Former President Of El Salvador Receives 14-Year Sentence For Gang Talks

[Judi Lynn]

1. Older article concerning the progressive former President Funes:

The Funes Administration in El Salvador: A Review of the First Year
A conference was convened to assess the Funes administration's first year in office, bringing together senior Salvadoran government officials and other experts.

DATE & TIME
Friday
Jun. 25, 2010
9:00am – 1:30pm ET

The March 2009 presidential election of Mauricio Funes in El Salvador represented a turning point in the country's progress towards democracy. Following a bloody twelve-year civil war and almost two decades in the political opposition, the former guerrilla group-turned political party, the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN), won the country's presidential election. The victory of Funes over the governing ARENA party represented the first time that the FMLN had reached outside its ranks for a more centrist candidate with broad national appeal. To assess the Funes administration's first year in office, the Latin American Program convened a June 25, 2010, conference bringing together senior Salvadoran government officials, scholars, journalists, and representatives of international development institutions. Panelists focused on the ability of President Funes to unite diverse politi-cal factions and actors in order to address the nation's foremost problems.

Director of the Latin American Program Cynthia Arnson summarized the country's most significant challenges. The global economic crisis has taken a toll on the small, liberalized economy; exports to the United States have dropped and remittances from Salvadorans abroad have also plummeted. Crime and insecurity are rampant: a 2009 report by the United Nations Development Program designated Central America, particularly the "northern tier" composed of El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala, as having the highest levels of non-political violence in the world. Drug trafficking organizations and other forms of organized crime are on the rise, establishing relationships with other criminal groups, including transnational gangs. As if this were not enough, natural disasters continue to wreak havoc on the small country.

The keynote speaker, Salvadoran Minister of Foreign Relations Hugo Martínez, highlighted the Funes administration's political achievements in its first year. He emphasized President Funes' commitment to national unity and the steady, calculated approach to the economic, social, and natural disasters facing the country. The administration established an Economic and Social Council to review national economic and social policies and seek consensus on future directions. There have also been advances in educational and income-generating programs aimed at vulnerable youth. Police reform has also shown successes, with 237 corrupt officers fired and another 1,000 being investigated for participation in cover-ups, money laundering, and organized crime.

Foreign Minister Hugo Martínez also laid out how the Funes administration's foreign policy has shifted, from a previous emphasis on ideological ties to the creation of transnational relationships which foment and share ideals of peace, democracy, and state autonomy. El Salvador has worked proactively to strengthen relations with Brazil and the United States as well as with global emerging markets, the European Union, and other Central and South American nations. Martínez highlighted President Funes' human rights initiatives, including the provision of reparations to individuals and families victimized during the twelve-year conflict. Martínez argued that the new directions in El Salvador's domestic and foreign policy have brought the country new respect and greater international presence.

Congressman Jim McGovern (D-MA), who has focused on El Salvador and U.S. policy since the 1980s, Rep. called the election of Mauricio Funes a "watershed moment" for Salvadoran democracy. He noted that since the signing of the 1992 peace accords, political competition has flourished; the electoral process has matured; new political coalitions and political parties have emerged; and civil society groups are increasingly engaging in public discourse. Nonetheless, impunity prevails under a weak judicial system that cannot hold elites, government officials, or members of the military or police accountable. Widespread benefits from foreign trade and investment have yet to materialize for the country's poor, and the devastating impacts of natural disasters, including recent Tropical Storms Ida and Agatha, continue to impede the nation's progress. McGovern underscored the increase in violent crime since the end of the war, and the intransigence of sectors that continue to benefit from crime, corruption, and impunity. He expressed hope, however, that the peaceful future envisioned in the peace accords would one day be attainable and called El Salvador, along with Costa Rica, the "most stable, functioning democracy in Central America."

More:
https://www.wilsoncenter.org/event/the-funes-administration-el-salvador-review-the-first-year