El Salvador and the FMLN Victory!

Amigos y Amigas,

I suppose at this point you have all read about the Farabundo Marti Front for National Liberation´s (FMLN) unprecedented victory in last Sunday’s election in El Salvador, but I’ll fill you in about what happened on my end – it was such an exciting day!!

On the day before the election we took a three-hour bus ride from San Salvador to the department of Cabañas, on the border of Honduras. We traveled a long and winding highway through sleepy villages and bustling towns, all of which were decorated with election propaganda- posters of the two candidates were plastered to sides of homes, bus windows and light posts; telephone poles and rocks were painted in the FMLN’s signature red and white or ARENA’s (National Republican Alliance) red, white and blue; cars sported party flags and people wore T-shirts to indicate their political preference. The people were nervous- both Mauricio Funes (FMLN) and Rodrigo Avila (ARENA) supporters were hesitant to predict a winner- the polls were close and, most elections in the past 20 years, including January’s departmental and municipal elections, were rigged in favor of ARENA. Eventually we arrived in the town Victoria, located in a very poor, rural and politically rightwing part of El Salvador, which was to be our command center on election day.

Before we left San Salvador we were trained as official election observers by the Iniciativa Social para la Democracia (Social Initiative for Democracy), a nonreligious, nonpartisan NGO that promotes public transparency and civic participation in El Salvador. ISD, one of nine organizations that trained national and international election observers, had assigned my group to Victoria and surrounding municipalities.

When we arrived in Victoria we met up with members of a youth radio station, Radio Victoria, who had press permits to observe the election. I may have mentioned in an earlier blog that the radio is an essential tool for communication in rural Nicaragua and it turns this is the case in El Salvador as well. In fact, the radio has major historical significance in El Salvador because it was used as a mobilization strategy during the civil war in the 80’s – the only way clandestine guerillas could learn about the status of the liberation movement, including the latest insurgencies and tactics, was to tune into Radio Venceremos - “the voice of the revolution.” Though Radio Victoria serves a different purpose than its 1980’s forbear, its leftist bent is somewhat revolutionary in this conservative department. Also, many of the reporters, most of whom are between the ages of 18 and 24, were born and raised in refugee camps in Honduras (due to the U.S. backed civil war), and endured the pain and horror that ensues from this sort of displacement. As a result, they are staunch supporters of the FMLN.

We paired up with radio reporters (they promised to maintain neutrality on election day!) who were accompanying us to our assigned voting centers in municipalities around Victoria. We awoke at 3 AM on the 15^th, dressed in our "official" election observer T-shirts, piled into a bus and were dropped off in small groups across the countryside. Mike, another SITer, and my radio friends, Eliseo and Daysi, and I were stationed in a town called Tejutepeque about an hour and a half from Victoria. We made our way to the voting center, and after showing our official badges to the guards at the door, were premited to enter. At this point, my official observation commenced!

I was expected to observe the entire electoral process in this voting center, paying attention to specific criteria outlined in observation forms and noting questionable behaviors. I also had to call our command center three times to report my observations. One form dedicated to the opening of the polls, asked an array of questions including whether or not the Vote Receiving Board (JRV) knew the set-up procedures and how to cast their own ballots, as well as if all of the necessary materials were present, if the voting stations were properly assembled and if there was partisan propaganda in the voting center. The second form asked whether either political party was being violent, whether the JRV properly checked voter’s IDs, when, if ever, citizens were denied a vote, among others. Finally, the vote closure form asked questions about final vote counts and the presence of authority figures in the voting center.

