Polarization and the Emerging Left in El Salvador: 2014 Presidential Elections By Ada Moreno — The North Star Project Reports, sponsored by The Middle Ground Journal

Polarization and the Emerging Left in El Salvador: 2014 Presidential Elections By Ada Moreno Photo credits: Douglas Urquilla and Giorgio Trucci — The North Star Project Reports, sponsored by The Middle Ground Journal

Sunday, March 16th, 2014 saw the proclamation of the former guerrilla leader and elementary school teacher, Salvador Sanchez Cerén, the newly elected president of El Salvador. Cerén is the third left-leaning president to come into office in the history of El Salvador, and the second of the left-leaning Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN) party to succeed in becoming president of the evenly split Salvadoran population. The other half of the population leans to the right, where conservative party Nationalist Republican Alliance (ARENA) is the main contender. In both the first and second round of elections, FMLN managed to stay atop their rival. Despite the slight advantage, the second round of the presidential race was incredibly tight…