Yearbook 2008
El Salvador. Ahead of the presidential election in early
2009, El Salvador's bleak past became an issue again in the
fall. The presidential candidate for the Left Opposition
Alliance FMLN (Frente Farabundo Martí para la Liberación
Nacional), Mauricio Funes, is believed to want to tear down
the amnesty that still protects militants who committed
human rights crimes during the civil war in El Salvador in
the 1980s. The issue has become hot since two human rights
organizations have gone to Spanish court to have El
Salvador's former president Alfredo Cristiani face trial for
the murders of, among other, six Jesuit priests at the
Central American University of San Salvador in 1989.
According to
Countryaah reports, the FMLN's Mauricio Funes had a reassuring lead in all
opinion polls during the year and thus may be the first from
the former guerrilla organization to become El Salvador's
president. However, within the FMLN he was not
uncontroversial, partly because he wanted to keep the US
dollar as official means of payment in El Salvador. In
March, it became clear that Rodrigo Avila, former chief of
the Civil Police, will be the government alliance of ARENA
(Alianza Republicana Nacionalistas) candidate in the
presidential election. His candidacy is considered to
reflect the increased turmoil in El Salvador for security
and crime issues.
|
