The Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN) has won a plurality in the Salvadoran National Assembly as well as a number of mayoral positions.
The FMLN’s Jan. 18 electoral victory over the right-wing ARENA party strengthens its chances in the March 15 presidential election. Should the FMLN win then, it will break ARENA’s two-decade-old stranglehold on the presidency.
The FMLN’s latest gains compound U.S. concerns over the leftist shift in Latin America. Washington insiders are already spinning the victory and trying to downplay its significance. According to Bernard Aronson, former U.S. assistant secretary for inter-American affairs, an FMLN victory should be interpreted as “the ultimate fruition of the peace accords we backed,” and “[w]e shouldn’t exaggerate like [leftist victories are] some tide sweeping the region, because it’s not.”
Formed by Salvadoran revolutionaries, the FMLN fought against a repressive, U.S.-backed military junta in the 1980s, continuing its armed struggle into the 1990s until a peace accord was signed.
