Historic Victory for FMLN, But Problems Ahead

To read the full article, please choose one of the following options:

BMI View: On March 15 Mauricio Funes made history by becoming the first FMLN candidate to secure El Salvador's presidency since the end of a bitter civil war in 1992. Given the party's Marxist roots, we expect future policy proposals to be left-leaning despite Funes running his campaign on a centrist platform. Regardless of policy direction, however, we caution that a polarised legislative assembly could pose a major stumbling block to reform just as the economy looks set to sink into recession.