Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front

Not to be confused with the Farabundo Martí Popular Liberation Forces or the Sandinista National Liberation Front (abbreviated FSLN).

The Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (Spanish: Frente Farabundo Martí para la Liberación Nacional, abbreviated FMLN) is a Salvadoran political party and former guerrilla rebel group.

Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front Frente Farabundo Martí para la Liberación Nacional
Abbreviation	FMLN
Secretary-General	Óscar Ortiz
Founded	10 October 1980; 43 years ago (1980-10-10)
Registered	14 December 1992; 31 years ago (1992-12-14)
Merger of	FPL ERP National Resistance Communist Party PRTC
Headquarters	27 Calle Poniente N. 1316. Colonia Layco, San Salvador, El Salvador
Newspaper	Frente
Youth wing	Farabundo Martí Youth
Membership (2019)	40,326^[1]
Ideology	Democratic socialism^[2] Catholic socialism^[3] Liberation theology^[4]^[5]^[6] Left-wing nationalism^[7] Left-wing populism^[8] Historically: Marxism–Leninism^[9]
Political position	Left-wing^[10]^[11] to far-left^[12]^[13] Historically: Far-left^[14]
Religion	Roman Catholicism^[6]
Regional affiliation	Parliamentary Group of the Left
Continental affiliation	São Paulo Forum COPPPAL
Colors	Red
Seats in the Legislative Assembly	4 / 84
Municipalities	20 / 262
Seats in PARLACEN	1 / 20
Party flag
Website
fmln.org.sv
Politics of El Salvador Political parties Elections

The FMLN was formed as an umbrella group on 10 October 1980, from five leftist guerrilla organizations; the Farabundo Martí Popular Liberation Forces (FPL), the People's Revolutionary Army (ERP), the National Resistance (RN), the Partido Comunista Salvadoreño (PCS) and the Partido Revolucionario de los Trabajadores Centroamericanos (PRTC). The FMLN was one of the main participants in the Salvadoran Civil War. After the Chapultepec Peace Accords were signed in 1992, all armed FMLN units were demobilized and their organization became a legal left-wing political party in El Salvador.

On 15 March 2009, the FMLN won the presidential elections with former journalist Mauricio Funes as its candidate. Two months earlier in municipal and legislative elections, the FMLN won the majority of the mayoralties in the country and a plurality of the National Assembly seats.^[15] Funes is now wanted by the Salvadoran authority for corrupt actions, such as illegally laundering more than $700,000 in his personal bank account and was found guilty of illegal enrichment by the Supreme Court. Funes and his son fled to Nicaragua, where they were granted political asylum by Daniel Ortega and became citizens.

Civil war and emergence

Tensions began to build between the farmers and the elite class in the time leading up to the Salvadoran Civil War including political assassinations by the Salvadoran government on outspoken critics starting in the early 1970s. In 1979, farmers went on strike for higher wages and better working conditions on Hacienda California, a large farm in Tierra Blanca. Due to this strike, National Guard troops responded to the growing violence in Tierra Blanca using military force. As the violence spread into the residential areas of El Salvador, animosity heightened between the campesinos and the elite class. The previously politically withdrawn campesinos began to join the FMLN and other left-wing guerrilla groups.^[16]

On 17 December 1979, in a period of national crisis, the three dominant organizations (FPL, RN and PCS) of the Salvadoran left formed the Coordinadora Político-Militar (CPM). The CPM's first manifesto was released on 10 January 1980, and the day after, the Coordinadora Revolucionaria de Masas was formed as a union of revolutionary mass organizations. CRM later merged with the Frente Democrático Salvadoreño to form the Frente Democrático Revolucionario.

It is alleged by the United States that some credit for the unity of the five organizations that formed the FMLN may belong to Cuba's Fidel Castro, who facilitated negotiation between the groups in Havana in December 1979. However, neither the Cuban nor Soviet government were significantly responsible for forming FMLN, although it received some of its arms and supplies from the Soviet Union and Cuba. While all five groups called themselves revolutionaries and socialists, they had serious ideological and practical differences, and there had been serious conflicts, even including in some cases bloodshed, between some of the groups during the 1970s.

