My First Week in San Salvador

My first few days in El Salvador have already been enlightening. I was delighted to find that my host family, an older couple with a lovely house in a safe and quiet colonia, are vegetarian and rather progressive. During the first dinner I ate with them we delved straight into participatory democracy (obviously one of my favorite subjects) and Angel was right on the ball. He is an active participant in the FMLN party who helps organize and inform the public. Both of them criticize the media here, so they bought a subscription to National Geographic. Rosita and I had a great conversation about women's rights and how they should be better protected here by the state while I savored the hot chocolate that she makes from scratch by grinding the cacao with sugar and mixing it with warm milk. I am so happy to be in such good company because I think the coming months are going to be increasingly taxing. 

My first week at CIS, Centro de Intercambio y Solidaridad (Center for Exchange and Solidarity) was great. I found that I will be working with a very educated and determined group of people. Most of us are recent college graduates, two are on post-graduate scholarships (one fulbrighter), one is a lawyer, and one is a former sub-director of the peace corps. While it seems that all of us have fairly progressive views, we know that biased views don't have a place in our mission. Regardless of which party or candidate we favor in El Salvador, we must investigate and criticize each of them with equal rigor in order to defend and promote democratic processes here. 

CIS has come to be known as the most moderate observation mission because of the fact that it is not invited or funded by ANY political party, whether it be from El Salvador or the US. It was here for the first elections following the peace accords and has since become involved in various organizations that promote human rights, economic empowerment, and social justice. Several of the people we met with this week have read former CIS observation reports and they complimented the organization on its solid work.

Over the last 5 days we have been meeting constantly with different political parties and electoral officials to get a better sense of the political atmosphere. We diligently write down what worries each party, what actions they are taking to resolve their concerns, and their party platforms. There are six political parties that will have candidates on the municipal and legislative ballots, but two of them currently dominate most seats. As I continue to learn more about each party I will try to write a synopsis here. 

I also had the opportunity to see both of the major party candidates speak at the Central American University to packed auditoriums. Mauricio Funes, the candidate for "leftist" FMLN, is a very eloquent speaker with a solid record as a quality jounalist. The candidate for right wing ARENA, Rodrigo Avila, was formerly the chief of police and owns a private security company. While Funes gave plenty of his time to thoroughly explain his platform and answer many questions from the audience, Avila spoke briefly using many personal anecdotes and answered few questions. The least biased poll to be released so far has Funes at 15% ahead of Avila, the best the party has performed since its formation in 1980. This is due in large part to the more centrist position that Funes has struck in order to real in former ARENA supporters who have seen its failures, but Funes will not succeed as a president if his party does not win much needed seats in the legislature. So, I feel my position is validated by the strong competition and the need for free and fair elections here. 

If only we could get international observers to come to America....

This weekend I am going to get to know my neighborhood and celebrate a co-observer's birthday. My next posts may be getting specific, so feel free to shoot questions at me if you are interested in the elections.