by the El Reportero’s news service
Mauricio Fumes
El Salvador’s president-elect, Mauricio Funes, reiterated on March 16, that he would not align himself with Venezuela’s leftwing President Hugo Chávez and his socialist “Bolivarian Revolution.”
It is clear that maintaining close U.S. ties will be a top priority for El Salvador’s newly elected leftist president, who met with U.S. embassy officials soon after stripping power from the ruling conservative party, which had enjoyed 20 years at the helm and a solid alliance with Washington, wrote The Miami Herald.
Mauricio Funes of the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front, or FMLN — a former guerrilla movement — met with U.S. Embassy Charges d’Affaires Robert Blau after declaring victory in a raucous election that split the nation between those who support continuity over a new face in the political spectrum.
According to the results announced by the Supreme Electoral Court (TSE), Funes won 51.26 percent of the votes, while his rival Rodrigo Avila was supported by 48.74 percent.
David Munguia, a Funes security advisor and former colonel in the Salvadoran army, said the president elect has sent clear messages he will maintain close U.S. ties.
‘’These messages will allow us to build a government that doesn’t seek confrontation,’’ said Munguia, who is part of Funes’ 12-member transition team. First contact is to be made this week with a visit by U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Thomas Shannon.
Funes, who will took power on June 1, is facing huge challenges, but the most important ones are to reduce poverty and violence.
Mexico moves up U.S. priority list
Mexico’s president Felipe Calderón Hinojosa and his government do not seem to know whether to be pleased or horrifi ed that the US government is taking such an interest in what is happening in Mexico. There is an awkward awareness, on both sides of the border, of the U.S.’s history of ignoring the Mexican government when the US feels that military action has to be taken in Mexico.
A delightful sense of Schadenfreude
Latin American bankers and regulators would be less than human if they did not feel a tingle of Schadenfreude at the problems to hit the world’s big banks. For years, U.S. and European bankers and regulators have lectured the region about the importance of living within its means and matching assets and liabilities.
Latin American bankers and regulators have practiced what was preached at them and, as a result, the region’s fi nancial systems look in good shape.
Regional defense council launches amid renewed tension
The Defense Council of the Union of South American Nations (Unasur) was launched this week in Santiago de Chile. The timing of the launch was significant. Just over one year ago, a cross-border incursion by Colombian troops to destroy an encampment of the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FAR) in Ecuador sparked a diplomatic crisis with Ecuador and Venezuela. Tension is still running high, and there is no immediate prospect of Ecuador restoring diplomatic relations with Colombia. Injudicious remarks by Colombia’s defense minister, Juan Manuel Santos, last week prompted a disproportionate response from Ecuador’s President Rafael Correa and Venezuela’s President Hugo Chávez.
Farc and drugs scandal rattles Ecuador as elections loom
An investigation into a cocaine shipment seized in 2007 has revealed hitherto unreported contacts between a senior offi cial from the government of President Rafael Correa and the ex number-two leader of the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC) almost up to the eve of the Colombian raid on his camp inside Ecuador in which he was killed. Its ramifi cations, which have already affected a regional human rights NGO, could prove damaging to Correa in the run-up to the 26 April general elections.
