Interview with El Salvador's President-Elect Mauricio Funes

(Latin Pulse: May 1, 2009) Link TV's Latin Pulse Team brings you an exclusive interview with El Salvador's president-elect Mauricio Funes in this second part of the special presentation "El Salvador: A Historic Election". El Salvador, a tiny Central American country, has elected its first leftist president. The Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front FMLN candidate Mauricio Funes won the election with 51.3% of the votes. Funes, 49, is a popular TV journalist with a reputation for honest and critical reporting. Funes' broadcasting journalism career spans over 20 years, including as a CNN correspondent for 15 years. In 1994 Funes was awarded the Columbian University Maria Moors Cabot Prize for outstanding reporting on Latin America and the Caribbean, and in 1996 he received a journalism prize from the Brazilian government. Real democracy may finally come to El Salvador with this unlikely FMLN candidate, who is individually more of a moderate than his colleagues. The president-elect faces many challenges, as El Salvador is gripped by economic and public-security crises. A quarter of the population depends on money sent by their relatives who are working in the United States. Yet these funds are drying up as the U.S. economic situation deteriorates. The nation has one of the highest homicide rates in the world: ten to twelve people die every day. Funes faces these issues, in addition to an angry, powerful and well-funded right wing, as well as hard-liners in his own party who may push for radical reforms. As Funes takes the reins of power on June 1st, people are waiting to see how U.S.-Salvadoran relations will change. For a long time, El Salvador has been a staunch U.S. ally. Now the smallest country in Central America has joined the increasing number of Latino American countries that have chosen a change to the left. However, with a new U.S. president warmly shaking hands with Funes, Brazils Lula, and even Venezuelas Hugo Chavez, many are hopeful about the future of Latin American-U.S. relations.