On 22 May 1980, the success of negotiations led to the union of the major guerrilla forces under one flag. The Unified Revolutionary Directorate (Dirección Revolucionaria Unificada [es]) was created by the FPL, RN, ERP and PCS. DRU consisted of three Political Commission members from each of these four organizations. The DRU manifesto declared, "There will be only one leadership, only one military plan and only one command, only one political line." Despite continued infighting, DRU succeeded in coordinating the group's efforts and equipped forces.

 

Banner used until 1992.

On 10 October 1980, the four organizations formed the Frente Farabundo Martí de Liberación Nacional (FMLN), taking the name of Farabundo Martí, the peasant leader during the 1932 Salvadoran peasant massacre. In December 1980, the Salvadoran branch of the Partido Revolucionario de los Trabajadores Centroamericanos broke away from its central organization and affiliated itself to FMLN. Thus the FMLN was composed of the following organizations at the time of the peace accords in 1992 (listed in the order of size):

• Bloque Popular Revolucionario (BPR), armed wing Fuerzas Populares de Liberación, "Farabundo Martí", (FPL)
• Partido Comunista Salvadoreño (PCS), armed wing Fuerzas Armadas de Liberación (FAL)
• Partido de la Revolución Salvadoreña (PRS), armed wing Ejército Revolucionario del Pueblo, ERP (El Salvador)
• Resistencia Nacional (RN), armed wing Fuerzas Armadas de la Resistencia Nacional (RN-FARN)
• Partido Revolucionario de los Trabajadores Centroamericanos (PRTC), armed wing Ejército Revolucionario de los Trabajadores Centroamericanos, (ERTC)

Youth organizations of FMLN at the time of armed struggle included: Student unions (High Schools):

• MERS – Movimiento Estudiantil Revolucionario de Secundaria (BPR)
• BRES – Brigadas Revolucionarias de Estudiantes de Secundaria (MLP)
• LPS – Ligas Populares de Secundaria (LP-28)
• AES – Asociación de Estudiantes de Secundaria (PCS)
• ARDES – Acción Revolucionaria de Estudiantes de Secundaria (FAPU)

Student unions (Universities):

• AGEUS – Asociación General de Estudiantes de la Universidad de El Salvador
• FUERSA – Frente Universitario de Estudiantes Revolucionarios "Salvador Allende"

Armed struggle

 

A Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN) soldier takes aim during a wartime “road advisory” near Suchitoto, El Salvador (1984).

After the formation of the FMLN, the group organized its first major military offensive on 10 January 1981. During this offensive, the FMLN established operational control over large sections of Morazán and Chalatenango departments, which remained largely under guerrilla control throughout the rest of the civil war. Insurgents ranged from children to the elderly, both male and female, and most were trained in FMLN camps in the mountains and forests of El Salvador to learn military techniques.

Another large FMLN offensive was in November 1989. In that offensive, the FMLN caught the Salvadoran government and military off guard by taking control of large sections of the country and entering the capital, San Salvador. In San Salvador, the FMLN quickly took control of many of the poor neighborhoods until denied support of violence and tried to avoid being at risk and involved in the conflict as the military bombed their positions—including residential neighborhoods^[17] to drive the FMLN out. One of the most famous battles in San Salvador took place in the Sheraton Hotel, where guerrillas and army soldiers battled floor by floor. The FMLN's November 1989 offensive did not succeed in overthrowing the government. Many analysts pointed to the FMLN's show of strength in the 1989 offensive as the turning point in the war, where it became clear that the government would not be able to defeat the FMLN militarily. Soon after the November 1989 offensive, the U.S. government started to support negotiations to end the civil war, whereas up to that point they had pursued a policy of military defeat of the FMLN. Since the U.S. government was the major funder of the Salvadoran government and military, it exercised considerable influence over the course of events. When the U.S. began to advocate negotiations instead of a military solution, a negotiated peace accord between the FMLN and the Salvadoran government was reached in fairly short order in 1992, despite a few incidents that could have marred the accord, such as the high-profile murder of the peace-seeking FPL commandante Antonio Cardenal, aka Jesus Rojas.

The United Nations has estimated that the FMLN guerrillas were responsible for 5% of the murders of civilians during the civil war, while approximately 85% of all killings of civilians were committed by the Salvadoran armed forces and death squads.^[18]

After the peace accords: participation in elections

 

Schafik Hándal hands over a declaration of solidarity to the Ambassador of Venezuela

After the ceasefire established by the 1992 Chapultepec Peace Accords, the FMLN became a legal political party. The FMLN has now participated in elections since 1994.

