Elections

I learned that the blissful silence in our next-door disco last Saturday was owing to Sunday's elections for legislative deputies and mayors in El Salvador - no liquor sales are allowed for three days before an election and I gather there's no fun to a disco that can't sell booze. 

It was a beautiful thing to see my friends and neighbors dressed up in their Sunday best - it was Sunday after all - to vote.  Martha said that, after all, it is a fiesta day - and that's what voting should be everywhere where we are privileged to vote in free and open elections - which these mostly were, from all accounts.

The results were cheerful for ARENA, the largest party on the right, and dismal for the FMLN, the main party of the left.  Arena gained some seats in the legislature, the FMLN lost a couple, and lost several important mayoralities as well.  The vote was much lower - at about 50% of eligible voters - than it had been three years ago.   And Suchitoto will continue to have an FMLN Mayor - Pedrina Rivera will be the new Alcaldessa. 

For a fuller analysis, see Tim's El Salvador Blog.

La vida política

I drove back to Suchitoto in the late afternoon yesterday to find a couple of policemen directing me away from my usual route to the Centro Arte para la Paz where I park the car. I turned the corner and found a few more policemen at the next corner. Several corners and several policemen later I was finally able to get to the Centro Arte by making a wide swing around the center of town, noticing on the way several FMLN buses parked. Of course I had to find out what was going on, so I walked back via the Parque Central and noticed that the street that goes past the Alcaldia (City Hall) was set up with a stage, lots and lots of FMLN flags, and a covered area for dancing. A normal enough sight in this city that for the past 24 years has been voting FMLN (this is the party of the left, formed by an alliance of five smaller political parties in 1981, in the early years of the civil war). But the event wasn't normal, and that's why the police were out in force. The FMLN 's central committee has named Pedrina Rivera as the candidate for Mayor in the elections coming in March, 2012, and many in Suchitoto were upset that they had not been consulted and that the current and very popular FMLN Mayor, Javier Martinez, would not be up for re-election. The flags and banners and stage were set up for Pedrina Rivera's opening speech in the campaign, and supporters had been bused in to make the event look festive and popular.

I didn't stay around to witness the event - it seemed like one of those fights in the family where you'd just as soon the guest didn't witness it - but I learned from the paper today that there had been protests and a scuffle, plastic bottles and pop cans had been thrown, and there was enough shouting to drown out the official words. And then, perhaps to everyone's relief, the sky broke open with thunder and lightning and torrential rains and the rally was at an end.

This morning when I walked over to church, the banners and flags were torn and tattered. It had been a hard night in Suchitoto.

The really important thing

The really important thing that happened on June 1st in El Salvador - and that I didn't blog about because I ran out of time - was the inauguration of President Mauricio Funes, the first President from the left-wing FMLN. This is also, I believe, the first peaceful and democratic transition of government from one party to an opposing one in El Salvador's history. A wonderful and memorable day!

At the start of the day, Funes and his wife went to the crypt of the Cathedral to pray at Monseñor Romero's tomb, and to pledge themselves to carry on his preferential option for the poor - a moment of deep resonance throughout El Salvador.

Marta and I watched it all on television from Suchitoto - an event filled with pomp and ceremony, and with deep meaning. I rejoiced in Hillary Clinton's presence - wearing a red pantsuit, the FMLN color - as a sign of U.S. Government support for this democratic transition and for Funes. And we rejoiced in Funes' inaugural address, where he called for a focus on the needs of the poorest people in El Salvador, for new homes, a better healthcare system, better education. Funding all of this and carrying it out will not be easy, it never is, but Funes begins his term with a 72% approval rating, which will surely help. For more details on his speech and the first steps of the new government, go to Tim's El Salvador blog, always an excellent source of evenhanded information. By the way, Funes named Obama and Brazil's President Lula da Silva as his inspirations in choosing the path ahead.

Now I find myself in Guatemala, which is having its own political troubles. But in the beautiful city of Antigua, all seems very calm and peaceful (and full of U.S. tourists - you hear as much English as Spanish in the streets). I'm spending four hours a day with my splendid teacher, Rosa Maria, and let me tell you, it is exhausting to have one-to-one instruction for four hours. Home is about eight blocks from the school, with Thelma Molina, who has a great family and a pleasant house - and is a good cook as well. Between times, I'm reading novels in Spanish, going to Mass at the historic churches here, and wandering happily in Antigua. Oh, and going to sleep at 8:30 pm because I can't keep my eyes open any longer.

A new day for El Salvador

Yesterday the people of El Salvador went to their voting places and elected Mauricio Funes, of the FMLN, as the next President of the country. This is a historic shift, since the ARENA party has been in power for 17 years. Peaceful transfers of power through a fair and reasonably transparent election system (international observers were pleased with yesterday's process) is something new for El Salvador. The next challenge will be assuring that the transfer of power IS peaceful: it's encouraging that ARENA conceded defeat, and that the leaders of both parties pledged to work together in good faith.

It won't be an easy road for Funes: the economic downturn has hit El Salvador, of course, especially by lessening the remitances from the U.S. on which so many families depend. The legislature is divided. There's huge poverty and unemployment, especially for the young.

In his victory speech, Funes proclaimed a preferential option for the poor, echoing the call of Archbishop Romero. May his work for El Salvador be good news for the poor and for all Salvadorans!

