FMLN leadership chooses Sánchez Cerén for 2014

This week El Faro reports on a meeting of FMLN top leadership where a vote was taken to designate Salvador Sánchez Cerén as the party's candidate for president in 2014.   The 50 top leaders of the party came together on April 10 to review the party's results in the March elections.   But beyond that, according to El Faro's sources, they reviewed possible presidential candidates and decided on Sánchez Cerén.  

The article reports that all present at the meeting felt that the election of Mauricio Funes had not really brought the party into power.   The FMLN does not feel like the party of the government.   So the party elite wants to make sure that the next presidential candidate will wear the red colors of the party  (and not the white shirt which Funes wore to distinguish himself from the party).

With that as a goal, the party leaders looked for who best represents the tradition of the FMLN.   That person they felt is "Leonel", the nom de guerre of Sánchez Cerén as a rebel commander during the civil war.

While this meeting was not an official nomination of the vice president as a candidate and won't be publicly discussed, El Faro indicates that party officials view the matter as largely closed.

So the FMLN has apparently decided to follow the model of its 2004 presidential campaign with Schafik Handal, where the left-wing party was trounced at the polls, rather than follow the model of its greatest success in the 2009 presidential election of Funes.   Apparently ideological purity is more important than the prospect of winning.  

Comments

ixa said…
Might cost them the election. Best to go with Oscar Ortiz.
jhardwick said…
Having a president who is only a nominal member of your party and wants nothing to do with its beliefs or ideology is not winning. Its the same with the Democrats here in the U.S. The last two Democratic presidents have done thier best to distance from everything the Democratic Party stands..errr...used to stand for. Michael Moore was dead on when he said that Bill Clinton was the best Republican president since Ike.