A demonstrator raises a banner against Nayib Bukele during a protest in San Salvador.FRED RAMOS
It is a pact that has generated surprise in El Salvador. The former guerrilla of the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN) has united with its archenemies of the Nationalist Republican Alliance (ARENA) to form a common front in order to defeat current President Nayib Bukele in the elections scheduled for 2024. The opposition alliance, which brings together the right-wing parties Vamos and Nuestro Tiempo and civil society organizations, was revealed by the digital newspaper El Faro, which reports negotiations between the groups to decide on a presidential candidacy that has a chance of defeating Bukele. The president has reacted furiously and harshly criticized the new alliance.
According to the El Faro report, there is still reluctance within the two large Salvadoran political groups about the alliance, which has been promoted by civil organizations, although there is consensus that it is unfeasible to launch candidacies under the banners of Arena or the FMLN, given the tiredness of the Salvadoran population before the traditional parties. who controlled power for more than 30 years. For most Salvadorans, the decades of rule by the conservative ARENA and the leftist FMLN after the return of democracy in 1992 did not represent a real change in the country, on the contrary, both organizations are seen as responsible for the problems of violence and poverty that afflict Salvadorans. "The opposition alliance is an initiative of members of organizations and civil society that launched the proposal to the parties and, if it materializes, it would become the first major opposition alliance that would present a single candidacy in more than half a century," the newspaper reports. Those who promote this alliance "see a real possibility of subtracting power from Bukele and his New Ideas party in the 2024 elections, for which the current president, who already controls the entire state apparatus, has announced that he will seek re-election despite the fact that the Constitution prohibits it in six articles," explains El Faro.
The Salvadoran president announced last September that he will seek re-election in the 2024 elections, after the Constitutional Chamber that he formed authorized his immediate presidential reelection. "After talking with my wife Gabriela and my family, I announce to the Salvadoran people that I have decided to run as a candidate for the presidency of the Republic," Bukele said on that occasion in a message from the Presidential House. With the path clear for his re-election, the president gave until now as a fact that he would not have a strong political competition to stay in power, given that he has high approval ratings due to his controversial war against gangs. Bukele, who has a tight grip on state powers, has maintained a state of emergency in El Salvador for a year, with the military and police forces in the streets in a fight against the so-called maras that has allowed insecurity rates to fall. So far, more than 60,000 people have been arrested and human rights organizations have denounced abuses and humiliations by the authorities.
After hearing the publication, the president reacted furiously to the new alliance. In a wide-ranging comment on Twitter, his favorite social network to publicize his decisions, Bukele criticized the new initiative. "In 2019 we said that this would happen, that ARENA and the FMLN would join (ARENA 2.0 we called it at that time); They told us that it was a lie, that their anti-communist ideals, some, and revolutionary, others, would not allow it; that they would never be the same," the president wrote. "A few years later, consummate your union. A civil war that left 85,000 dead, a million displaced, 5 decades of backwardness, our infrastructure destroyed, the birth of gangs and false peace agreements, which plunged us into 30 more years of poverty and underdevelopment. They divided a country in two and made us kill each other, between brothers; financed (both) by foreign powers. All that, and many other things, to end in this. God forgive them," he added. Bukele constantly refers to the civil war that bled El Salvador and also to the peace accords, which he disdains.
In 2019 we said that this would happen, that ARENA and the FMLN would join (ARENA 2.0 we called it at that time); They told us that it was a lie, that their anti-communist ideals, some, and revolutionary, others, would not allow it; that they would never be the same.
A few years later, consume your... https://t.co/gD15RiIpMH
— Nayib Bukele (@nayibbukele) May 23, 2023
In its report, El Faro reports that the members of the new opposition alliance have begun negotiations to find a formula that gathers enough sympathy in the electorate to at least subtract enough votes from the charismatic president. "The formula should be proposed by members of civil society participating in the talks, but the top leaders of Arena, FMLN, Nuestro Tiempo and Vamos, according to four of the sources, have pledged to assume as their own the presidential candidacy they propose," reports El Faro.
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