International Criminality and Capitalist Alliance Loom in El Salvador's Election (oops did I miss something?)

Ana Rosa Quintana with the PanAmPost provides her take on the upcoming February elections in El Salvador in International Criminality and Socialist Alliance Loom in El Salvador’s Election. Saca's possible return to the presidency and Merino's alleged ties to international drug trafficking are worrisome, but how can you seriously leave out all the allegations of corruption against ARENA that are coming to light?

Saca is a former ARENA president believed to have increased his wealth sixteen times while in office. Several of his officials are under investigation for corruption. The previous ARENA president, Francisco Flores, is under investigation for corruption, money laundering, and the misuse of government funds involving a $10 million donation from Taiwan. Several ARENA officials and businessmen are under investigation for links to the operation of LaGeo and its shady privatization.

Then there's recent news that El Salvador's homicide rate should decrease once again in 2013, largely as a result of the gang truce. On Monday, President Mauricio Funes said that there had been 2,426 killings in 2013, 2,543 in 2012 and 4,354 in 2011. If the figures are up-to-date, the murder rate will end the year right at 40 per 100,000 which is down significantly from the ~70 in 2011.

President Funes also reported that poverty decreased by four percentage points in 2013, from 33 percent to 29 percent. Extreme poverty decreased 3.5 percentage points between 2008 and 2013 as well. The data come from the Household Survey and General Purposes of the Statistics and Census Bureau of the Ministry of the Economy. If true, the decrease came in spite of low growth and job creation; the decrease was caused instead by the implementation of government social programs.

Crime down. Poverty down. Corruption investigations now finally moving forward. I'd be more comfortable with Oscar Ortiz heading the FMLN ticket, but given a choice between ARENA's Quijano, UNIDAD's Saca, and the FMLN's Sanchez Ceren, I wouldn't find it at all surprising if Salvadorans voted for Sanchez Ceren and the FMLN with full knowledge of how they have governed the past five years and how they are likely to govern the next five years.