Former Communist Rebel is Frontrunner in El Salvador's Presidential Election Sunday

Salvador Sanchez Ceren, a former rebel with the Marxist Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front, is considered a more doctrinaire hardliner than current FMLN President Mauricio Funes. Backed by Cuba and Nicaragua at end of the Cold War, Sanchez Ceren is the epitome of the far-left Latin American terrorist guerrilla.

At LAT, "El Salvador presidential election polls show tight race":

MEXICO CITY — Salvadorans vote Sunday in a presidential election that may give former leftist rebels a second chance at government — or return national leadership to the right-wing party that ruled the country for two decades.

Opinion surveys have shown an extremely tight race, especially with the entrance of a new third party run by a former conservative president with family members tied to notorious corruption cases.

More than 20 years after the end of a civil war in which more than 75,000 people were killed, choices remain stark in El Salvador, the tiny Central American country that, after Mexico, is the leading source of Spanish-speaking immigrants in Southern California.
When the left won the presidency in 2009 for the first time in modern Salvadoran history, there were high expectations about change and progressive policies after a generation of conservative rule.

But many Salvadorans now express disappointment in a country where international drug-trafficking has made great inroads, gangs control entire neighborhoods, and economic growth has plummeted.

Salvador Sanchez Ceren, vice president and candidate for the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front, or FMLN, the guerrilla group that became a political party after the war, appears to have a slight lead going into Sunday's vote. Close behind is Norman Quijano, a popular former mayor of San Salvador, the capital, who represents the once-dominant Arena party.

Both are polling at about 30%, according to most surveys. A candidate must receive more than 50% of the vote to avoid a runoff.

Another candidate, Antonio Saca, heads a coalition called Unidad. He was accused of suspicious enrichment during his 2004-09 presidency under the Arena banner. Even though he is polling at less than 10%, it is thought he is siphoning votes from his erstwhile right-wing colleagues.

Sanchez Ceren, the FMLN candidate, was one of the guerrilla movement's founding commanders, and thus is seen as more hard-line than President Mauricio Funes, who led the FMLN to victory in 2009. Funes, a former journalist, never joined the guerrillas.
Funes remains popular, having sponsored social programs, including affordable education. But after taking a stab at police reform, he turned to the military for security, which eroded some of his support.

A controversial gang truce under the Funes government succeeded in reducing the number of homicides but did little to curb other major crimes, such as extortion. Some Salvadorans have criticized the truce as an undesirable negotiation with criminals.

To what extent Sunday's vote will serve as a plebiscite on the Funes and FMLN performance remains to be seen...

More at AFP, "Former guerrillero tipped for presidency in El Salvador."

And from Otto Reich, at National Review, "El Salvador in Peril":

Twenty-five years ago, U.S. policy consisted of defeating violent extremists on both right and left, enabling democratic Salvadorans to build a political center. In 1992, after a dozen years of bloodshed and about 70,000 dead, Salvadoran democracy achieved an important victory over what had been a Soviet- and Cuban-supported Marxist-Leninist guerrilla force known by its initials, FMLN.

That democracy is again at risk, this time because one of the military leaders of the erstwhile-defeated FMLN, Salvador Sánchez Cerén, the current vice president, is a leading candidate for president. Sánchez Cerén is no ordinary contender. For example, he has admitted to participating in the brutal execution of members of his own guerrilla force, the Popular Liberation Forces, or FPL, who did not comply with his orders and rules.

Witnesses and survivors accuse him of ordering the torture and subsequent murder of hundreds of alleged “traitors” and of guerrilla soldiers accused of desertion. Anywhere else in the world, Sánchez Cerén would be condemned for his record on human rights. In El Salvador, he is at the top of some polls.

Sánchez Cerén is no friend of the U.S. In September of 2001, he enthusiastically participated in an anti-American political rally in the Salvadoran capital shortly after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The event featured the burning of the American flag and the display of handmade signs that justified the carnage at the hands of al-Qaeda....

Should Sánchez Cerén manage to win, the future of El Salvador is clear. It will follow the “21st-century socialist” model of Venezuela, Bolivia, Nicaragua, and Ecuador. As they have in varying degrees in those countries, political repression and food shortages will follow; Castro’s Cubans will arrive, establishing control of national-security agencies, strategic communications, passport control, the electoral registry, and lists of potential enemies.

PHOTO: Wikimedia Commons.