Three interviews with Australian observers who came to El Salvador to ensure a fair election. What these elections mean to El Salvadorans.
Warwick Fry, (interviewer) Coral Winter, Jim McIlroy, Juan Campos, Ovidio Orellano
1.A strange mix of tension and exuberance in the days leading up to the Presidential elections in El Salvador on Sunday March 15. A number of Australian observers are here, including a team of Australian Salvadorans who were forced to seek refugee status in Australia at the height of the civil war of the 1980s. There are high hopes that this election will close that chapter of Salvadoran history for once and for all, but there are fears too, that this government, one of the last bastions of the ultra right and fascism remaining in Latin America, will not lose gracefully. Walking around the streets of San Salvador Latin Radical producer, Warwick Fry, bumps into Jim McIlroywraith and Coral Winter, who flew over to El Salvador from Venezuela. In Warwick´s hotel room, they discuss their experiences and their view of events here in San Salvador, including the 300,000 strong rally in support of FMLN candidate Mauricio Funes, last Sunday.
2.The day before the elections a group of Australian volunteers met at one of the FMLN headquarters to prepare themselves for their role of international mobservers. Many of them were Salvadorans who had been forced to emigrate to Australia as political refugees, in the 1980s. They were keen to be present at a time when the ARENA `party, founded by the people responsible for their forced exile had to face an electoral defeat.
Ovidio Orellanos is a Guatemalan by birth. The death squads of El Salvador modelled themselves on a similar movement in Guatemala, called ¨The White Hand¨. Ovidio tells us what these elections mean to him.
3.Juan Campos is a Salvadoran who spent two years in prison and was tortured in the early 1980s. He was rescued by Australia´s special humanitarian program and has lived in Australia ever since. Juan was one of the 15 Australian´s who came to El Salvador to observe the critical Presidential elections. He explains to community radio what these elections mean to Salvadorans, and people like himself.
![<?php echo $config['site_title']; ?>](/static/images/rp-navimg.gif)
![Support the <?php echo $config['site_title']; ?>](/static/images/support.png)
