By Jenny Francis
SANTA MARTA, El Salvador — In national and local elections held here on March 16, the Salvadoran people punished the ruling National Republican Alliance (ARENA) and gave a solid mandate to the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN).
Santa Marta, in the department of Cabañas, was one of many communities celebrating the shift to the left throughout the country.
In the early '80s, more than 600 campesinos from Santa Marta were murdered as they fled to nearby Honduras to escape an army assault. After some six years in exile, the survivors gradually returned home. Each year on March 18, the day of the massacre, the community retrace their steps to the River Lempa and celebrate a memorial mass.
This year, surrounded by campesinos in their red and black FMLN T-shirts, the priest recalled the past and thanked God for the "historic election result". In this remote and conservative corner of the country, the FMLN had won the local council by 17 votes. The people of Santa Marta felt they had reason to celebrate.
With some results still to be finalised, both ARENA and the FMLN had already won around 35% of the national vote. This translates into 29 ARENA deputies in the 84-member Legislative Assembly (down from 40) and 28 FMLN deputies (up from 14).
Schafick Hándel will head the incoming FMLN bench, which includes representatives from all departments except La Unión. One of the nine FMLN women deputies elected, María Ofelia Navarette, who will represent Chalatenango in the assembly, is due to visit Australia later this year.
The right-wing National Conciliation Party (PCN), which ruled the country with an iron fist from 1962 to 1979, won 8% of the vote and 11 deputies. The centre-right Christian Democrats, the only other party of note, won nine deputies with just under 8% of the vote.
Consequently, the right maintains a majority. Nevertheless, with a third of the deputies, the FMLN opposition voice will be strong. In addition, it can count on support from the small centre-left Democratic Convergence (CD) and Unity Movement (MU), each with one or two deputies.
And on the key issues of privatisation and management of the economy, the nationalist PCN has made it clear that it will oppose ARENA.
Of the country's 262 municipalities, the FMLN is set to win around 70 — 55 more than it won in 1994. At the time of writing, ARENA had won 118 and the FMLN 54 of the 205 municipalities decided. ARENA won twice the number of municipalities with the same national vote because ARENA's successes were in the rural areas and the FMLN's in the larger urban centres.
In the department of San Salvador, the FMLN took 14 of the 19 councils, including the capital, in coalition with the CD and MU. In the more marginalised areas of greater San Salvador, like Soyapango, the FMLN received well over 50% of the vote.
Héctor Silva, the successful FMLN-CD-MU candidate for mayor of San Salvador, comfortably defeated the incumbent ARENA candidate, Mario Valiente. This is a key position for developing a strong political base, and Silva's victory sparked widespread celebrations throughout the country.
The FMLN is set to win six or seven of the other 13 departmental capitals, including Santa Ana (El Salvador's second city), Sonsonate, Nueva San Salvador, San Vicente, Zacatecoluca and Chalatenango.
A recent poll commissioned by the Jesuit Central American University showed that 70% of the population thought that the economy had deteriorated in 1996. Minimum urban salaries have risen by 24% since 1993, while housing and food costs have risen by 42% and 30% respectively. A rural worker is lucky to receive A$100 a month.
Isaías Sandoval, a member of the FMLN National Council and re-elected mayor of Suchitoto, told Green Left Weekly, "Those holding power have become an even more elite group. Privatisation is one way they are achieving this. Antel [the state telephone network, due to be sold to private investors in April] is profitable and generates funds for public works and social needs. These growing profits will now go to individuals.
"ARENA's economic plan is for big business and foreign investors. Their plan for us, the poor, is to offer ourselves as slave labour to this sector. This vote was punishment for these policies."
However, he believes the FMLN's success was not simply a vote against ARENA. "The 1994 election gave us an opportunity. From the assembly, FMLN deputies have criticised the government's policies and corruption, and at the same time offered alternatives. On a local level, here in Suchitoto for example, we have worked with the community to develop a regional development plan. That's why we won their vote."
One significant outcome of the elections was greater polarisation, with the political centre becoming almost irrelevant.
ARENA's campaign advertisements focused on the past, depicting war scenes and blaming "communists". Images of Roberto D'Aubuisson, the party's founder and the man responsible for the death of Archbishop Romero, were prominent throughout the campaign. In the face of increasing discontent, a well-organised community sector and a surge in crime, the repressive hand of the right is seen by many as a solution.
Then there are those like the young woman from Santa Marta, for example, a victim of repression, who sees "an economic and political system which blatantly and deliberately benefits a few" and one which demands "grassroots organisation with the Frente [FMLN] for radical change".
Results for the centrist Democratic Party (PD) highlight this polarisation. The PD was formed in 1995 from two of the five organisations within the FMLN, the ERP and RN, which split away. Although both the ERP and RN had many members and supporters and the PD was prominent in the campaign, it won only 1% of the vote and no seats nationally or locally.
The FMLN's mandate provides both greater opportunities and added pressures. "They have given us this chance, and now they expect us to perform", said Ofelia Lopez, a newly elected FMLN councillor in Suchitoto.