FMLN Mayors in 15 Towns

...With the war's end in 1992, municipal governments have been strengthened even further as a result of the process of decentralization...

...The FMLN's poor showing at the local level can also be explained in part by the profound changes that Salvadoran society experienced during the war years: on the political plane, the governing ARENA party had converted itself into a modern party of the right, leaving behind its extremist origins...

...This paradox-laden process constitutes the mayor is coo immediate antecedent to the FMLN's participation in his efforts is local governments, and marks many of the limitations oral Economj that the left has encountered...

...To address the problem of political inexperience, economic or various progressive NGOs funded rapid seminars and involved in s training courses on the municipal question...

...on the economic plane, remittances, principally from family members in the United States, had cushioned in large part the negative effects of the war and the economic crisis of the 1980s...

...First, if the FMLN is to construct a genuinely democratic municipal policy, it will have to reexamine how it relates to the various social sectors with which it was closely linked in the past, such as unions and social movements...

...This international aid has not, however, always contributed to better municipal management by the left...

...5. Of the five organizations that originally made up the FMLN-the Popular Liberation Forces (FLP), the Communist Party (PC), the Central American Revolutionary Workers Party (PRTC), the People's Expression of Renewal (ERP, originally the People's Revolutionary Army, with the same initials) and the National Resistance (RN)-the first three remain...

...Nevertheless, if the left is serious about promoting democratic forms of governance at the local level, it must acknowledge that strong social movements and organizations are more important than strong party structures...

...The munipalities governed by the FMLN have had little success working closely with local social movements since the spheres of action of the two do not necessarily coincide and social movements have little experience thinking territorially...

...The FMLN mayors consider their greatest obstacles to be fundamentally economic...

...Given that the first year of government has been marked by the division and recomposition of the left, the existence of this tendency is understandable...

...closely toget Various progressive NGOs hoped the FMLN may- Chalatenang oralties would provide an opportunity to promote the large nun democratization and human development, in particular dinated and through increasing citizen participation in local gov- NGOs hav ernment...

...These high union that r expectations were translated into demands that the 14 repopula FMLN simply could not satisfy, given the inexperience munities...

...These contradictory results, full of possibilities and obstacles, demonstrated what to many was already a certainty: the time needed to transform a group of armed organizations representing different political Mario Lungo is a researcher at the National Foundation for Development (FUNDE) in San Salvador and teaches at the Central American University "Jos6 Simeon Ca5ias...

...The FMLN must also address the current state of fragmentation among the various actors who participate in local political life...

...in that direct A neighborhood meeting in 1992 in Ciudad Segundo Montes, a part of the municipality of Meanguera, Morazin...

...tendencies into a political party was significantly longer than the time that passed between the signing of the peace accords in January, 1992 and the elections in March, 1994...

...Translated from the Spanish by NACLA...

...In a demonstration of its political maturity, the FMLN understood that the 1994 local elections were not simply a mechanism to politically co-opt the left...

...One case in point is Nejapa, recently included in the metropolitan area of San Salvador...

...As in other Latin American countries, in El Salvador the institution of local government has a long trajectory that served to prolong the Spanish colonial regime and permit caudillista-style political control over the population...

...Local government must coordinate its actions with the central government, the NGOs, and the social movements and organizations in the community, as well as with the neighboring municipalities with which it makes up regional units...

...The clock is ticking down for the left to familiarize itself with the local reality, to find innovative solutions to the day-to-day problems of its supporters, and to promote a more active, democratic citizenry...

...e instituihich the rdinating the Sectic System 'ecoluca's ne...

...At the national level, the FMLN emerged as the second most powerful political force in the country...

...LN municipal administrations have also t steps towards playing a more active role development...

...Or of its candidates and the limited resources at their dis- was an ex posal...

...At the municipal level, however, the left suffered an undeniable defeat, winning in only 15 mostly small municipalities [see map, p. 34...

...Those NGOs that are closely linked ular FMLN tendency to which the elected gs have tried to coordinate their work with ality, but the response of other NGOspendent, or aligned with different political r parties-has been heterogeneous...

...This belief was grounded in the area with t] FMLN's standing as an opposition force and an alter- Developmen native to the traditional parties which had been won not oration (C in the political arena, but in the battlefield...

...It has cess of the S become clear, however, that this kind of expertise can- few external not be acquired overnight...

...This article explores the FMLN's record to date at the helm of municipal government and the challenges that the organization will confront in the future...

...The onal orgiat links ng in the he Rural t CorpDR), a epresents ted comignally, it clusively Municipalities must make do with scarce resources because local tax collection is so minimal and the central government transfers so little money...

...3 This municipal aid led to the resurgence of local governance in El Salvador...

...The new code assigned local governments significant new functions, although not the resources to carry them out...