In this voting center there were eleven JRVs (no more than 450 citizens could legally be assigned to a single JRV) serving a population of about 5000. Organized alphabetically, voters had to determine which JRV they were assigned to by finding their name and photo on a board corresponding to a specific JRV. Each JRV was comprised of a president, a secretary and two vocals. Half of all JRVs in the country were staffed with an FMLN president and half were staffed with an ARENA president. The secretary was always from a different party than the president and one vocal represented each party. In addition, a vigilante from each party patrolled the JRV table. So in all there were six people at each voting table and when a voter approached she would show her ID to the president who would verify it in a registry. The secretary would prepare the ballot by stamping and signing the back and tearing off a corner marked with a corresponding number. The voter would then be handed the ballot, which was a practically blank paper- on one half was the FMLN flag, and on the other was the ARENA flag- and would be told to draw an X through the flag of her chosen party. Illiteracy is pervasive in this country, so a very simple ballot was essential. She would take her ballot to a nearby voting booth, mark it, fold it in quarters and stuff it into a slit in a large cardboard box near the JRV. A vocal would then immerse her thumb in indelible ink to prove that she’d voted and the other would ask her to sign the registry (if she didn’t know how to write her name she could use her fingerprint instead). Having successfully voted, she was free to go.

The voting process was simple, and surprisingly uneventful in Tejutepeque. People were friendly, especially to me and the other international observers. They’d flash me smiles, offer me food and water, and glance at me regularly, soliciting approval. They wanted us to see that they were doing it right- that there was no fraud or other voting misconduct. Actually, their overly attentive and accommodating attitude was a bit unsettling – I approached this as a learning experience as they approached me as an expert in democracy, a title I certainly cannot claim. It was clear, at least in this voting center, that they wanted the election to go smoothly. They wanted to show the world that Salvadorans can conduct a just election and that their era of electoral fraud has come to a close. Perhaps this is a grandiose statement, but I think it is somehow accurate. Being able to confidently state a winner, even on the level of one JRV, must feel like a triumph. At the JRV I observed during the closing, ballots were removed from the collection box one by one, the party marked was announced by the president, the ballot was shown to everyone present (including me!) and handed to the appropriate vigilante to be counted aloud. FMLN received 138 votes and ARENA received 175 votes, but perhaps most pleasing to both parties involved was the certainty and honesty with which these numbers could be reported.

At about 8 in the evening we made our way back to Radio Victoria and arrived in time to hear Funes’ acceptance speech and witness the elation of our Salvadoran counterparts. The same political party has been in power for their entire lives – a party that was responsible for murdering some of their parents and displacing their community; a party that had encouraged, just days before, factories and companies to threaten their employees: if they don’t vote for Avila they should not return to work on Monday – so the exuberance was enveloping. Fireworks filled the sky, drunk old men sang revolutionary ballads, and one of the radio reporters, Jaime, an international relations major at the National University, explained that establishing an alternation of power will pave a path to a more just democracy, and for this he celebrated! Jaime, the other radio youth and many of the thousands that voted in Cabañas that day represent a large Salvadoran demographic: poor people whose survival is dependent on social services provided by the government- potable water, food, education and health care. They have no other options, so whether or not they were jaded by the corrupt system, they voted, hoping yet again to change it.

When we returned to San Salvador the following day the merriment persisted. An iconic statue in the middle of the city was dressed in FMLN garb, people walked with their heads high and the color red was ubiquitous. The couple who owns the guest house where we were staying, both of whom had prominent roles in the revolution and are very politically active today, told us that we witnessed the most momentous event in the past 500 years of Salvadoran history! An exaggeration I’d say, but the sentiment was real. I suppose years and years of overt oppression, injustice and abuse of power make a just victory through a purportedly ideal process – democracy – a glorious triumph. A number of people told us that they would now divide their lives in two eras: before and after this election. For many it really was a life-changing event- one to be cherished, one to restore faith in their country an people! For me it caused my eyes to open once again - I´m increasingly suspicious of U.S. foreign policy in Latin America (apprently manifest destiny persists...), intrigued by Salvadoran and Nicarguan notions of citizenship, political identity and human rights (very new concepts in this part of the world), and a little more wary of "democracy" than I was a few months ago (perhaps it is just one blip in the human quest for just governance).

My love to you!

Until next time…