Testing Salvadoran Democracy

Carlos A. Rosales has a short piece entitled Testing Salvadoran Democracy up at the Canadian Foundation For the Americas (FOCAL) that is worth reading. Rosales was a cabinet member in the last two ARENA administrations. He touches on why Obama is traveling to El Salvador (to shore up the moderate leftist Funes which I agree with) and provides an overview of some of the tensions within the left and the right both prior to and after the 2009 election that brought Funes to office.

Funes’ victory put an end to 20 years of rule by the rightist Republican Nationalist Alliance (ARENA) party. The historic achievement notwithstanding, Funes’ rise to power came during the worst economic crisis ever to affect the nation.

The global slowdown caused by the world financial crisis severely affected the Salvadoran economy. Economic activity in 2009 declined by 3.3 per cent, as exports, imports and remittances fell sharply.

And yet, Funes’ main problems have been playing out in the political arena. Funes is facing serious difficulties ruling this deeply polarized society. And the biggest challenge to his authority has come not from ARENA, but from his own party.

It remains difficult times in El Salvador. The economy has not recovered (though remittances are beginning to recover), the security situation remains tenuous (see this different take on Children, wives of gang members on their own in El Salvador), and the political coalitions on the left (Funes / FMLN) and the right (ARENA / GANA) are weak or broken.

While I do hope that President Obama's visit helps to bolster President Funes and the agenda of moderate left and right in El Salvador, a presidential visit is just a start. President Funes is going to have to deliver more tangible results as well between now and the 2012 and then 2014 elections.