MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
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Former guerrilla commander sworn in as El Salvador president
The presidential sash was presented to Sanchez Ceren by the head of the National Assembly, Sigfrido Reyes Former guerrilla commander Salvador Sanchez Ceren on Sunday was sworn in as president of El Salvador for the second consecutive five-year mandate of the FMLN, an ex-guerrilla movement and current political party.
The presidential sash was presented to Sanchez Ceren by the head of the National Assembly, Sigfrido Reyes, who administered the oath to him at the official inauguration ceremony held at the International Fair and Convention Center in San Salvador.
Reyes took the sash from outgoing President Mauricio Funes, who attended the ceremony despite the fact that his mother died on Saturday, and placed it on Sanchez Ceren.
Sanchez Ceren said in his inaugural address that he will govern “for all” with an “absolute commitment to social justice” and that he will fight corruption.
The 69-year-old Sanchez Ceren is the first former guerrilla commander to become president of the Central American country, which suffered through 12 years of armed internal conflict between the guerrillas and the army from 1980-1992.
“We will continue with the commitment to no more corruption” that the Funes administration maintained, said Sanchez Ceren, who was the former leader's vice president.
“The people's resources are sacred” and may only be used “for the development and wellbeing of same,” the new president said.
Also sworn in at the ceremony was the new vice president, another former guerrilla, Oscar Ortiz, who for five consecutive terms from 2000 up until 2013 was the mayor of Santa Tecla, a city in central El Salvador.
“I will work tirelessly” to promote actions that ”facilitate ... (the) structural changes that El Salvador needs,” the new president said.
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Read all commentsTodays quiz. Can anyone name the countries that do NOT have ex terrorist Presidents in LATAM?
Jun 02nd, 2014 - 08:46 am 01. The successful ones...
Jun 02nd, 2014 - 01:46 pm 0“absolute commitment to social justice”
Jun 02nd, 2014 - 02:37 pm 0That's the catch. Equality and respect for the poor are one thing. Handout programs and free cash are another. The latter just corrupts everything, it is the opposite of justice.
@1 Government suppression of the communist movement in El Salvador was brutal. The military wasn't just upholding “freedom”. They were crushing the poor back into their “place”. The military played the part of a butcher. They were trained in the U.S.
On the other hand:
All those FMLN supporters in El Salvador are all really, really wanting to find work in their enemy's country, the U.S.
Or, they have already become U.S. citizens and their families back in El Salvador are financially well off from remittances from the U.S. They hardly see any irony in that.
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