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¡Schafik Presente! • “Si me van a recordar que me recuerden exactamente como he sido. Como un luchador cuya bandera principal que siempre empuñó es la bandera de la democracia en el país, para abrir al pueblo salvadoreño la posibilidad de decidir por sí mismo. Ese ha sido el hilo conductor de toda mi lucha…” -Schafik Hándal
¡ Hasta La Victoria Siempre! The CISPES delegation to Observe the 2009 Legislative and Municipal Elections in El Salvador
Outline for Presentation • Headed into the Elections • What’s at stake? • Strategy of the FMLN and the social movement • The dangerous and desperate efforts of the right-wing • Victory in January! • Call for solidarity
Turning Point: 2009 • January 18, Legislative and Municipal Elections • March 15, Presidential Elections • Polls show strong support for the FMLN, for Mauricio Funes and Violeta Menjívar, mayor of San Salvador
What’s at Stake?Crisis in El Salvador • Strict implementation of free trade policies and privatization; Dollarization • Massive corruption by the right-wing oligarchy • Impunity; right-wing control of state institutions • Violence and organized crime
From Below, from Within and to the Left: Strategies of the Left What factors explain the massive support for the FMLN? • Organized social movement and relation to the party; grassroots organizing • “The Formula” • Open Social Dialogue • Good governance
The organized social movement • Struggle against CAFTA • Victory in the struggles against water privatization and health care privatization • Social movement structure; relationship to the party
Nace la Esperanza, Viene el Cambio • In November, 2007, the FMLN launches the Presidential Campaign for 2009 with the presidential “formula” Mauricio Funes and Salvador Sanchez Cerén
The Open Social Dialogues • An international process to develop the platform of the FMLN • “The launch of participatory democracy in El Salvador”
Somos El Cambio: Governance in FMLN municipalities • “We will win by being good government in the places where we already govern” • Examples in Mejicanos and San Salvador • Creating the alternatives, building trust
Strategy of a (fractured) right-wing • U.S.-sponsored repression against the social movement • Political assassinations in the pre-electoral period • Dirty Campaign • Control of the electoral apparatus • Fraud
State repression and U.S. intervention • The ILEA and Plan Mexico
Political assassinations since the opening of the ILEA in 2006
Political Violence • Attacks on FMLN activists • Resurgence of death-squad style killings • Demand of the FMLN before the TSE, the Supreme Electoral Tribunal
U.S. Intervention • Threats of retaliation in 2004 • The FARC and the “Magic Laptop” • Puppets of Chavez • Silence=Complicity
“La Guerra Sucia”: Fuerza Solidaria • “Un grupo fantasma” • Relentless attacks on Funes and Sanchez Cerén • Threats of U.S. retaliation • Public campaigning in El Salvador
“Los Grupos Armados” • Threat of the “Armed Groups” • Justification to send military out to countryside, FMLN strongholds • Fears of the war, voter supression
Role of State Institutions • Politicized nature of the TSE • Use of state resources • Demands made by FMLN: political violence, slander, campaigning by Fuerza Solidaria
Behind the Scenes:“El fraude sútil” • The padrón and the National Registry • What allows for this? Control of DUIs and lack of access to the National Registry • Voter mobilization in San Salvador; Three years in the making
The foreign vote • Buses detained from Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua • Lack of action by Attorney General and Police • Citizen action! San Isidro, arrests, closing the borders
The results: Victory for the FMLN! • Municipalities: 96! • Special and symbolic victory in Izalco, Morazán, Usulután • Legislative Assembly: 35 seats, the most of any political party • FMLN nearly 100,000 votes over ARENA in total vote • The first political force in the country!
CISPES denouncements • Press conference • Radio interviews • Lack of action by OAS and EU observers • Report to be publicized in El Salvador and in the U.S.
Onwards towards March! • Strategy of the FMLN • Critical role of international observers • Action and solidarity from within the U.S. • Solidarity strategy to defend an FMLN victory
Building Popular Power: From Below, From Within and to the Left!