 

An FMLN rally with Hándal in Jiquilisco, prior to the presidential election in 2004

The FMLN and the right-wing Nationalist Republican Alliance (ARENA) are the two dominant political parties in El Salvador. Since 2000, the FMLN has gone back and forth with ARENA in controlling the largest number of Legislative Assembly seats. The FMLN has controlled the mayor's offices in many of the large cities of El Salvador since 1997, including the capital, San Salvador, and the neighboring city Santa Tecla. The FMLN mayor of San Salvador, was Violeta Menjívar, the first female mayor of San Salvador, who was elected in a narrow victory in 2006. The death of the FMLN's long standing leader, Jorge Schafik, boosted Violeta Menjivar's political campaign which ultimately led her to narrow win in the election of San Salvador's mayor. Schafik's death also boosted several FMLN political candidates running for positions in El Salvador's Legislative Assembly. The FMLN mayor of Santa Tecla was Oscar Ortiz, who served in that position since 2000.

In the legislative elections, held on 16 March 2003, the FMLN won 34% of the popular vote and 31 out of 84 seats in the Legislative Assembly of El Salvador, becoming the political party with the most assembly members. The FMLN's candidate in the 21 March 2004 presidential election, Schafik Hándal, won 35.6% of the vote, but was defeated by Antonio Saca of ARENA.

In the 2006 legislative election, held on 12 March 2006, the FMLN won 39.7% of the popular vote and 32 out of 84 legislative assembly seats. The FMLN also retained the mayor's seats in the largest cities of El Salvador, San Salvador and Santa Tecla, and hundreds of other municipalities. This was possible because one of the largest progressive coalitions in El Salvador called The Popular Social Bloc formed a pact with FMLN to help the political party win more seats in the Legislative Assembly. However, most other coalitions and groups dedicated to social change have kept away from the political party. Two months before the elections of 2009, however, the FMLN lost the mayoralty of San Salvador.

At the 18 January 2009 legislative elections, FMLN won 42.6% of the vote and 35 seats. FMLN is the largest party in the Salvadoran legislature, though it did not have a governing majority.

On 15 March 2009, the FMLN's candidate Mauricio Funes won the presidential elections. He was inaugurated in June 2009 as the first president coming from the FMLN party. The FMLN also organized support groups during the 2009 election in order to secure votes as well as gaining more volunteers to help in the upcoming elections.

In March 2014, Vice President of El Salvador from 2009–2014, Salvador Sánchez Cerén, was elected as the new President of El Salvador. Cerén's presidential win assured the FMLN would have a party member in the presidential office for another five years.^[19]

Post-war splits and internal changes

At the end of the civil war in 1992, the FMLN became a legal political party. At the end of the war, the FMLN still comprised the five political parties—FPL, CP, ERP, RN, PRTC—each of which retained its own organizational structure but with a leader. During the civil war, and continuing in the post-war period, people did not directly join the FMLN per se, but joined one of the five component groups.

1994 – ERP and RN leaders split

After the end of the war, it became clear that there were serious divisions within the FMLN, some of which had existed during the war but had been somewhat hidden from the general public. Particularly it became clear between 1992 and 1994 that the leaders of the ERP and the RN had a number of disagreements with the leaders of the other parties. Soon after the 1994 Legislative Assembly elections, the leaders of the ERP and the RN left the FMLN, and took many of their members with them. The leaders of this split (including FMLN commandante Joaquin Villalobos of the ERP) then formed the Partido Democrata (Democratic Party), which was short-lived. Many members of the ERP and RN who had left in 1994 then returned to the FMLN.

1995 – Dissolving the five organizations to become a single party

After the 1994 elections and the 1994 split, momentum grew to unify the FMLN into a single organization without separate internal parties. In 1995, the five parties that had formed the FMLN dissolved themselves. It is at that point that the FPL, CP, ERP, RN and PRTC ceased to exist, and what remained was a unified FMLN. Then people could join the FMLN directly instead of having to join one of its component parties. While this decision liquidated the parallel organizational structures inside the FMLN, there still remained strong loyalties along historic organizational lines, some of which can still be seen today.

