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EL SALVADOR FIRST TO RATIFY CAFTA, BUT FOLLOWERS MAY BE FEW.

Article Excerpt
Under cover of darkness in the dead of night, the legislature of El Salvador debated, and at 11:03 on the morning of Dec. 18 approved, the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA). It thereby became the first country to do so. Passage came after 19 straight hours of battle on the floor of the Asamblea Legislativa (AL). Pro-CAFTA forces, led by the ruling Alianza Republicana Nacional (ARENA) and including the Partido de Conciliacion Nacional (PCN), the Partido Democrata Cristiano (PDC), and one lone member of the opposition Faribundo Marti para la Liberacion Nacional (FMLN), chalked up 49 of a possible 84 votes to ratify the trade agreement with the US. Only a simple majority of 43 was needed. The FMLN has 30 seats in the unicameral body.

Victory for the pro-CAFTA forces came just hours after a takeover of the chamber by protesting members of the Movimiento Popular de Resistencia 12 de Octubre (MPR-12). After the MPR-12 protesters left the chamber, the exhausted FMLN-minus-one traded insults with its sleepless adversaries in a raucous debate, but to no avail.

The left was not entirely bereft, however. Prior to the CAFTA vote, the FMLN had narrowly prevailed in a vote on a bond issue needed by the government to finance the 2005 national budget. Having sent the US$541.8 million bond issue back to committee, the FMLN had a hostage; party leader Schafik Handal announced that, if the treaty passed, there would be no bonds and no budget....