A bitter battle in El Salvador’s politics

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As La Plaza has reported, although national elections still are nearly two years away, some El Salvador politicians already are going on the warpath, at least rhetorically.

As several bloggers have discussed at length, Salvadoran president Tony Saca recently called for the ruling right-wing ARENA party to create an army of ‘nationalist soldiers’ to combat the ‘populist wave,’ presumably a reference to the left-leaning political opposition.

Both ARENA and the leftist FMLN, the political party that emerged from the coalition of guerrilla forces that fought a 12-year civil war with the U.S.-backed Salvadoran government, are digging in for a bitter campaign that will be closely watched for signs of whether Central America’s most pro-American government outside of Costa Rica will continue its tilt toward Washington.

Some fear that civil war could break out again in this deeply polarized country, where many social wounds from the previous war still haven’t healed, and politicians often invoke military-like words and imagery. As timing would have it, Saca this week donned an army uniform to inspect Salvadoran forces stationed in Iraq.

Posted by Reed Johnson in Mexico City