I didn't want to comment on Elliott Abrams' recent attacks against the FMLN in a Washington Post op-ed

I didn't want to comment on Elliott Abrams' recent attacks against the FMLN in a Washington Post op-ed any more than I did on Monday. Abrams is a person who knows a good deal about Central America but he is not someone whose judgment I would ever trust. Given his "success" promoting democracy in Central America and elsewhere during the Reagan and George W. Bush administrations, it's hard to see why anyone takes what he says seriously. He has a history of lying to the American people which led to a guilty plea for withholding information from Congress.

Fortunately, I don't really have to. Ana Rosa Quintana wrote a similar op-ed for the PanAm Post two weeks ago. If I didn't know any better, I'd say that he and Ana were working from the same notes. My comments on her piece are applicable to Abram's piece as well so I'll just repeat them here.

Saca's possible return to the presidency and Merino's [a Sanchez adviser] 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.

I don't know how the FMLN will govern should Sanchez Ceren be elected. The country's economic and security dependence on the United States is something that the FMLN will most likely want to change but it'll be difficult. One out of every four Salvadorans live in the US; remittances from Salvadorans living in the US to El Salvador surpass $4 billion each year; the US is El Salvador's most important trading partner; and Salvadorans really like the US. And it is not as if the Latin American left (Venezuela) is in good shape to fill in the void produced by a weakening of economic ties between the US and El Salvador.

Sanchez and the FMLN are not perfect, no candidate/party ever is, but the FMLN has done nothing in the executive or the legislative branch that makes me any more fearful of an FMLN administration than an ARENA or GANA/UNIDAD administration.

I imagine that a "true" FMLN administration will unsettle relations between the US and El Salvador but as long as people like Abrams are not advising US policymakers, the US and El Salvador should be able to overcome most challenges that arise.

All bets are off if Republicans capture the White House in 2016 and the FMLN is in power in El Salvador.