Lara
Pullin with the latest update on the lead up to El Salvador's elections
next year. As the FMLN continues to outstrip the governing ARENA
coalition in the polls, the government politicians are resorting to
more and more desperate tactics. Recently the foreign minister for El
Salvador argued in the US for the kind of intervention used just a few
years ago to swing the results in favour of the ARENA coalition. The US
Ambassador in El Salvador assured a visiting delegation that the US did
not intend to intervene again, but with the ARENA foreign minister
lobbying furiously in the US, anything could happen.

[Picture:
Schafik Handel, FMLN leader and Presidential candidate in the 2004
elections that he narrowly lost. Some say it was stolen from him.
Although he died recently, his charisma remains.]