FMLN, ARENA REBELS SEIZE ASSEMBLY LEADERSHIP

id: 233106

date: 11/4/2009 15:55

refid: 09SANSALVADOR1033

origin: Embassy San Salvador

classification: CONFIDENTIAL

destination: 09SANSALVADOR1011|09SANSALVADOR978

header:

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PP RUEHWEB

DE RUEHSN #1033 3081555

ZNY CCCCC ZZH

P 041555Z NOV 09

FM AMEMBASSY SAN SALVADOR

TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 1822

INFO RUEHZA/WHA CENTRAL AMERICAN COLLECTIVE PRIORITY

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C O N F I D E N T I A L SAN SALVADOR 001033

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/03/2019

TAGS: PROG, PREL, ES

SUBJECT: FMLN, ARENA REBELS SEIZE ASSEMBLY LEADERSHIP

REF: A. SAN SALVADOR 1011

     B. SAN SALVADOR 978

Classified By: Charge d'Affaires, for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d)

1. (C) Summary: On October 30, the (left-wing) Farabundo

Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN) party teamed with 12

newly-independent former (conservative) National Republican

Alliance (ARENA) legislative deputies to assume control of

the Legislative Assembly,s leadership positions.  The

agreement allows the incumbent National Conciliation Party

(PCN) to retain the Assembly presidency for 15 months, after

which the FMLN will preside for the remaining 15 months of

the legislative term.  The agreement suggests a burgeoning

alliance between the FMLN and its erstwhile right-wing

opponents, the ARENA 12 and the PCN.  President Funes

publicly chastised the FMLN's gamesmanship and suggested he

is worried that the growing power of the FMLN could

jeopardize his long-term policy goals. End Summary.

2. (U) In May, at the onset of the current Assembly term, a

coalition of right-wing parties ) ARENA, the PCN and the

Christian Democratic Party (PDC) )- agreed to divide the

Assembly's 11 leadership positions as follows:  three seats

to the FMLN, three to ARENA, three to the PCN (including the

presidency), and two to the PDC.  The FMLN opposed the

agreement, claiming that it deserved the presidency because

it controlled the largest bloc in the Assembly.

3. (U) Since then, 12 of the 32 ARENA deputies broke ranks

with the party, and now call themselves the Great Alliance

for National Unity (Gran Alianza por la Unidad Nacional,

GANA) (see reftels).  Under the agreement ratified on October

30, the FMLN and PCN will rotate as Assembly president.  The

PCN's Ciro Cruz Zepeda (incumbent) will serve until February

2011, after which the FMLN's Sigfrido Reyes will serve until

the end of the legislative term in April 2012.  The agreement

also expands the Assembly leadership from 11 to 13 seats.

The agreement assigns the seats as follows: four to the FMLN,

three to GANA (including one already occupied by Guillermo

Gallegos, head of ARENA's legislative bloc in the previous

Assembly), three to the PCN, two to ARENA, and one to the

PDC.

4. (U) The Assembly's president sets the agenda, appoints

deputies to committees and designates special legislation

review committees at his discretion.  Other members of the

Assembly's governing body control administrative functions.

All members of the directive body earn higher salaries than

their counterparts in the Assembly.

5. (U) On October 30, President Funes publicly criticized the

FMLN's back-room dealing for the Assembly presidency, calling

it "a bad message" in which "special interests and personal

ambition have taken a front seat to the national interest."

He suggested that the rapid marginalization of ARENA worries

him because "(his) government and democratic coexistence in

general requires the existence of strong opposition parties."

6. (C) Comment: While the FMLN's assumption of the Assembly

presidency in February 2011 represents a significant change,

the big news here is the increasingly close cooperation

between the ostensibly ideologically opposed FMLN and GANA.

The FMLN now has two ideologically flexible, opportunistic

allies in the legislature: the PCN and GANA.  As long as it

holds, this alliance of strange bedfellows gives the FMLN 57

votes (of 84), enough to pass any piece of legislation or

constitutional amendment.  In the short run, this should help

President Funes win passage of his budget.  However, Funes is

rightly worried that with ARENA fractured and marginalized,

the Assembly will be unable to help him check the FMLN's

excesses.  End comment.

BRADY

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