Arturo Zablah - presidential candidate
He announced his candidacy to become El Salvador's next president in August. Engineer, businessman and former government minister Arturo Zablah hopes that a political platform which seeks to build consensus in the center, between El Salvador's polarized right and left, can succeed.In an August 2007 interview with El Faro, Zablah spoke about running as the candidate of an "ample alliance of civil society organizations and various political parties." He calls his movement the Alliance for Change, with a motto of "Towards Sustainable Development for El Salvador." He told El Faro that today he has only one objective -- to end the string of ARENA governments.
The center-left parties -- FDR, CD and PDC -- are talking about whether to form an alliance with Zablah as their presidential candidate. These parties have expressed irritation with the FMLN's apparent view that it does not need alliances and the FMLN's decision to run a Mauricio Funes / Salvador Sanchez Cerren ticket without consultation with potential alliance partners.
The 53 year old Zablah was born in San Salvador. He graduated from college in Monterrey Mexico with a degree in industrial engineering in 1976. Zablah then obtained a Masters in Systems Analysis from Georgia Institute of Technology in 1981. Has worked as an industrial engineer and consultant to large manufacturing businesses. He was appointed Minister of Foreign Commerce in 1989, Minister of the Economy in the government of Alfredo Cristiani from 1989 to 1993, and President of El Salvador's port authority commission (CEPA) from 1994 to 1998.
To learn more about Arturo Zablah (all links in Spanish):
Campaign Biography
Interview in El Faro from September 2003.
Video of interview on Channel 12.
Website setting out his views.
Comments
Zablah mentions crime as the #1 problem, which reflects a higher level of realism and pragmatism than the other two parties.
He also proposes to clean up the regulatory agencies and generally improve the efficiency of government, and to give us representative territorial democracy (like the U.S. Congress). Since such obvious items don't even register with ARENA or FMLN, I'd say this guy is millions of years light ahead vs. the monsters.
Zablah's others solutions, however, are typical of the middle-of-the-road Latin populo-socialist idiocy: go back to the Colón so he can devalue and orverspend; allowing people who don't live in E.S. and don't pay any taxes and don't have to live with the consequences of their vote, to vote; campaign financing control, so wildly "successful" in places like the U.S.; gun control (as if); teach "values" in schools (that one is funny); promotion of nationalism; limited rollback of the AFP's; yet more cash for his coffee landed buddies; tax loopholes for industrial zones (instead of lowering taxes for all of El Salvador); more taxes for everyone else, except that the poor are to cease being stakeholders because he wants to exempt them from any income tax.
A very palatable and muddy program, in other words, for most salvadoreans, especially the middle classes, who have a very guilt-ridden/socialist/populist outlook to life. And destined to mostly fail, of course, because of so many bad ideas.
If this guy does not get buried by the ARENA/FMLN political machineries, his place in the hearts of San Salvadoreans is already guaranteed.
Heck, I may even vote for him. He looks less incompetent than that awful VP of ours, much less the "journo"/talking head guy.
[hey visitador, seems we are 'en acuerdo'] lol
Viva El Frente/Verde!
go figure!
FUNES 09! OBAMA 08!