ARENA Presidential Candidate marches with Military Veterans, Sept. 2008

ARENA Presidential Candidate Joins Military Veterans March, Part of a Strategy to Create Fear that Military will Rebel if FMLN Candidate becomes President

September 9th, 2008 

This Sunday, the Association of Military Veterans (ASVEM), comprised of ex-military members from the Salvadoran Civil War, marched in San Salvador joined by Rodrigo Avila, the presidential candidate for the right wing party National Republican Alliance (ARENA).

At the ASVEM meeting, Avila said that if the Mauricio Funes, the left wing presidential candidate from the Farabundi Marti Liberation Front (FMLN), wins the presidency, Funes will likely abolish the military, or overturn the 1993 Amnesty Law and bring the ex-military members to trial. He stated that if this were to happen, it would create social upheaval in the country. Mauricio Funes has denied both claims and assured that he will not abolish either institution.

René Emilio Ponce, the ex-minister of defence who is accused of involvement in the murder of the six Jesuit priests in 1989, heads the ASVEM. On Sunday he said that the ASVEM was created in order to defend the country from enemies of liberty. He has promised that the ex- military members will be on alert to the actions that Funes promotes if he is to become president.

Rosa Valle, vice-president of the Association for the Development of El Salvador CRIPDES says that Avila’s statements at the ASVEM meeting on Sunday are part of a new fear strategy from the ARENA party.

¨Before the 2004 elections, ARENA said that Salvadorans in the US would be deported if the FMLN were to win, and people got scared and voted for ARENA. This year, that threat has not been effective. Therefore ARENA´s new strategy is to create fear within the population that if the FMLN wins, the military will rise up and a new armed conflict will begin. This is an extremely dangerous strategy.¨
Mauricio Funes has responded to Avila’s comments saying,

¨I worry because they are trying to heat up emotions, trying to create a situation of polarization and worse. They are trying to use the Armed Forces so that in the case that we win the elections, at the last moment, they (ARENA) have the option  to call on the Armed Forces to not permit the new government to take office next June.¨

Politicians from the left and a few from the right continue to call for the military to respect national institutions. Antonio Almendáriz, National Assembly Representative from the National Conciliation Party (PCN) and ex-coronal in the military, insists that the military must be an apolitical institution. He said, ¨The Armed Forces are apolitical and obedient…they have to obey the will of the people.¨

ASVEM’s actions on Sunday have been condemned by a number of institutions, including the Salvadoran Human Rights Commission (CDHES), who said that the march was an act of intimidation against the Salvadoran population. This is especially disturbing as the country hopes for democratic and just 2009 presidential elections.

 

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