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Salvadoran citizens are voting Sunday for a new president in a race that could end two decades of conservative rule in the crime-plagued Central American country. Opinion polls give the advantage to left-leaning candidate Mauricio Funes(picture left)in the race against conservative former national police chief Rodrigo Avila.Funes is a former television journalist and representative of the leftist rebel group Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front.If he wins, El Salvador would join a growing number of left-leaning governments in Latin America.Avila represents the National Republican Alliance, also known as the ARENA party, which has had control of the government for the past 20 years.Incumbent President Elias Antonio Saca is barred from seeking another five year term.Some four million people are eligible to take part in the vote.El Salvador is wracked by poverty.Many people depend heavily on remittances from family members in the United States.U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Tom Shannon said Friday in Washington the United States supports the democratic process in El Salvador and will work with whomever is elected.El Salvador has been under conservative rule since the end of a civil war in 1992.The 12-year conflict involved the government and both leftist and right-wing guerrillas.Some 75,000 people died in the conflict before it ended with the signing of peace accords.Some information for this report was provided by AFP, AP and Reuters.
As in the days of Noah...
