El Salvador presidential hopeful visits Los Angeles
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In a sign of the political influence of Salvadorans abroad, Mauricio Funes — a 48-year-old television journalist who is a presidential hopeful in El Salvador — is this week meeting with expatriates in Los Angeles and will address a conference at UCLA on Friday.
More than 15% of Salvadorans live abroad, mostly in the U.S. (L.A Times source), and a large chunk of those are based in Los Angeles.
‘During a stump speech [in El Salvador] Funes attacked as ‘immoral’ a new 4-cent-a-minute tax on international phone calls. The issue is sensitive. More than 800,000 Salvadorans have migrated to the United States but keep ties to family members back home,’ writes Ken Ellingwood.
Funes is a newcomer to politics but has jolted El Salvador by grabbing a sizable early lead in the presidential race as the candidate of the leftist group that fought a guerrilla war in the country two decades ago.
In visits to the United States in recent months, he has met with officials to assure them that as president he would retain close relations with the U.S., particularly on issues such as regional drug trafficking and organized crime.
-- Reed Johnson in Los Angeles and Deborah Bonello in Mexico City
