Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front

Do you expect that to change now after the congressional elections?

I think, John, the dynamics in El Salvador could be some of the most interesting dynamics affected by the U.S. midterm, just because, again, Naibu Kelly, who we actually have to remember started out within the FMLN, actually started out his political career opportunistically within the principal leftist organization, and then became an independent and then created his own party.

And in many ways, his embrace of Trump somewhat cynically, even as he's embraced China for funding.

And so, On the one hand, it is important to acknowledge that Bukele has done some pretty amazing things in terms of turning around the security situation in El Salvador, but at the expense of you know, accidentally jailing maybe, you know, 10% of the 90 plus thousand people who are in Salvadoran jails right now, and as well as largely eliminating a lot of space that NGOs and the press have to express themselves and criminalizing certain types of speech.

Some people might be familiar with the FSLN.

The FMLN, the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front, was the leftist insurrectionist group that was comprised mostly of public intellectuals, campesinos, or people who were working land and were becoming increasingly dissatisfied with the hoarding of wealth within the oligarchic families.

There's these seven families in El Salvador that have a stronghold and are the landholding elite.

And so there were massacres in the 1930s.

1932, one was actually led by Farabundo Marti against landholding elites.

And so the FMLN or the leftist party actually takes its name from Farabundo Marti, who was a political leader.

So the war was really fought between the FMLN, who were like the leftist guerrillas fighting for land rights, fighting for their ability to really have a life, a life worth living in El Salvador against the right wing government funded ARENA party, A-R-E-N-A.

And so this is where the U.S. government was very invested in funding white ring parties in an effort to squash this sort of red scare that was taking over Central America.

So some people might be familiar with the FSLN.

The FMLN, the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front, was the leftist sort of insurrectionist group that was comprised mostly of public intellectuals, campesinos, or people who were working land and were becoming increasingly dissatisfied with the hoarding of wealth within the oligarchic families.

There's like these seven families in El Salvador that have a stronghold and are the landholding elite.

And so there were massacres in the 1930s.

1932, one was actually led by Farabundo Marti against landholding elites.

And so the FMLN or the leftist party actually takes its name from Farabundo Marti, who was a political leader.

So the war was really fought between the FMLN, who were like the leftist guerrillas fighting for land rights, fighting for their ability to really have a life, a life worth living in El Salvador against the right wing government funded ARENA party, A-R-E-N-A.

And so this is where the U.S. government was very invested in funding white ring parties in an effort to squash this sort of red scare that was taking over Central America.