El Salvador, Puebla, Rallies

The great news of the weekend is the Farabundo Marti National Liberation (FMLN) won the presidency of El Salvador, with lefty journalist candidate Mauricio Funes.

Wooohooo!

In the 80s up to 75,000 people were disappeared in a brutal period of the small countries history. El Salvador is a small country in Central America. Only 4.2 million people were eligible to vote. Almost 2.5 million Salvadoreans live in the US. Millions of Salvadoreans fled the country in the 80s. ARENA, the US- backed party, was in power in the 80s, and 'led' El Salvador through the dictatorial times. La Jornada, the left-wing paper here, quotes Funes as saying he likes the PT in Brazil, and the work of Lulu, the PT candidate. Lulu is in the "centre" here in Latin America, and has clamped down on workers and student protests.

The tactic used by ARENA to try and discredit Lunes, was to run "he's a communist scare campaign" with TV ads in the lead up, with pictures of Lunes, Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez. The mass of people in El Salvador saw through it, and voted for the formerly armed FMLN.

Within La Jornada, Lunes distances himself from the "Bolivarian revolution, " but talks of guarrenteeing jobs, human rights and all things progressive. He had a cordial chat with Obama, and with Chavez, according to La Jornada. Time will tell. And hats off to the people of El Salvador who have endured so very very very much.

A good vid to see is Romeo - all about the lefty Archbishop who was brutally murdered by the death squads in front of his congregation cos he fought against them. He was a liberation theologist who fought for heaven on earth. Top dude.

Oscar Romeo also reinvigorated a quote from Dom Helder Camara, a priest of yee olde time ago, who said “When I give food to the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask why the poor have no food, they call me a communist.”

Another good background article on the elections -
http://www.greenleft.org.au/2009/787/40509

The weekend that passed I visited Puebla, an old city 2 hours out from Mexico City (D.F). There are gay bars there, and people dancing within them, plus loads of museums and very large and ostentatious churches. 100 plus in the 3 million people strong city. I have never SEEN so much gold. I hold dear, respect to each and every persons religious beliefs, and there are a lot of beleivers in Latin America, but the amount of gold in the central church was obscene. When 36% of households in D.F are only covered by cardboard, its an effing waste of resources.

A rally is approaching this weekend, a March for Lesbians. Its the 4th one held here in D.F and is mostly about dyke pride. There are no rally demands raised against the government, and the poster says "In each kiss - a revolution".

Unfortunatley, it takes a bit more than that.

Nonetheless, its pretty good to see a dyke specific rally taking place. The week after that, there will be a massive country wide rally for a People's Economy.

Again, hats of to the couregeous people of El Salvador.