FMLN candidate wins in El Salvador

Mauricio Funes, candidate of the FMLN, which fought under a revolutionary banner in El Salvador's long and costly civil war that ended in the early 1990s, has won that country's presidential elections. Funes, 49, did not fight in the civil war but covered it as a TV journalist. Although his opponents depicted him as a clone of Hugo Chavez, Funes ran on what a San Francisco Chronicle piece published yesterday called a "moderate platform."

The SF Chronicle notes:

"Today, Funes avoids wearing the FMLN color - red - and has adopted several positions at odds with the party. He does not support dropping the U.S. dollar as the nation's currency nor legislation that would reverse a 1993 law granting amnesty to army officers accused of war crimes, arguing judicial and financial reforms would be a better way to address past injustices. He also says he is against big government.

'We're not talking about making the state bigger or intervening in the economy,' he said recently. 'We're talking about making a better state.'"

Doesn't sound much like Chavez to me.

Salvadoran troops to leave Iraq

The 200 soldiers from El Salvador in Iraq will leave by the end of the year, the country's president has announced. The Iraqi parliament cleared the way for British and other non-U.S. troops to stay after December 31, when the UN authorization expires. The Salvadorans, however, are probably wise to take this opportunity to withdraw.