El Salvador: Elections and Popular Movements

This article examines the historic presidential elections in El Salvador in 2009. Special attention is given to the evolution of the FMLN political party in the post-civil war era and its relationship with social movements in civil society. The combined forces of democratization and neoliberal policy implementation in the 1990s and early 2000s assisted in strengthening the alliance between the leftwing political party and popular movements. The FMLN was able to gradually channel the momentum of social movement campaigns against economic liberalization policies and public opinion into electoral gains at the local, parliamentary and executive levels of government.