Renovadores split

In the 1999 presidential election, the FMLN ran Facundo Guardado as its candidate. This was a contentious decision, and many in the FMLN did not support Guardado, as they believed that his politics were moving to the right. Out of this internal conflict, two organized tendencies emerged in the FMLN—the Renovadores ("Renovators" or "Renewal Movement") and the Corriente Revolucionario y Socialista (CRS—Revolutionary Socialist Current). The two main leaders of the CRS were the historic FMLN leaders Schafik Hándal and Salvador Sanchez Ceren. The main leader of the Renovadores was Facundo Guardado. As a charismatic former FPL commander, Guardado had a base of supporters in the FMLN. He criticized the historic leadership as being too communist and called for a renovated ideology. The CRS criticized Guardado for advocating social democratic politics and for not being clearly against neoliberalism.

After a couple years of internal turmoil, in which the Revolutionary Socialist Current won the majority of the internal elections in the organization, Guardado became more frustrated, publicly attacked the FMLN leaders he didn't agree with, and took actions contrary to decisions the party had made. He was expelled from the party and some of his supporters left the FMLN. Guardado tried to form the Renovadores as its own political party, but they received negligible support in the 2003 election and then ceased to exist as a party.

After the Renovadores vs Revolutionary Socialist Current factionalism, the FMLN's leadership decided to stop organized internal tendencies, and none have emerged since then.

2005 – FDR split

In 2004 and 2005, the FMLN experienced another split. Five FMLN Legislative Assembly members and a number of their supporters left the FMLN to form a new political party, the Democratic Revolutionary Front (Spanish: Frente Democratico Revolucionario). Some of the principal leaders of this split were Ileana Rogel and Francisco Jovel. The people who left to form the FDR chose this name because it has a legacy in the Salvadoran movement; an organization by the same name was formed under the leadership of the FMLN during the civil war to bring together parties and individuals doing legal political work during the civil war. As opposed to previous splits from the FMLN which openly proclaimed that they were ideologically 'center' or 'center-left' or were no longer self-declared "revolutionaries", the people who split to form the FDR claimed to still be part of the leftist legacy of the FMLN. In the 2006 elections, no FDR candidates won office, except for the incumbent mayor of Nejapa, Rene Canjura. Canjura was a popular FMLN mayor of the municipality of Nejapa for three consecutive periods, and therefore under FMLN statutes, would not have been eligible to run for a fourth consecutive period. So he left the FMLN and successfully ran in 2006 as the FDR candidate. No other FDR candidates won any electoral victories in 2006.

2009 and 2014 – FMLN candidates elected president

On Sunday, 15 March 2009, an FMLN candidate, Mauricio Funes, was elected President of El Salvador.^[20] On 10 February 2016, the El Salvador Supreme Court ruled that Funes would face a civil trial for charges of illegally laundering more than $700,000 in personal bank accounts. On 28 November 2017, El Salvador's second civil court found Funes guilty of illegal enrichment.^[21]

In 2014 election Salvador Sánchez Cerén of FMLN was narrowly elected as the new President of El Salvador.^[22]

In opposition (2019–)

FMLN lost both 2019 presidential election and 2021 legislative election dominated by new Nuevas Ideas (New Ideas) party of president Nayib Bukele.^[23]

Ideology

The Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front was heavily inspired by Cuban Revolution and was based on Marxism-Leninism as well as liberation theology. The communist foundations of the party were however not aligned with Soviet communism, but with "Western Marxism" that developed from the ideology of Ernest Mandel, Trường Chinh and most importantly Ché Guevara; Marxist-Leninist thought was infused with the concepts of revolutionary nationalism and national liberation, and lack of national autonomy was considered an expression of landowning elite's interests.^[24] Liberation theology, which in case of FMNL represents a strand of Catholic socialism,^[25] was developed by radicalized priests connecting to the most depressed areas of El Salvador, founding Christian base communities and worker associations and supporting rural communities through charity work and literacy campaigns. Middle-class youth of Catholic universities became exposed to the misery of the Salvadoran working class, and the teaching of liberation theology provided them with justification of violence and armed struggle in name of improving working and living conditions.^[24]

