The big issues in the election are likely to be crime and the economy. Handal, 72, who recently won the FMLN party primary, said that his priorities will be to combat poverty, overcome the 'economic crisis' and deepen democracy. To achieve this, he says, he will introduce a fiscal reform and renegotiate the country's foreign debt. He will also review all the privatisation contracts. Handal added that he would give more details at the FMLN's national convention at the end of August.
Some of what Handal said is nonsense. He said that he would restore the colón as the currency, but would not abandon dollarisation. This would seem to mean that the country was planning on copying Panama. More seriously, Handal said that he would restore the IRA, the price control agency for basic foods. It was wound up in 1989. Handal also seems to have a bee in his bonnet about Palestine: he said that the country would move its embassy in Israel from Jerusalem to Tel Aviv and establish diplomatic links with the Palestinian Authority.
Handal emphasised that he would pursue a relationship of 'friendship and cooperation' with the US. Washington distrusts the FMLN, and especially Handal, who fought in the 1980s civil war against the US-backed rightwing government.
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