...Especially in small towns in agricultural areas, local governments should play an active role in economic development...

...The left has made modest advances in this reflecting the area...

...At the same time, however, the government of Christian Democrat Jos6 Napole6n Duarte (1984-1989) promoted the devolution of power to municipal governments by decreeing a municipal code in 1983...

...For many voters, however, this VOL XXIX, No 1 JuLY/AUG 1995 33REPORT ON LOCAL POLITICS The map indicates the 15 municipalities now governed by the FMLN and the departments in which they are found ambivalent attitude toward local political authority was never adequately explained by the FMLN in its electoral campaign...

...The FMLN mayors have also had to contend with the unforeseen difficulties arising from the organization's division (two of the five founding groups, one of them led by Joaquin Villalobos, left the organization in December), and the complex process of political recomposition that is underway right now...

...During the years of military dictatorship from 1931 until the early 1980s, control-at the municipal level-was wielded by the mayor, the military commander, and the priest...

...4. This situation is reminiscient of what occurred in the barriadas of Lima, which is discussed in Alfredo Rodriguez and Gustavo Riofrio, De invasores a invadidos (Buenos Aires: SIAP, 1972...

...One of the greatest efforts ion was the creation of a municipal coordinating body by the mayor of Suchitoto...

...The FMLN did not win in as many towns as expected and lost in many in the former conflict zones where it had a considerable presence, provoking uneasiness and perplexity among the organization's supporters...

...On top of this, the left has been harmed by the uneven distribution of this money...

...If FMLN administrations are to become an authentic expression of local self-rule, they must construct a more equitable relationship with social movements and put local economic development above party militancy...

...On the other hand, the more conservative sectors in the country and abroad shuddered at the thought that the left might win, roll back the reigning neoliberal logic of economic growth, and try to establish a revolutionary regime...

...The latter two pulled out of the FMLN to form, together with a small social-democratic group, the new Democratic Party...

...On top of that, social movements may be reluctant to join forces with local government-even those controlled by the left-given their negative memory of the political control that this level of government wielded in previous decades...

...Although economically and administratively weakened by the reforms of the 1950s, municipal governments continued being a key agent of social and political control...

...Since 1992, this support has been transferred to the program "Municipalities in Action," carried out by the Secretariat of National Reconstruction...

...If it cannot do this, the FMLN runs the risk of seeing its already reduced presence in local government shrink even further in the next elections...

...Moreover, the left must rethink the role of municipal government, moving beyond the functions assigned to it by the 1983 Municipal Code...

...The type of relationship that existed before and during the conflict was characterized by the verticality of decision-making...

...See also Mario Lungo, "Explorando el lado oculto de los resultados electorales de 1994 en El Salvador," in Realidad, No...

...2 This trinity of power began to break down in the 1970s when an important sector of the Salvadoran Church became radicalized and took up the defense of the country's poor...

...t is important to situate the present moment in the context of the role that local governments have traditionally played in Salvadoran political history...

...5 This turn of events has created unprecedented challenges for the FMLN's very political existence...

...Rather, they should be an authentic expression of local self-rule that links the State and civil society...

...This body attempts to bring together the widest-possible spectrum of organizations from civil society and the government to produce a local development plan...

...In Meanguera, where an FMLN candidate from the People's Expression of Renewal (ERP) won, significant aid has been channelled to Segundo Montes, a settlement created for repatriated refugees before the end of the conflict...

...This state of affairs has aggravated the already precarious financial state of the municipality...

...Decentralization is considered necessary not only for the democratization of the country but also for the new model of export-oriented economic growth which requires the existence of local NACLA REPORT ON THE AMERICASREPORT ON LOCAL POLITICS governments that can carry out social-welfare programs One of th that a pared-down central state apparatus can no longer tions with V assume...

...Although El Salvador's small size and relative ethnic homogeneity did not provide fertile ground for the development of strong regional differences, local governments have wielded significant political control since the nineteenth century...

...6. Elsewhere, I have argued that the significant political capital that the FMLN had during the war-its strong party organizationshas turned into one of the main obstacles in the way of its reconversion into a modern party of the left...

...In spite of the fact that the FMLN has not held local office for very long, some initial lessons can be drawn from its experience to date...

...FMLN municipal governments have also been criticized for being more concerned with militancy and strengthening party structures than with encouraging local development...

...Municipalities have maintained this control despite the fact that during the modernizing era of the State in the 1950s, many functions (such as the provision of some services, the granting of permits, and the collection of certain taxes) were taken away from municipal governments and turned over to the central government, which managed them in many cases through autonomous institutions...

...where the FMLN won have been limited...

...Nejapa's mayor claims that the neighboring municipalities of Apopa and Quetzaltepeque, won by ARENA, have received important economic support from the central government, while his own municipality has been denied such revenue...

