Weekly Report - 14 May 2009 (WR-09-19)

El Salvador's President-elect Mauricio Funes is getting a real taste of the difficulties that lie ahead. Two months after his electoral triumph and a little over two weeks before he takes office on 1 June, Funes has not named a cabinet. The delay is due to tension with hardliners in the left-wing Frente Farabundo Martí­ para la Liberación Nacional (FMLN), who want a quota of cabinet members and a “filter" to weed out any reactionary or recidivist elements in his political support cast, the Amigos de Mauricio Funes (AMF).
 
The internal tension with the orthodox wing of the FMLN comes days after the right-wing constructed a bloc in congress to constrain Funes [WR-09-18]. No less a figure than the FMLN party coordinator, Medardo González, attested to the differences over the composition of the cabinet. Sigfrido Reyes, the FMLN spokesman and vice-president of the legislative assembly, explained that the party is concerned that Funes could dilute his promise of change by appointing “opportunists" from the Right who have infiltrated the AMF.

End of preview - This article contains approximately 395 words.

Subscribers: Log in now to read the full article

Not a Subscriber?

Choose from one of the following options

• Subscribe
• Sign up for a one-time, 14-day trial