Elections, part 2

A quick note: I promised to say more about the outcome of the legislative and mayoral elections, and forgot to do that. The basic story is that the two major parties, ARENA (right) and FMLN (left) both came away with bragging points, while the country continues to be sharply divided. For more detailed results and an excellent analysis, visit Tim's El Salvador blog. Now the focus is on the Presidential election, to be held on March 15th: Mauricio Funes, of the FMLN, has been in the lead, but recent polls show ARENA's Rodrigo Avila gaining ground.

Elections

Municipal and legislative elections occupied everyone in El Salvador today. It's an interesting process and very different from U.S. elections. All liquor sales and liquor service in restaurants are suspended for three days - the day before, election day, and the day after. Everyone who wants to vote has to have a national identity card, the D.U.I., and has to take it to the polling place. Because it costs money to change your address and get a new D.U.I., many Salvadorans are voting from old addresses, often in different cities from the one they live in. Polling places are a lot less frequent here: in San Salvador, a city of 1.6 million people, there were about 16 polling places, and your polling place is assigned not by the district you live in, but by your last name - so all the "C"s go to one location and all the "G"s to another. Once there, you may wait for hours in a very long line, but the polls close at 5:15, whether voters are still waiting or not. It didn't seem that many people were left outside, so I think the Electoral Tribunal has the numbers figured out.

Once in the election center where observers from each party and international observers kept close watch over the process, voters traded their DUI for two election cards, one for the legislative deputy and one for the Mayor of the municipality (I should explain that the municipalities are the equivalent of counties, and the Mayors serve all the smaller communities in the municipality as well as the central town). Each card showed no names, only the banners of the six parties (in color: ARENA is red, white and blue; the FMLN is red; the PDC is blue, and so on). You mark your choice (in a cardboard voting booth) by drawing a big X over the banner of the party you want to vote for. (In an earlier post, I had thought the Xs on the banners on lampposts were done by opposing parties - I got that wrong). Then you deposit your ballots, one in the box for deputies, one in the box for Mayors. You get indelible ink on your finger and your DUI is returned.

When the voting closed, the TV stations (which have been all day, full time on the elections) showed the process of counting ballots: a representative of each party gathered around a table with a tabulator. The ballots were taken out one by one in everyone's view, the tabulator announcing who the vote was for and handing the ballot to the representative of that party. Then the party representatives counted out loud the votes for their party as everyone else watched. The votes were recounted and tabulated. This all happened with great transparency and pretty good speed, so that election results were available by 9 PM.

I'll try and summarize the results after I see tomorrow's paper, but the big news tonight was that ARENA's candidate for Alcalde (Mayor) of San Salvador - Norman Quijano, who promises cleanness, order and security - won, a big loss for the FMLN and for Violeta Menjivar, the current Mayor. And now there are celebrations - music and fireworks and just maybe the odd bit of drinking - going on in our neighborhood. It may be hard to sleep tonight.

Politics!

I haven't mentioned it yet, but the big topic in El Salvador now is the elections - coming this Sunday, Jan. 18th, the legislative and municipal elections, to be followed in March by the Presidential election. Everywhere in the country, this means that all the lampposts are covered by posters just showing the party identification - mostly ARENA (the conservative party) and FMLM (the party of the left). This is called pinta y pega according to the papers here - pinta for the signs and pega (I'm guessing here) because each sign is crossed through with a thick black marker by the opposite party almost as soon as it's put up. This causes fights and wild accusations that the other side is using gangs or urging its militants to commit crimes. Somewhere a printer is doing very well out of all this paper going on all these lampposts.

In San Salvador the mayoral contest is between the current FMLN Mayor, Violeta Menjivar, whose signs say Violeta Sigue (Violeta continues!) and the ARENA candidate, Norman Quijano (Seguridad, Orden, Limpieza - security, order, cleanliness). Not only are the signs everywhere, but there are parades, demonstrations, accusations and counter-accusations. The cartoon above comes from a little broadside published by Equipo Maiz and shows a happy FMLN crowd in full swing of demonstrations. I'll let you know what happens - that is, I should be able to let you know if TSE, the Bureau of Elections, manages to get its reporting and tabulating systems running. Sound familiar?

The view from Riverbend

I stayed up late last night, watching the election returns with friends. I remember hearing Martin Luther King, Jr.'s last great speech in 1968, when he said "Now, I'm just happy that God has allowed me to live in this period, to see what is unfolding." That's how I feel today, remembering the darkness and pain of 1968, the assassinations of King and Robert Kennedy: I'm happy that God has allowed me to live to this day, 40 years later, when a part of King's dream has been realized.

And then I got up very, very early this morning, and flew down to Eugene, OR, where I've spent the day with Kathy Garcia, my colleague in the PazSalud program in El Salvador. Kathy has been the Eugene-based coordinator for the PazSalud healthcare volunteer missions; when Sister Eleanor Gilmore, the founder and current director of PazSalud, retires in February, Kathy will become the program director, and I will be the in-country coordinator. We will be a team of two, and it was great to spend the day talking to Kathy, saying hello to some of the volunteers I've met on previous missions, and helping to sell Salvadoran crafts and PazSalud calendars to staff at PeaceHealth's new RiverBend campus. It's grand to know that I'll be able to rely on her experience, great organizing skill and uncommon degree of common sense as I learn how to live and work in El Salvador. It was also grand to spend time walking through this immense and magnificent new medical center.

Time to Vote

Linda Hanson told me this morning that she stood in line for two and a half hours on Saturday to vote. I voted absentee, which is very easy to do in the State of Washington, but she wanted to visit an actual polling place, to have that hands-on experience of democracy, and it was worth those two and a half hours.

I think of people who live in countries where the regime or the military decide who's going to "win" an election. We're privileged - and it's a privilege that needs to be exercised.