Tim's excellent adventure in taking apart The Nation

While I described many of the ways in which I thought that the US-FMLN relationship was rather normal earlier this week, Tim decided to take apart Hilary Goodfriend's How El Salvador’s Supreme Court Is Undermining Democracy—With Washington’s Help that was published by The Nation.

Goodfriend's article in the Nation, like similar statements being made by the Sánchez Cerén administration and the FMLN only contributes to the political polarization in the country and does not contribute towards solving the country's woes.

As Héctor Dada Hirezi points out in a recent analysis in El Faro, such partisan blaming, rather than working together to find solutions, is part of El Salvador's problems. As an editorial on the UCA website stated yesterday, quoting El Salvador's conference of bishops, "it is time to unite efforts, with respect and and a spirit of collaboration", in order to promote peace and progress in the country.

It's fantastic.

For me, the FMLN, like other political parties, often speaks to different audiences. They are speaking to domestic (ARENA, GANA) and international (US) political actors with which they are frequently involved in negotiations and potential supporters (people who might vote for them) and hard-core supporters (people who will vote for them no matter what). We can't take everything that elected officials and politicians in El Salvador (or anywhere for that matter) at face value. I haven't been able to figure it out, but the trick is finding out whether they believe what they are saying or whether they believe they need to say it for political reasons.

Goodfriend simply looks to have parroted what has been coming from the left wing of the FMLN in its public declarations to its base.