El Salvador’s Irrelevant Elections - Salvadorans working in the United States””not politicians””drive the country’s economy

“On the eve of El Salvador’s legislative and mayoral elections, Mayor Will Salgado was waiting on the steps of our hotel when we got into town so he could denounce his enemies for fraud. Salgado was elected mayor in 2000 as a member of the moderate Christian Democratic Party, but he switched to the ultranationalist Arena (Republican Nationalist Alliance) in 2003. Having been kicked out of Arena six months ago (they say he was extorting businesses; he says he refused their orders to falsify voter documents), he was now running for re-election under the banner of a third party, that of the National Reconciliation Party. Salgado is a handsome, relaxed fellow with a disconcertingly magnetic gaze. He told me that Arena was sending in bus loads of Hondurans, Nicaraguans, and Salvadorans from other parts of the country to vote against him. No one ever saw any buses, but his fraud accusations””which he aired on the San Miguel TV station he owns””apparently helped get out the vote, because he took 60 percent in a field of six candidates and won.”

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