The following is abridged from an open letter distributed by the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN) Committees in Australia on August 25.
The elections in 2009 constitute a crucial point in the history of the Salvadoran nation. The Salvadoran oligarchy has historically governed El Salvador badly, with the common factors of:
•physical, moral and ideological repression;
•poor investment of state funds;
•incapacity to develop public administration;
•lack of concern about the large problems for the poor, and for sectors of the middle class and small and medium businesses;
•irresponsible exploitation of the natural resources and the environment;
•lack of improvement of life and health indices for the Salvadoran people;
•demagogically driven state planning;
•lack of political and socio-economic openings for opposition political and labour organisations; and
•the use of fraud in elections.
The [current] ARENA government has not even implemented the terms of the peace accords negotiated with the FMLN from the start of the 1990s.
Ten Salvadorans are assassinated each day, [a situation that is] tolerated by the state justice and public security bodies. State officials are implicated in homicides. The unilateral amnesty legislated by ARENA is a false instrument for the protection of criminals [who have been identified] in investigations by the United Nations Organisation for El Salvador and human rights organisations.
We demand:
1. That the ARENA government direct President Saca to put an end to the wave of assassinations of Salvadorans. The ARENA government long ago lost the moral authority to govern by permitting the loss of countless lives in El Salvador.
2. That the government stop the interference by their officials in political campaigning. Their function is to govern responsibly, not to perpetuate power.
3. That the Supreme Electoral Tribunal cease behaving dictatorially, permit the opposition to do its work, and implement clean and just elections, as is its constitutional function.
We call on the international community to remain attentive to the elections in El Salvador, help there to be just and transparent elections, and participate as observers for the elections.
Hope is born! Change is coming!