10Mb 11mins 96kbps Mono

Lara Pullin on El Salvador's coming elections. Pt 1

El Salvador suffered terribly in a civil war that lasted through the decade of the 1980s. After the FMLN fought the US backed military to a standstill in 1989 a peace was negotiated over the next 2 years, and in 1992, amid much jubilation an 'accord' was signed with the FMLN which became a major, legally registered political party, and narrowly lost winning government against a five party coalition led by the right wing ARENA party.

Next year, 2009, will be another presidential election. But over recent years it seems that ARENA is reverting to form. The founder of ARENA, Roberto D'Aubuisson ran the notorious Death Squads through the 1970s and 1980s, and is believed to be the intellectual author of the assassination of Archbishop Romero in March 1980.  The Death Squads are back, and the head of the National Police of El Salvador sees no need to investigate the political violence, assassinations of leading FMLN Mayors and political figures.

And guess who has been chosen to be ARENA's Presidential candidate next year? If you guessed the head of the National Police, you win a free bag of tortillas.

Check out the CISPES website, for more information:
http://cispes.org/

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Lara Pullin on the El Salvadoran elections Part 2

Lara talks about some of the details of the return of the Death Squads in El Salvador, and the incremental increase in their activities, including the assassination of a Mayor, and  threats against a Public radio station that caters to the people, rather than the commercial  media moguls.

She analyses possible reasons for the violent reaction of the right wing governing party. Is it possible that they might lose the next Presidential election.  Does the influence of Venezuela allow political parties more scope to be independent of the interests of the US?

(More information on El Salvador here:
http://cispes.org/ )

Picture: The Mayor, Wilbur Funes, assassinated several weeks ago by the resurgent Salvadoran Death Squads. Government prosecutors refuse to investigate this and other murders.