And another one down, hey-hey…

Add El Salvador to the growing list of nations that are electing anti-“free trade” presidents. As I write this, all media are reporting a sizable win for FMLN candidate Mauricio Funes. U.S. attempts to “not” influence the election included last week’s threat by U.S. House of Representative Republicans to introduce legislation that would allow for the deportation of Salvadorians displaced during that country’s long, bloody civil war who had been admitted to the United States as refugees.

The House Republicans were apparently worried that ARENA, the quasi-fascist political party supported by the Reagan Administration under the rubric that at least they weren’t communists (never mind they tended to murder Cardinals, Irish nuns and Spanish priests) and which has been re-branded as a pro-“free trade” conservative party might lose. Which they did.

Tim’s El Salvador Blog reports several incidents of attempted fraud, by… no surprise… ARENA supporters not anxious to see the end of their long-running control (since the Civil War) that saw emigration rates skyrocket to the highest in the Americas and a murder rate that makes much larger Mexico’s 6000 casualties of the drug war seem almost as peaceful as some U.S. cities.