Reflections on the 2009 presidential election in El Salvador

In the past few weeks an important adjustment has been made by both campaigns that has allowed them to reach out to a wider social base, beyond their historical supporters. Both the FMLN and ARENA have launched a strategy to broaden their political alliances and support base through directly approaching the base and leadership of other political parties, and most importantly, they have invited the non-affiliated segment of the population to join them.

Funes, the FMLN candidate, has formed a wide network called "Mauricio's Friends" and has successfully brought together people from different ideological, social, and economic backgrounds. This network includes Social Democrats, Christian Democrats, former ARENA leaders, current PDC and PCN mayors, and professional and business representatives. Moreover, Héctor Silva, who left the FMLN a few years ago, is actively supporting Funes' campaign. He has been joined by prominent social democrat leader Hector Dada Hirezi.

Similarly, Arturo Zablah, ARENA’s vice-presidential candidate, is leading the “Alliance for Change,” and has been joined by some leaders of the FDR, the Santaneco Social Integration Movement, and former mayors from the PCN, FDR and PDC. For example, Wil Salgado, the PDC mayor of San Miguel, is supporting ARENA’s campaign and has offered to add 100,000 votes to ARENA's candidate.

However, one significant issue is missing from the campaign. Both the FMLN and ARENA have not dealt in detail with the issue of the Salvadorans diaspora. Their statements have been concerned with administrative adjustments at Salvadoran consulates or have been related to entrepreneurial and nostalgic market activities. The total amount of family remittances from outside the country is usually discussed as a side topic in interviews and talk shows. Although both parties formally proclaim the importance of migrant contributions, they have not talked about integrating Salvadoran migrants into the economic, political and social spheres. Completely ignored is the issue of defending the migrants for abuses and criminal attacks while crossing Guatemala and Mexico, and the ICE raids and Minutemen attacks once they have crossed the US/Mexican border. These Salvadoran migrants are still perceived only as remittance senders and occasional tourists. ARENA representatives still use in public discourse the derogative term of "hermano lejano," when referring to Salvadorans in the US.

Recently, the Legislative Assembly postponed the approval of legislation that would allow 39,000 Salvadoran residing in the US to cast their vote after acquiring their special Unique Identification Document (DUI). An ARENA representative estimated that it would cost about $20 million and that the money would be better spent on reforming the current voting system.

There has been little publicity of the efforts made by immigrants to directly participate as candidates in the Salvadoran elections. For instance, the cases of Hugo Salinas and Salvador Gochez Gomez have not been covered. Salinas, who has been residing and doing community work in the Washington, DC area for 17 years, was elected as the PCN mayor in the city of Intipucá, in the department of La Union. Gomez, an immigrant from Los Angeles, ran as the FMLN candidate in the municipality of Atiquizaya, in the department of Ahuachapan.

Although the US embassy claims neutrality in the elections, it has publically criticised the use of President Obama in an FMLN TV ad that compares the accusations faced by the Obama and Funes candidacies. Noteworthy, the embassy has said nothing about ARENA’s use of the images of other political leaders, like Castro and Chavez, in its TV ads. Additionally, immigration is not on the priority list of the American Embassy even though it has to deal with hundreds of Salvadorans applying for US visas each day and US immigration reform. Instead, the embassy's representative only mentioned that public security and drug trafficking are the topics getting their attention and resources.