El Salvador opposition admits presidential vote defeat

[Judi Lynn]

27 March 2014 Last updated at 15:05 ET
El Salvador opposition admits presidential vote defeat



Salvador Sanchez Ceren, 17 March 14 Salvador Sanchez Ceren will be the first former guerrilla
to serve as president of El Salvador

The main opposition party in El Salvador has said it accepts defeat in the presidential election held on 9 March, after losing several appeals for a recount.

The Arena party says it will make "democratic, serious and honest" opposition to the new president, former rebel leader Salvador Sanchez Ceren.

~snip~

His party, the Farabundo Marti Liberation Front (FMLN), turned from a rebel group into a political party at the end of the conflict.

Since being declared the winner, Mr Sanchez Ceren has made conciliatory remarks, inviting the opposition in his "efforts to rebuild El Salvador".

The president-elect has announced he will visit several Central American countries in the next few days. He said he would visit the United States before taking office on 1 June.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-26778384

[Judi Lynn]

1. Don't forget El Salvador's right-wing, US-supported civil war on the people.

Posted by Brendan Fischer on August 16, 2012
U.S.-Funded War in El Salvador Casts Shadow over Romney/Ryan Campaign

Amidst reports that Mitt Romney launched Bain Capital with funds from investors tied to 1980s Salvadoran death squads, his new running mate Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) is getting foreign policy briefings from a man who actively covered-up some of the worst atrocities committed by those same death squads. The GOP's vice-presidential candidate also earned his political stripes working under neoconservative Republicans who funneled billions in U.S. aid to those military hitmen. Though the war in El Salvador was just one chapter in history, Romney and Ryan's relationship with that war may provide a snapshot into their worldview.

Between 1979 and 1992, an estimated 75,000 people were killed in the conflict in El Salvador and countless others were "disappeared" or displaced, an astonishing number for a country the size of Massachusetts. A United Nations Truth Commission estimated that the right-wing, military-led government was responsible for 85 percent of the violence while the left-wing insurgency fighting against vast economic and political inequality, including farmers, teachers, priests and union activists, was responsible for only 5 percent. Much of the violence was attributable to clandestine military or paramilitary death squads, which committed countless assassinations and acts of brutal violence against suspected political dissidents.

Recent reports suggest that some of the same members of the Salvadoran oligarchy that backed the death squads gave Romney the startup funds for Bain Capital.

Romney's Early Bain Capital Funders Tied to Salvadoran Death Squads

Last week, the Huffington Post's Ryan Grim and Cole Stangler reported on how Romney went to Miami in 1983, at the height of El Salvador's civil war, to raise $9 million from Salvadoran expatriate families to start Bain Capital. This seed money amounted to 40 percent of Bain's startup funds. Although Romney claimed that he had vetted the backgrounds of the investors, some of their families had been identified by the U.S. ambassador and others as closely tied to either death squads or death squad leader and ARENA Party founder Roberto d'Aubuisson (known as "Blowtorch Bob" for his use of blowtorches to torture political prisoners).

More:
http://www.prwatch.org/news/2012/08/11710/us-funded-war-el-salvador-casts-shadow-over-romneyryan-campaign

[flamingdem]

2. Kerry had to coddle Arena by mentioning voting irregularities

I'll admit I haven't really followed it closely enough to say that but my memories of Arena in the 80s make me biased! Thanks for the history reminder Judy.