, and his capture on the morning of the FMLN offensive in November 1989.