SAN SALVADOR – Two decades after Marxist rebels battled US-armed governments in El Salvador, US secretary of state Hillary Clinton yesterday celebrated the presidential inauguration of a left-wing leader of the rebels’ party and called it a testament to democracy.
Mrs Clinton joined officials from about 75 countries at the inauguration of Mauricio Funes, leader of the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front, a party of former Marxist guerrillas that has softened its traditional anti-American stance under Mr Funes.
“It’s a real testament to the strength and durability of democracy in the Americas,” Mrs Clinton said of the inauguration as she arrived in El Salvador on Sunday for a three-day visit to Latin America.
Mr Funes is a former TV journalist who hosted local news programmes critical of past governments. He won El Salvador’s presidential election in March.
It was a momentous victory for the left in a nation where memories of a civil war that killed 75,000 people, many by right-wing death squads, hang heavy over politics.
The inauguration ends two decades of rule by the right-wing and pro-US Arena party. Mr Funes has said he will have his own style of left-wing government and has no reason to model himself on Venezuela’s socialist president Hugo Chavez or Nicaragua’s Daniel Ortega, neither of whom attended the inauguration. – (Reuters)