The Salvadoran citizens see Obama as the president of the change in the United States and they felt that they wanted the same for them.

“Another leftist government in Latin America”. This is the holder who repeated himself repeatedly later that Mauricio Funes, the candidate of the Front Farabundo Martí for the National Liberation, FMLN, gained the presidential election on March 15 in El Salvador.

But for this election it is necessary to take into consideration much more than an increasing tendency in the region. It is necessary to consider the history of a country that was destroyed by a civil war of 12 years that stopped 75.000 dead persons and that has been divided ideologically during the last two decades. The United States invested million dollars in this war in support to the Salvadoran army.

After signing the peace agreement in 1992, the leftist rebellious group FMLN promised to leave the weapon and fight for the power across the electoral route. Nevertheless, the divided conservative ultra SAND retained the presidency during the last 20 years. This way, that: why now? Why could the leftist group defeat to a party supported by the rich and powerful ones in the small Central American nation?
To start, Funes, an ex-journalist, was the first candidate for the presidency of the FMLN that was not a rebellious ringleader. He presented himself to the electorate as a leader believable and pragmatic, ready to govern from the center. According to Kenneth Roberts, teacher of government in the University of Cornell, Funes showed interest to help to the poor and to create more employment opportunities with social programs. Musician for the ear in a country who suffers the effects of the financial crisis and where still there feed the wounds that the bloody civil war was making open. The violence still abounds in El Salvador, with juvenile bands created by ex-members of the army and rebellious groups that radiate terror across the country.

In short, the left won in El Salvador because the Salvadorans did not see an improvement in his everyday lives, because SAND did not fulfill his promises, because the economic growth was not beyond the already rich citizens and because more than half of the population still lives in the poverty.

Although Funes was gaining the election for less than three percentage points, it begins his presidency with an order. There were neither denunciations of fraud nor reports of aberrations during the electoral process. The FMLN has tried since it is capable of governing on having had the mayoralty of San Salvador, the capital, during the last 12 years, and being now the majority party in the Legislative Assembly.
Susan Purcell, director of the Center for Hemispherical Politics of the University of Miami, believes that it is too prompt to judge what class of government it will make Funes. She believes that the result of the election in the United States could have influenced the results in El Salvador. “The people decided that it is ready for a change. They see Obama as the president of the change in the United States and they felt that they wanted the same for them”, he says.

Shortly after the Funes victory in the urns, the president Barack Obama spoke with the elect president and congratulated it on his historical victory. Obama said that he hopes to be employed with the new Salvadoran administration at matters of common interest including “economic growth, struggle against the poverty, energy cooperation and safety”.

The ex-presidents George W. Bush and Tony Saca of El Salvador supported a narrow relation. El Salvador was the only country of the region that kept on sending troops to Iraq.

With new opposition governments both in the United States and in El Salvador, they do not wait for changes in the relations between two countries. But the citizens of both countries hope that the change should come with the new governments to those who bet in the urns.

(c) 2008 by Maria Helen Salinas.