Home | Business News | Browse by Publication | N | NotiCen: Central American & Caribbean Affairs

SALVADORAN CENTER STAKED OUT BY HECTOR SILVA.

Article Excerpt
The popular former mayor of San Salvador, Hector Silva, has joined the field as a presidential candidate in El Salvador's March 21, 2004, elections. Silva accepted the nomination of a recently formed centrist coalition of the Partido Democrata Cristiano (PDC) and the Centro Democratico Unido (CDU).

The Boston-born physician was mayor of the capital from 1997 to 2003. He was the choice then of a coalition headed by the Faribundo Marti para la Liberacion Nacional (FMLN). In a dispute over his agreement to help President Francisco Flores resolve a health-workers strike, Silva was ejected from the FMLN (see NotiCen, 2002-11-02), and, rather than run for mayor again with a new coalition, ran for the Asamblea Legislativa (AL) as a CDU candidate and won.

Silva has proven to be one of the most electable people in the country and can be considered a major participant, with the potential to change significantly the dynamic between the FMLN and the Alianza Republicana Nacionalista (ARENA). He told reporters, "I accepted being a candidate of the coalition because we have come to an agreement on a nonpolarized platform."

Silva's entry could make moot a question of the validity of the latest CID-Gallup...

View this article FREE - Now for a Limited Time, try Goliath Business News
Free for 3 Days!