San Salvador, El Salvador – In an historic day here, June 1, Mauricio Funes and Salvador Sanchez Ceren were sworn in as the new president and vice-president of El Salvador. Funes and Sanchez Ceren are members of the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN), a leftist political party which was formerly a guerrilla movement that fought against the U.S.-backed right wing dictatorship in El Salvador in the 1980s. Funes and Sanchez Ceren won election on March 15, marking the first time there will be a leftist government in El Salvador’s history.

Long ruled by brutal U.S.-backed right-wing military dictatorships and ultra-right-wing political parties, Salvadorans overcame a blistering fear campaign by the right and voted in record numbers for the FMLN. The FMLN’s election removes the ARENA party from power, which had been the Bush administration’s strongest ally in the region.

President Funes was a long-time television journalist in El Salvador. He was one of the few Salvadoran TV reporters who challenged right-wing government officials, which made him very popular and respected. Sanchez Ceren was one of the FMLN’s top political and military commanders during the civil war period.

In his inauguration speech, Funes quoted from assassinated progressive Archbishop Monsignor Arnulfo Romero, saying that the FMLN would govern with a “preferential option for the poor.” One of his first policy announcements was that El Salvador’s new government will open relations with socialist Cuba. Other programs were announced to immediately begin to address the effects of the worldwide capitalist economic crisis on El Salvador’s workers and peasants and to attack the corruption that characterized the right-wing ARENA government.

In addition to the official inauguration ceremony on June 1, the FMLN also organized a massive rally in the country’s largest stadium, Estadio Cuzcatlan. As many as 70,000 people began filling the stadium early Monday morning, coming in from around the country to be part of this historic moment. Almost everyone in the stadium was wearing red (the FMLN’s color) and waving red flags. There were musical performances from longtime pro-revolutionary groups such as Los Guaraguao, Cutumay Camones, Lloviznando Cantos and Los Torogozes de Morazan. Speakers at the rally included the new president Mauricio Funes, FMLN coordinator Medardo Gonzales (Milton), as well as other progressive figures from Latin America such as a representative of Hugo Chavez from the Venezuelan government, President Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua, President Rafael Correa of Ecuador and others.

The weight of history was heavy in the air at the stadium, as those in attendance remembered the tens of thousands of people who gave their lives fighting for change in El Salvador.

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The FMLN election victory ends decades of military dictatorship and 20 years of rule by the extreme right-wing ARENA party that was founded by Roberto D'Aubuisson, the mastermind of the right wing death squads during El Salvador's civil war. The FMLN victory brought an unprecedented wave of elation and celebration into the streets of El Salvador and to Salvadoran communities in the U.S. and around the world.

In Minnesota, more than 150 people gathered at First Lutheran Church in Saint Paul at a celebration sponsored by the FMLN Committee of Minnesota. The gathering was mostly Salvadorans but also included activists who have worked in solidarity with the FMLN and the revolutionary movement in El Salvador since the 1980s.

At the event there were live television and internet broadcasts from El Salvador to hear election results as they came in, then there was music by Juanito Figueroa, Revolucion Guanaka and DJ Mastervision.

The Minnesota FMLN Committee organized for the past two years to support the FMLN campaign in El Salvador, including educational events, parties and many fundraisers. The election night celebration brought out a large number of Salvadorans to share this historic victory.

The Salvadoran right wing tried to win the election with crude anti-communist propaganda, outright threats – backed up by menacing statements against the FMLN from Republican congress people in the U.S. – and by trying to tarnish the image of Mauricio Funes. But Funes is a well-known, respected journalist in El Salvador. Despite a blistering non-stop propaganda campaign against Funes and the FMLN, the right wing was not able to win with these scare tactics this time around, as they have been able to in past elections.

Cherrene Horazuk, former national director of the Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador (CISPES) who has been involved in solidarity work with the FMLN since the 1980s, spoke at the Minnesota FMLN event about the importance of international solidarity in counteracting the right wing fear campaign. Horazuk emphasized that CISPES has always fought against U.S. intervention in El Salvador so that the Salvadoran people can decide their own fate without fear of U.S. war or manipulation. She said, “We had a significant victory the week before the election when CISPES helped force the U.S. State Department to officially declare their neutrality in the election, to counteract threats made by Republican congressmen who were trying to scare Salvadorans into voting for the right-wing ARENA party again. Defeating this fear campaign was a real contribution to Salvadoran self-determination. When the Salvadoran people were allowed to choose with less fear of U.S. intervention, they chose the FMLN.”

The election of the FMLN in El Salvador continues a shift to the left throughout Latin America and removes the far right wing ARENA party, one of the former Bush administration’s closest allies in the region, from power.

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