EspañolVenezuela “is the beacon of light that illuminates the nations of the continent,” said Salvador Sánchez Cerén, current vice president of El Salvador and FMLN party presidential candidate. In the past, Sánchez Cerén has demonstrated his solidarity with Hugo Chávez and the Venezuelan regime. While at the time (when Chávez was alive) it may have been expressed as genuine admiration for an ideology or political system, this sort of rhetoric in Latin America today speaks volumes, and it could potentially cost him the election.
After an initial round of voting, El Salvadorans found themselves without a clear majority and now must choose which of the two major parties will forge their destiny. In the race are Salvador Sánchez Cerén, candidate for the ruling party Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN), and Norman Quijano, of the Nationalist Republican Alliance (ARENA). While El Salvadorans may still not yet know what they want or who will lead the nation, ARENA has made the case that they know what they do not want: shortages, poverty, lack of security, repression, media censorship, and a host of other problems that currently plague Venezuela.
It’s unfortunate that Venezuela has become this sort of example of what not to do for its neighboring countries. It is more unfortunate, however, that politicians still intend on leading their respective nations down this same path, even when the results of this experiment have been exposed to the world.
Regardless, the Venezuelan delegation to El Salvador did not sit idly by with their arms crossed after the crisis unfolding in their country was denounced from within El Salvador. Nora Uribe Trujillo, the Venezuelan ambassador to El Salvador, expressed her irritation to the president of the Supreme Electoral Tribune (TSE), Eugenio Chicas.
Uribe Trujillo claims that a video produced by ARENA “refers to the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela in disrespectful language,” and “distorts reality.” She went on to say that the video “interferes with the internal affairs” of Venezuela, and attempts to a “involve Venezuela within an internal election campaign through media terrorism.”
The national director for the ARENA youth organization, Deputy David Reyes, rejected the allegations. He expressed his concern regarding Sánchez Cerén’s insistence on importing the Venezuelan model to El Salvador.
Reyes added, “We do not consider solidarity with the young people who have demonstrated peacefully to be disrespectful.” Despite this response, the TSE ordered the removal of the original video. They allowed the transmission of a second video in which only the violence in Venezuela was denounced.
While not everyone yet knows what is happening in Venezuela, public opinion throughout the continent continues to be shaped by these events. More people now understand that the path laid out by the Venezuelan regime can only lead to misery. No matter how many videos are censored in El Salvador or the rest of Latin America, for the first time in history, the truth about Venezuela is coming to light.
Translated by Guillermo Jimenez.