Catholic clergy had a prominent role within the FLMN, as apart from being considered "authentic representatives" of Salvadoran people that legitimatized and popularized FMLN in the eyes of Salvadoran peasantry, Catholic priests would also join the party directly and become guerrillas, with at least one priest becoming a commander. Because of this, FMLN was described as "the merging of the popular church and the political opposition".^[26] In response to the growing radicalization and opposition to Somoza amongst the Church, the FSLN incorporated a Catholic message into its program; this was augmented by left-wing Catholic organizations such as the Movimiento Cristiano Revolucionario joining the FSLN, whose members would assume high responsibilities within the Sandinista government.^[27] FMLN was born through liberation theology priests who promoted the "conscientization" of the Salvadoran working class, who argued that their desperation and poverty was not "God's will or the result of their own failures" but rather the consequence of capitalism; the party would even earn the support of Archbishop Óscar Romero, who believed that oppressive conditions made some forms of violence acceptable, stating: "Christians are not afraid of combat; they know how to fight, but they prefer the language of peace. However, when a dictatorship seriously violates human rights and attacks the common good of the nation, when it becomes unbearable and closes all channels of dialogue, when this happens, the Church speaks of the legitimate right of insurrectional violence." The clergy was further radicalized after Romero was murdered by a right-wing death squad, with priests such as Rogelio Poncel fleeing to mountains and joining the Marxist-Leninist ERP guerillas there, which would later become one of the co-founders of the FMLN. Justifying his decision, Romero wrote: "The Bible confronts the established order. It must be seen from the point of view of the poor, and Christ was poor .... A Christian, a priest, must of necessity be a revolutionary. How can we conform what we preach with a system that oppresses and exploits?" Given the Catholic nature of the movement, most FMLN members and guerilla fighters were Catholics who "understood revolution in the language of religion".^[28]

The FMLN has a symbiotic relationship with the Catholic Church marked by mutual support, leading political scientists to compare the party to the similarly pro-Catholic Sandinista National Liberation Front of Nicaragua. FMLN worked closely together with the Revolutionary Democratic Front led by Catholic Democrats who rebelled against the government following the murder of Enrique Álvarez Córdova. The FMLN built an extensive network of ties and connections to Salvadoran Catholic Democrats through churches and other religious organizations, with rural church-run communities known as Christian Base Communities (CEBs) becoming the main source of party's support, shelter and recruitment. Through liberation theology, Salvadoran clergy would radicalize the local peasantry into joining and aiding the FMLN; in 1977, one Jesuit remarked: "Slowly the peasants began to abandon their fatalism, slowly they began to understand that their hunger, their disease, their infant mortality, their unemployment, their unpaid wages, were not the will of God but the result of the greed of a few Salvadorans and of their own passivism."^[5]

Being initially a mix of Marxism-Leninism and liberation theology,^[29] the FMLN would moderate in the late 1980s and hold peace talks with the Salvadoran government, demanding power-sharing and transition to democratic rule. The leaders of FMLN and FDR established alliances and agreements with social-democrats figures from Latin America, Canada and Europe, which caused their political mutation as the prospect of a negotiated settlement became more and more possible. After building a potent front of social democratic governments of Europe and Latin America that opposed U.S. policy in Central America, the FMLN gradually abandoned Marxism-Leninism and embraced democratic socialism between 1988 and 1991 while maintaining its close ties to the Catholic Church. Catholic allies of the FMLN would call the moderation of the party "its own aggiornamento, its own Vatican II."^[2]

Party structure

The FMLN's headquarters is located at 11 Poniente Street N. 1316. Colonia Layco in San Salvador, the country's capital city.^[30]

Electoral history

Presidential elections

Election	Candidate	First round		Second round		Result	Ref.
		Votes	%	Votes	%
1994	Rubén Zamora Rivas	325,582	24.90%	378,980	31.65%	Lost  N
1999	Facundo Guardado	343,472	29.05%
2004	Schafik Jorge Hándal	812,519	35.68%
2009	Mauricio Funes	1,354,000	51.32%			Elected  Y
2014	Salvador Sánchez Cerén	1,315,768	48.92%	1,495,815	50.11%
2019	Hugo Martínez	389,289	14.41%			Lost  N
2024	Manuel Flores	204,167	6.40%				^[31]

