One more Left turn

Jayatilleke de Silva
 

There is one more Left turn in the Americas. Last Sunday people of El Salvador elected Mauricio Funes (49) of the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN) as their President with an absolute majority. This continues a Leftward shift of power in Latin American countries which started with the victory of Hugo Chavez in the Presidential elections in Venezuela in 1996.

El Salvador is a small country in Central America bordering the Pacific Ocean, Guatemala, Honduras and Venezuela. Its population is 7.1 million, which is slightly bigger than third of the population of Sri Lanka.

Mauricio Funes is an influential media personality with more than 20 years experience. In 1994 he was awarded the Maria Moors Cabal Prize from the Columbia University.

Funes won in a four-cornered contest in which his principal opponent was Rodrigo Avila of the right wing Nationalist Republican alliance (ARENA). He was a former Police officer. ARENA ruled El Salvador for 20 years uninterrupted.

The FMLN was formed in 1980 as an umbrella group that united several former guerilla organisations. It took its name from Farabundo Marti, who led an unsuccessful rebellion against the military regime of General Hernandes Martinez in 1932. Martinez seized power in a Coup in 1931 and led a counter-insurgency campaign which had led to the massacre of 30, 000 people.

The FMLN carried on an armed struggle from 1981, which climaxed in 1989 when it took 12 US military advisors hostage by attacking the Sheraton Hotel. This was the turning point when the Government with US backing started negotiations for a peaceful settlement. After the success of the negotiations with the signing of a Peace Accord in 1982 the FMLN became a legal political party. Since 1994 it contested elections.

Mauricio Funes

The FMLN victory shows the upsurge of the people’s struggle. Conservative elements did their best to prevent the victory with the aid of Republican Senators in the United states who on the eve of the elections declared that a victory by FMLN would mean the withdrawal of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) to several hundred thousand El Salvadorians residing and working in the US and the outlawing of sending remittances home by them.

However, due to pressure from US activists US Assistant Secretary of State Tom Shannon declared their neutrality in the election and pledged to work with the winning candidate whoever he is.

Republican Howard Berman, Chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee in a statement said: “As Chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, I am confident that neither the TPS nor the right to receive remittances from family in the United States will be affected by the outcome of the election, despite what some of my colleagues in the Congress have said.”

This victory is significant for several reasons. First, it is the first Latin American election since the onset of the global financial crisis. Thus it showed further disenchantment of the people of Latin America with neo-liberalism.

With this victory nearly two thirds of the countries in Latin America have pro-poor and Left-leaning governments. This is in addition to Cuba which opted for an independent path of development 50 years ago in 1959.

These governments cannot be classified as socialist. A much broader definition would be that they are poor. Actually we have in Latin America a new democratic phenomenon. It implies a broadening and deepening of democracy beyond the traditional confines practiced by Western regimes. Large sections of the urban and rural poor as well as indigenous communities, hitherto marginalised by political parties controlled by the elite have com openly to take part in governance. It is participatory democracy at best.

Needless to say they are not perfect. Nor do they exist in a vacuum. Widespread clashes of interest exist. They even take violent forms as it happens in Bolivia at present. These governments are pursuing independent solutions to ward off the negative effects of the global financial crisis from which they are naturally not insulated.

While not ruling out financial stimulus packages to affected industries and banks they have not forgotten the masses. Chile, for example, has introduced a special assistance package for workers to soften the blow.

Regional integration and bilateral arrangements between countries in the region are being forged to meet the crisis in a joint effort. A multiplicity of regional economic blocks such as ALBA, Petro-Caribbe, MercoSur have sprung up and are consolidating. The integration process in Latin America is not confined to economic relations.

Political and even defence integration has begun. In December 2008 31 Latin American and Caribbean countries welcomed Cuba to the Summit of the Americas for the first time in history, thus excluding the United States.

In response to the US decision to revive the Fourth Fleet in the Caribbean, Venezuela responded by having joint naval exercises with Russia. Venezuela and Brazil are working towards the establishment of a NATO - like South American Defence Council.

It looks as if the Leftward shift in the Americas is becoming irreversible.