election rhetoric, Funes is likely to govern fairly center-left (which will be a big change from ARENA). The real concern about FMLN politicians is that because of party rules on term limits about the time a legislator built up substantive expertise and cross party connections he was term limited out of office. Note that this was not law but FMLN rules. So a lot of power resides in the professional cadre of the FMLN whether it has hels office or not.

A friend of mine - and student at the Center for Hemispheric Defense Studies in my seminar group - was an FMLN Comandante during the war and later served on the Defense Committee of the Assembly where he was best friends with the ARENA chairman, a retired Army COL. He was term limited out. In fact, when I met him at a seminar we held in San Salvador, he and another COL were chatting after the session about where they had been in Feb 87. It turns out that the COL and the Comandante had both been operating in Cabanas department on opposite sides. At that point, I interjected that I, too, had been in Cabanas in Feb 87, observing the operations of the Bracamonte Immediate Reaction Bn as part of a team from Southcom's Small Wars operations Research Directorate (SWORD).

While we will have to see what transpires in the new govt, Funes seems like an appropriate choice to lead the FMLN as a responsible govt.

Cheers

JohnT