To the Victor go the Spoils.. Or do they.

Change seems to be the buzz word of the moment, and so "change" has also arrived in El Salvador, where the leftist FMLN party has resulted victorious in the recently held presidential elections. ARENA, the rightist party, after 20+ consecutive years in power now passes to the role of principle opposition party. Presidential term limits in El Salvador is five years, and all four ARENA ex presidents (Cristiani, Flores, Calderon and Saca) have acknowledged and peacefully accepted their party's defeat and will now relinquish and turn over the political strings to President Elect Mauricio Funes, of the FMLN.

Much to the detriment of those concerned, there always seems to be a fly in the ointment in any seemingly beautiful picture and as the saying goes, "The Devil is in the details." The smooth transition of power in El Salvador appears to be on track and following this same fatalistic rule. In the seeming tranquility of the Democratic process currently unfolding, warning clouds seem to be gathering over the horizon and the lightening strikes appear like cracks in the ideological facade of the allegedly unified and newly forming FMLN administration. Albeit, honorable mention should go out to the ARENA party for their demonstration of civility, political maturity and democratic ideals clearly shown in the peaceful way they relinquished power to their long time opponents of the FMLN. Since the signing of the Accords and peace was finally realized between the government, the armed forces and the leftist insurgency back in 1992, the FMLN (an amalgamation of the five warring guerrilla groups FPL, FARN, ERP, RN and the Communist Party) lay down their weapons and formed into the newly constituted democratic opposition political party, the current FMLN. Among other important details and as part of the peace agreements, the old National Police Force was dissolved and replaced by a new force known as Policia Nacional Civil, that would be formed by elements of the various deactivated government military units and by the ex-guerrilla combatants. In a further effort to look forward to the future and let go of any lingering old ties with the past twelve years of civil war, a general amnesty was ratified and signed in 1993 that was to benefit and included all elements of the warring parties who had been active during the now defunct civil war.

As the nightmare years of war, death and destruction slowly faded away from memory, these became less and less of an influencing factor in the collective and contemporary life of Salvadorans. As time was slowly evolving, the main body of the FMLN ruling faction (made-up by ex guerrilla fighters and commanders turned politicians), continued steadfast as the core element who absolutely controlled the Party from within, even though for the past 20+ consecutive twenty years ARENA had overwhelming political dominance in the country. These old guard elements of the FMLN held the reins in the Party and constituted the ultimate and final voice that determined the individual party candidates for each and every local and presidential political race. The proverbial fly in the ointment in this picture slowly materializes with the passage of time itself and as we all know, time is relentless and history is never stagnant but rather it is fluid motion and ever changing. With every new election, the radical ideals of the FMLN old guard were becoming more and more antiquated and irrelevant to the times, and less and less popular to the majority of Salvadorans. This natural phenomenon became all to obvious to the ruling old guard FMLN ideologues when their geriatric champion and standard bearer, Communist Party leader, Shafik Handal, was soundly defeated in the past presidential race of 2004, by ARENA candidate and current President Tony Saca.

It was during this time that President Elect Mauricio Funes steps into the picture and joins the FMLN as their candidate to oppose the the ARENA Party candidate in the coming presidential elections 0f 2009. Mauricio Funes presented a new and refreshing face to the political scene and he was not identified with either of the principle embedded political parties. Funes was a popular young moderate professional with important connections to Brazilian President Luis Ignacio Lula de Silva, and who was widely known throughout El Salvador by the common man as a popular radio announcer and critic of the current ARENA administration. The FMLN old guard obviously realized and had the awareness that their time was fast passing, but they demonstrated exceptional political instincts and insight to see in Mauricio Funes a popular figure who could actually win for them over the long entrenched ARENA Party. They must have rationalized that Mauricio Funes, as the political novice that he was, could easily be manipulated, intimidated or dictated to once he was in office. In other words, Mauricio Funes represented to the FMLN old guard a viable backdoor entrance to their long held dream of establishing a Castro style Marxist-Leninist dictatorship in El Salvador, along the more current lines that we see in Nicaragua, Guatemala, Honduras, Venezuela, Bolivia, Etc.. These more current and not yet maligned political phenomenons developing in Latin America are also referred to as the "Bolivarian Democratic Socialist Revolution" that Venezuela's Hugo Chavez has championed with his on-again off-again oil revenue wealth.

It is abundantly clear and history overwhelmingly demonstrates that the FMLN and its old guard matrix would have never defeated any ARENA candidate, simply because the Salvadoran people reject the extremist rhetoric associated with the FMLN radicals. Mauricio Funes won the presidency because of Mauricio Funes himself. The FMLN without Mauricio Funes was condemned to continued failure and frustrations as demonstrated by the 20+ years of consecutive ARENA rule. The FMLN old guard was finally able to offset their inherent ideological disadvantage by presenting a young, moderate and popular face that would totally overshadowed the vice presidential running mate, Salvador Sanchez Ceren, who was by then the new champion and ideologue of the FMLN old guard. Mr. Sanchez Ceren, the FMLN vice presidential running mate had previously worked as an elementary grade school teacher who turned insurgent during the 1979-1992 Salvadoran civil war.

As the FMLN old guard basks in their recent triumph over ARENA, the fiesta may be short lived because they are no longer the opposition, and with the sweet taste of victory comes the burden of responsibility. At this instant in time, only one man, Mauricio Funes, stands between the FMLN old guard extremists and their dream of running to the tailor shoppe and being fitted with Fidel Castro style military fatigues, and buying $3000.00 dollar horned rimmed glasses following the Daniel Ortega example when the Sandinista Revolution triumphed in Nicaragua. I wish Mauricio Funes lots of luck, I think he'll need it.