Legislative Assembly elections

Election	Votes	%	Position	Seats	+/–	Status in legislature
1994	287,811	21.39%	2nd	21 / 84	21	Opposition
1997	369,709	33.02%		27 / 84	6
2000	426,289	35.22%		31 / 84	4
2003	475,043	33.96%	1st	31 / 84
2006	624,635	39.69%		32 / 84	1
2009	943,936	42.60%		35 / 84	3	Government
2012	804,760	36.76%	2nd	31 / 84	4
2015	847,289	37.23%		31 / 84
2018	521,257	24.54%		23 / 84	13
2021	173,330	6.94%	4th	4 / 84	19	Opposition
2024	To be determined

See also

• List of political parties in El Salvador
• Politics of El Salvador

References

Citations

1. "Óscar Ortiz se proclama secretario general del FMLN". 17 June 2019. from the original on 16 September 2020. Retrieved 4 March 2021.
2. Chávez 2015, pp. 1784–1797.
3. Jamal, Manal A. (2019). Promoting Democracy: The Force of Political Settlements in Uncertain Times. New York University Press. pp. 61–63. ISBN 9781479811380.
4. Álvarez 2010, p. 11: "The other main element of the cultural repertoire in which the first guerrilla militants were socialised politically was liberation theology."
5. Martinez, Joanna H. (May 2012). "I Am Prepared for Anything": Christian Martyrdom, Civil Society, and Myths of Modernity in Cold War El Salvador and Poland (Master of Arts in History thesis). Newark, New Jersey: Rutgers University. p. 6. My contention is that the Church's ideology of liberation, whether appriopriated by the Salvadoran FMLN or the Polish Solidarność, did not simply represent the struggle of insurgent societies toward the opposite political poles; in other words, FMLN did not simply fight for communism, nor did Solidarność for capitalism.
6. Crandall 2016, pp. 56–57: "Another activist interviewed after the war ended in 1992 described his evolution: "Here there were people working for the emergence of the Frente [FMLN]. It is correct to mention the Catholic Church and the university of the campesinos. Strategically, the [peasant training centers] taught with the Bible in hand, but in truth the purpose was to orient us to our own reality. These people moved about under the cover of the church itself; they were the beginnings of the FMLN." Indeed, the FMLN relied upon "two main sources" for its guerrilla fighters and "rear guard" supporters: the Communist Party and these religious activists "radicalized" through liberation theology. Yet, while these two campesinos and thousands more like them might well have joined an armed Marxist insurgency, most guerrilla fighters remained Catholics who "understood revolution in the language of religion.""
7. Paszyn, Danuta (2016). The Soviet Attitude to Political and Social Change in Central America 1979-1990, Case Studies: Nicaragua, El Salvador and Guatemala (PDF) (Master of Philosophy thesis). School of Slavonic and East European Studies, University College London. p. 160.
8. "Mauricio Funes: His Way". from the original on 25 March 2023. Retrieved 25 March 2023.
9. Chávez 2015, pp. 1787–1788: "As an extension of this process, the FMLN leadership gradually relinquished the movement's Marxist-Leninist ideology and embraced democratic socialism between 1988 and 1991."
10. Beetham, David; Bracking, Sarah; Kearton, Iain; Vittal, Nalini; Weir, Stuart, eds. (2002). The State of Democracy: Democracy Assessments in Eight Nations Around the World. Kluwer Law International. p. 29. ISBN 90-411-1931-0.
11. West, Jacqueline, ed. (2002) [1985]. South America, Central America and the Caribbean 2002 (10th ed.). Europa Publications. ISBN 1-85743-121-9.
12. O'Grady, Mary Anastasia (19 August 2012). "El Salvador's VP Campaigns for Votes in N.Y." Wall Street Journal. One occurred days after the crisis when El Salvador's far-left Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN) political party turned a street rally in San Salvador into a celebration of the carnage.
13. "USAID/El Salvador Operational Plan FY 2006" (PDF). U.S. Agency for International Development. 15 June 2006. p. 4. ISSN 1949-7288. Although, political polarization has increased between the far left FMLN and the governing ARENA party, President Saca has proven that he can govern effectively.
14. Gans, Duncan (2019). "Midterm Decline in Comparative Perspective". Honors Projects. Bowdoin Digital Commons. 121. Although the competitivity and success for the PDC was a promising sign of democracy, the far left FMLN party refused to run candidates, and likely would have been prohibited anyways.
15. "Richard Gott: Victory for the left in el Salvador". TheGuardian.com. 16 March 2009. from the original on 31 May 2019. Retrieved 31 May 2019.
16. Wood, Elisabeth Jean (2003). Insurgent Collective Action and Civil War. Cambridge Studies in Comparative Politics. Cambridge University Press. pp. 1–4, 14–15. doi:10.1017/CBO9780511808685. ISBN 0521010500.
17. "El Salvador: 1945–92". www.fsmitha.com. from the original on 4 March 2022. Retrieved 4 February 2019.
18. "El Salvador : des guérilleros au pouvoir" [El Salvador: guerrillas in power]. Le Monde diplomatique (in French). 19 March 2009. from the original on 30 March 2019. Retrieved 4 February 2019.
19. Partlow, Joshua (14 March 2014). "Former guerrilla wins presidential vote in El Salvador". The Washington Post. from the original on 22 April 2018. Retrieved 4 May 2018.
20. Schmidt, Blake; Malkin, Elisabeth (16 March 2009). "Leftist Party Wins Salvadoran Vote". The New York Times. from the original on 6 March 2023. Retrieved 2 May 2010.
21. "El Salvador: Ex-President Funes guilty of illicit enrichment". Associated Press. 28 November 2017.
22. "Ex-rebel becomes el Salvador leader". BBC News. June 2014. from the original on 6 July 2021. Retrieved 27 March 2021.
23. Dyde, James (1 March 2021). "El Salvador Legistative Elections 2021 | www.centralamerica.com". Central America. from the original on 13 April 2021. Retrieved 19 January 2023.
24. Álvarez 2010, p. 11.
25. Jamal, Manal A. (2019). Promoting Democracy: The Force of Political Settlements in Uncertain Times. New York University Press. p. 262. ISBN 9781479811380.
26. Nepstad, Sharon Erickson (1996). "Popular Religion, Protest, and Revolt: The Emergence of Political Insurgency in the Nicaraguan and Salvadoran Churches of the 1960s—80s". In Smith, C. (ed.). Disruptive Religion (pp. 105–124). Routledge. ISBN 0-41-5-91404-3.
27. Kirk, John M. (1992). Politics And The Catholic Church In Nicaragua. University Press of Florida. p. 121. ISBN 9780813011387.
28. Crandall 2016, pp. 54–59.
29. Crandall 2016, p. 57.
30. "Partidos Políticos" [Political Parties]. Supreme Electoral Court (in Spanish). from the original on 3 April 2023. Retrieved 24 May 2023.
31. "En Vivo: Cierre de Escrutinio Final de la Elección de Presidente y Vicepresidente 2024" [Live: The Final Tally of the 2024 Election for President and Vice President Closes]. El Mundo (in Spanish). 9 February 2024. Retrieved 9 February 2024.