...By contrast, in the municipalities of o and Morazin, also governed by the left, nber of external actors work in an uncoorfragmentary fashion...

...4 e not embraced the leftist mayors en masse, extreme atomization of the NGO commu[vador...

...40 (July/August, 1994), UCA, San Salvador 2. No research has been done in El Salvador concerning the constitution of local political power Neither have any studies been done about how the FMLN relates to the different expressions of local power, 3. The National Commission of Restoration of Areas (CONARA) began its activities in the conflict zones in the department of San Vicente in 1983...

...Several municipalities won by the FMLN have received significant support from the international community, both governmental and non-governmental...

...The left wanted not only to work on behalf of those who had voted for it but also to demonstrate to the population at large that it had the capacity to direct local development...

...The capital city of San Salvador alone absorbs close to 40%, and for political reasons, transfers to municipalities VOL XXIX, No 1 JuLY/AuG 199535 VOL XXIX, NO 1 JULY/AUG 1995 35REPORT ON LOCAL POLITICS A mural depicting town life before the war is next to a wall pockmarked with bullet holes...

...This centralizing arrangement was embedded in an import-substitution model of economic growth...

...Most municipalities must make do with scarce resources because local tax collection is minimal and the central government transfers so little money-only 0.2% of its budget is earmarked for local governments...

...6 The immediate obstacle that the FMLN faces is lack of time...

...Most members and sympathizers of the former guerrilla front, many solidarity organizations and some progressive non-governmental organizations (NGOs) savored the possibility of a left victory...

...Starting in the mid-1980s, the United States-with an eye to counterinsurgency-financed local governments through the U.S.AID-funded CONARA program...

...After recovering from the initial shock of unexpected defeat, the FMLN focused its efforts on governing those towns and cities it had won...

...This has not yet been fully achieved, despite some efforts in this direction by FMLN municipal governments...

...See Mario Lungo, "Los obstAculos a la democratizaci6n en El Salvador," in J. Barbar, ed., Democracia Hoy (San Salvador: ISTMO Editores, 1993...

...Although the provision of services such as water, sanitation and energy are key, local governments should not restrict themselves to being "efficient service providers" as neoliberal ideology would have it...

...The organization came away with an important share of power in the Legislative Assembly, despite its limited resources and political inexperience...

...1 The left's ambivalent attitude toward local government during the civil war no doubt hurt the FMLN at the ballot box last year as well...

...A key factor in the suc- ES in Tecoluca has been the presence of actors (NGOs mainly), all of which work her...

...ganization, but since 1995 it has become ocial development...

...The armed struggle on behalf of the economically exploited and politically excluded implied the rejection of existing institutions, especially the municipal governments which served as key levers of political and social control over the population...

...FMLN Mayors in 15 Towns 1. Mario Lungo, El Salvador en los 80s: Contrainsurgencia y revoluci6n (San Jose, Costa Rica: FLACSO/EDUCA, 1990...

...Perhaps the greatest attempt at coordination nity in El Sal between government and civil society can be found in to the partic Tecoluca in the department of San Vincente, one of the mayor belong most significant FMLN mayoralties because of the the municip" municipality's reach, its location, and its economic whether inde importance...

...The mayor, who resides in Segundo Montes and not in Meanguera, is confronted with the problem that she cannot charge taxes for government services since the infrastructure belongs to the Segundo Montes community...

...This explains the expulsion campaign against right-wing mayors in the conflict zones that the FMLN carried out during the 1980s...

...The municipal government in Tecoluca tendencies ol created a Committee of Municipal Development to Some FM coordinate the different governmental and non-govern- made modes mental institutions in the municipality, and is also try- in economic ing to link up with changes at the national level...

...With the FMLN's transformation from guerrilla front to political party, a more equitable relationship with the social sectors needs to evolve...

...Paradoxically, the mayor has been able to cooperate with neighboring municipalities won by ARENA in order to improve the highway that all the communities use...

...It definitively shattered during the civil war of the 1980s when the FMLN's armed struggle ruptured local military structures and forced numerous mayors of municipalities in conflict zones to abandon their duties...

...This control retained the authoritarian traits associated with the militarism that had predominated in the State and society at large since the 1932 popularinsurrection massacre...

...The electoral results brought more than a few surprises...

...SES) in T southern zo he newly elected FMLN mayors were immedi- SES is a regi ately confronted with the expectation of their anization tt supporters that the left would resolve their most NGOs worki pressing problems...

...The organization did not intend to use municipal government simply as a soapbox to denounce wrongs, but as a means to acquire practical political experience and to contribute to the formulation of national policies, especially related to local development and decentralization...

...The participation of the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN) in last year's general elections generated optimism and fear--depending upon whom you talked to...