<<< It seems likely that many Salvadorans did vote out of fear. As an election observer with the Center of Exchange and Solidarity (CIS) and as part of a delegation from the Chicago Religious Leadership Network on Latin America, I saw how the supporters of the political party in power, including US representatives and mainstream media outlets, propagated fear. For example, some CIS observers visited a maquiladora, or sweatshop, just days before the elections and were told by the workers that their DUI's (the identity documents needed for voting) had been stolen from them by their employers. Additionally, there were reports alleging that workers in some maquiladoras were fired on the day before the elections and told that they could have their jobs back if the ARENA party won the presidency.
Additionally, representatives from the United States such as Roger Noriega of the US State Department and Otto Reich, an envoy of the Bush administration, made public comments in the weeks before the elections which insinuated that Salvadorans should consider what kind of relations they want to have with the US before voting for the leftist FMLN party, whose presidential candidate Shafick Handal was a leader of the rebel forces during the civil war. Most troubling of all was the rumor initiated by supporters of ARENA that the US would cut off family remittances from the US to El Salvador if the FMLN won the elections. Although some US representatives, such as Arizona Democrat Raul Gijalva (D-7), attempted to denounce the US interference in El Salvador's elections, the Salvadoran press paid scant scant attention to these statements. However, when Representative Thomas Tancredo of Colorado (R-6) published a statement only a few days before the elections saying that US authorities might find it necessary to control the flow of remittances if the FMLN were elected, it was the headline story in the mainstream "Diario de Hoy" newspaper. Many Salvadorans with whom I spoke said that the fear of losing family remittances, which amount to a significant portion of the average Salvadoran's income, was a driving force behind the wide margin of victory for the ARENA party, which received almost 57% of the popular vote. >>>
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