Sources

• Álvarez, Alberto Martín (1 November 2010). Dudouet, Véronique; Bloomfield, David (eds.). From Revolutionary War to Democratic Revolution: The Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN) in El Salvador. Berghof Conflict Research. ISBN 9783941514041.
• Arnson, Cynthia J., ed. (2003). El Salvador's Democratic Transition Ten Years After the Peace Accord (Report). Wilson Center.
• Chávez, Joaquín M. (2015). "How Did the Civil War in El Salvador End?". The American Historical Review. Oxford University Press on behalf of the American Historical Association. 120 (5).
• Crandall, Russell (2016). The Salvador Option: The United States in El Salvador, 1977-1992. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1-107-13459-1.
• Grenier, Yvon (27 July 2016). The Emergence of Insurgency in El Salvador: Ideology and Political Will. Springer. ISBN 978-1-349-14833-2. from the original on 6 March 2023. Retrieved 21 June 2022.
• Harnecker, Marta (1991). Con la mirada en alto: historia de las Fuerzas Populares de Liberación Farabundo Martí a través de entrevistas con sus dirigentes (in Spanish). Tercera Prensa. ISBN 978-84-87303-09-8. from the original on 6 March 2023. Retrieved 21 June 2022.

External links

 

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Frente Farabundo Martí para la Liberación Nacional.

• Official website (in Spanish)