The new center-left coalition in Salvadoran politics

A coalition of political parties from the center and left is emerging as a force in Salvadoran politics. The Democratic Revolutionary Front (FDR), Democratic Change (CD) and Democratic Christian Party (PCN) are working together in the center between the two major forces of modern Salvadoran politics, ARENA on the right and the FMLN on the left.

In the National Assembly, La Prensa Grafica has named the center-left coalition the "G-14." With 14 deputies, the G-14 coalition has key negotiating power. If the Saca administration gets the votes of the coalition, it can pass a national budget through the assembly without the need for any votes from the FMLN. In 2004, passage of the budget was delayed for months until two FMLN deputies broke with their party and voted for the budget. Since that time, defections of deputies from the FMLN to the center-left coalition have deprived the FMLN of its unilateral ability to block the budget.

In upcoming elections for mayor, the center-left coalition has candidates who are some of the most popular politicians in El Salvador: Rene Canjura, the current FMLN mayor of Nejapa, Carlos Rivas Zamora, the current FMLN mayor of San Salvador but rejected by his party, and Carlos Menendez, the mayor of Mejicanos.

At least in San Salvador, the coalition candidacy of Rivas Zamora has the possibility of permitting the election of the capital city's first ARENA mayor. If Rivas Zamora's candidacy takes away votes from Violeta Menjivar, the FMLN candidate, but he does not gain a majority himself, it might permit an ARENA win.