For anyone who witnessed the horror show of El Salvador's 12-year civil war, the ballot-box victory of former leftist guerrillas there on Sunday was a stunning development. Though it took another 17 years after the war ended, the country now joins Northern Ireland in demonstrating that it is possible for a rebel group to effect political change and assume power through peaceful means. That's a gratifying development. We are especially pleased that the outgoing National Republican Alliance, or Arena party, chose to respect the results.
President-elect Mauricio Funes of the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front, or FMLN, has groundbreaking opportunities and tremendous challenges ahead of him when he takes office June 1. This is still a supremely divided and impoverished nation without strategic resources like Venezuela's oil reserves or Bolivia's natural gas and minerals. Funes, who won by only 3 percentage points, must demonstrate to skeptics that the left can govern wisely and for all Salvadorans. A former television reporter who was never a guerrilla himself, Funes is known as a worldly and politically moderate leftist. He was off to a good start in the hours after his election when he appealed for national unity and said that he hopes to strengthen relations with President Obama and work on bilateral issues such as immigration, street gangs and drug smuggling. This sends the right message, especially to the estimated one-quarter of El Salvador's population that lives in the United States and sends money home.
