Mauricio Funes on US relations

In recent posts I've highlighted comments by the US Ambassador to El Salvador on the relationship of the two countries as well as remarks made by president Tony Saca to the Miami Herald where he complained about US failures to implement immigration reform and to invest more in Latin America. To round out this theme, here are a set of recent remarks which FMLN candidate for president, Mauricio Funes, made to the international press as reported in ContraPunto:

"Con Washington hemos comenzado contactos y lo que hemos exigido es una relación de respeto y de no injerencia como ha sido en el pasado cuando funcionarios de alto nivel amenazaron al FMLN si ganaba éste las elecciones", aseguró Funes, en referencia a la campaña que algunos funcionarios estadounidenses llevaron a cabo referente a que si la izquierda hubiese ganado en 2004 se entorpecería el flujo de remesas hacia El Salvador...

"With Washington we have begun contacts and what we have demanded is a relationship of respect and not of meddling as had been the case in the past when high level officials threatened the FMLN if it won the elections," asserted Funes, in reference to the campaign some US officials carried out claiming that if the left had won in 2004 it would have interrupted the flow of remittances towards El Salvador.

Por otra parte, Funes aseguró que el FMLN ha madurado y en la actualidad no profesa una política antiestadounidense. "No estamos ni cercanos a Venezuela ni a Cuba ni a Brasil... vamos a tener una política exterior de respeto y de no injerencia", aseguró y añadió que tampoco se integrará a la Alternativa Bolivariana de las Américas (ALBA), proyecto integracionista que lidera el presidente Hugo Chávez.

Moreover, Funes assured that the FMLN had matured and in actuality does not profess an anti-US policy. "We are not close to Venezuela nor Cuba nor Brazil... we are going to have a foreign policy of respect and not meddling," he assured and added that neither would they join the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA), the integration project led by [Venezuelan] president Hugo Chavez.

“Tenemos que estudiar minuciosamente lo que convenga a El Salvador, debemos recordar que hay más de dos millones de salvadoreños en Estados Unidos y que hacia ahí se dirige más del 60 por ciento de nuestra economía”, dijo Funes, quien igualmente recalcó que no eliminará el dólar como moneda nacional ni eliminará el tratado de libre comercio con Estados Unidos, tal como anteriormente pregonaba el FMLN.

"We have to study closely that which is suitable to El Salvador, we ought to remember that there are more than two million Salvadorans in the US and that directed from there is more than 60 percent of our economy," said Funes who stressed equally that he will not eliminate the dollar as the national currency nor eliminate the free trade agreement with the US as previously proclaimed by the FMLN.

Funes afirmó también que una de sus primeras medidas será pedirle perdón a la sociedad salvadoreña, en nombre del Estado, por los daños que se sufrieron durante la guerra civil. "Esto es una prioridad, pero no implicará una cacería de brujas contra particulares", añadió.

Funes affirmed also that one of his first measures will be to ask for pardon from Salvadoran society, in the name of the state, for the injuries suffered during the civil war. "That is a priority, but it will not mean a witch hunt against particular individuals," he added.

(any errors in translation are mine -- corrections are welcome)