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Dave is right, as was Greg who posted shortly before I did. I was not up to date on El Salvador. There is deepening polarization among the forces representing "change" in Latin America. Funes' vague support for the "elected" successor to the coup regime is one signal, but more important is his break process with the FMLN. El Salvador was ultra-polarized long before Honduras. As in Nicaragua, the civil war still lives, and also the US role in it. I note the assertion that the "government" does not agree with Funes on this. Given that this is a presidential system, the claim that the "government" has a different position than the president is an indication of a governmental crisis, no? I still think the decision of Funes to visit Cuba is a positive step and an important and, I will bet, a controversial one. This indicates that Funes is looking for a middle ground between Venezuela and Honduras, between the FMLN and ARENA. Unless he goes for one or the other, I tend to think he is doomed to face a military/ARENA coup of some kind. Perhaps he will save his position by aligning flatly with ARENA. Simply being an Obamist is not enough. He must be an Obamist of US imperialism's currently chosen party in El Salvador. They have something to say about this and their Obamism is more like the Honduran golpistas' "Obamism" than Obamism in its "placate the savages" at home form. His overall course points in that direction. But whether he will do that is not decided -- he clearly wants for the moment to hold his left cover, to present himself as a safe and sane alternative to both the FMLN and ARENA. This is not the kind of government that Washington has been very obviously pleased to get, despite the question marks around its future, in Honduras. Fred Feldman ________________________________________________ Send list submissions to: [email protected] Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
