Monday, March 9, 2009

Salvadoran Politics in DC



On Sunday, I was going to play soccer with some friends but ended up at the most interesting political campaigning event. The elections here in the US are over but, the elections in El Salvador are next week on the 15th. That means that the last push to get voters is on. Since something like 1/3 of the Salvadoran population lives in the United States, it is a significant political force. What will happen with the remitances and things like that is very important to the Salvadoran economy.

I guess today was the last day for campaigning in El Salvador. This morning I was reading that there have been 689 murders reported in the first two months of the year, it is unbelievable. The level of violence has escalated with the intensity of the political climate. This year, the elections are particularly interesting because for the first time in something like 20 years the FMLN (the leftist party) has a chance of winning the election. Everyone is wondering what will happen if they win and many are worried about what will happen if they don't.

Anyway, there was a group of people supporting the FMLN giving out phone cards to people so that they could call their families and encourage them to vote! It was really interesting. Once I worked up the courage to go talk to some of them I got thinking about the role that the US plays in Salvadoran politics, about how much I don't like the aggression of politics and many other things...

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live the questions now... R.M. Rilke