FMLN ACTIVELY COURTING OPPOSITION DEPUTIES

C O N F I D E N T I A L SAN SALVADOR 000557

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/15/2019
TAGS: PGOV PREL ES
SUBJECT: FMLN ACTIVELY COURTING OPPOSITION DEPUTIES

Classified By: Charge d'Affaires, for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d)


1. (C) Summary: PDC and PCN (small swing parties) Assembly
Deputies told us June 16 they have been approached by the
(left-wing) FMLN with monetary offers to switch parties and
the FMLN is targeting (conservative) ARENA Deputies with
inducements to form a new parliamentary grouping though not
join the FMLN. The PCN Deputies said Funes' appointment of
Manuel Melgar as Public Security Minister was especially
disrespectful to the United States given his involvement in
the 1985 Zona Rosa killings. End Summary.


2. (C) Emboffs met June 16 with Francis Zablah, first-term
Christian Democrat (PDC) Deputy in the Legislative Assembly.
Unprovoked, Zalbah confirmed reports that he has been
approached by the FMLN with large monetary offers to leave
PDC and join the FMLN. (Note: The PDC has a split
personality, with PDC President Rodolfo Parker leaning right
against the party's left-of-center base. The PDC tends to
vote with, but is not formally allied with, ARENA.) Zablah
said the FMLN was making offers, not threats, including
money, guaranteed future terms in the Assembly and other
benefits. He said he understood some eight to ten ARENA
deputies were being targeted by the FMLN. Zablah, an
independently wealthy businessman, indicated he is not for
sale. He also said he was frustrated with ARENA's behavior,
calling out ARENA Deputy Roberto D'Aubuisson by name, for
reflexively opposing any FMLN initiative, even sensible
ideas. Zablah said he finds himself in the odd position of
sometimes defending FMLN ideas with PDC, ARENA and the
ARENA-allied National Conciliation Party (PCN),though he
remains suspicious of the FMLN and is not interested in its
entreaties.


3. (C) Polcouns met separately June 16 with PCN Deputies Jose
Antonio Almendariz and Roberto Angulo. Almendariz said the
FMLN had made him an offer to change parties. Initially, he
said, the offer was over a million dollars then evolved to
$600,000 and a monthly stipend, committee positions, party
positions, and other benefits. Almendariz, like Zablah, said
he was not interested in joining the FMLN. Almendariz said
the FMLN was targeting six ARENA deputies and two each from
PDC and PCN. He judged the most danger lay with the ARENA
deputies who, while not willing to join the FMLN, are so
frustrated with the party they are considering forming a new
group in the Assembly. These unnamed deputies are reportedly
still smarting from the perceived abuses of the Saca
administration but are not keen to follow the leadership of
former President Alfredo Cristiani, new president of ARENA's
Executive Board.


4. (C) Almendariz said it was clear from appointments of
former combatants to the Ministries of Education (VP Salvador
Sanchez Ceren),Governance (Humberto Centeno),and Public
Security (Manuel Melgar) that President Funes is not fully in
charge of the GOES. Angulo said the Melgar appointment, in
particular, was evidence that the Salvadoran Communist Party
(PCS),now part of the FMLN, had never given up the dream of
establishing a communist regime along the lines of Cuba or
Venezuela in El Salvador. He said the Melgar appointment
was especially disrespectful towards the U.S., given his
involvement in the 1985 Zona Rosa killings of four off-duty
Embassy Marine Security Guards. Angulo said there was a
post-war understanding that former combatants should not be
appointed to certain positions. He said Melgar's appointment
"was like appointing someone involved in the Jesuit murders
to be Minister of Defense." Both Almendariz and Angulo
asserted that Melgar was responsible for both the planning
and execution of the 1985 murders. Almendariz pledged to
provide PolCouns with copies of trial proceedings for Pedro
Antonio Andrade (aka Marco Gonzalez),where Andrade was
reportedly acquitted of the Zona Rosa killings and
effectively proved Melgar's involvement.


5. (C) Comment: Zablah and Almendariz confirmed earlier
reports of the FMLN's efforts to weaken the coalition that
controls the Legislative Assembly. That the FMLN would be
looking to strengthen its hand in the Assembly is not
surprising, as that branch of government remains an important
obstacle to FMLN hard-liners pursuing some of their long-held
and more radical ideas. We remain skeptical that the FMLN
will find much traction among ARENA Deputies, however
disgruntled they are with former and present party
leadership. However, if the FMLN were to succeed in
fracturing its opposition in the current Assembly, the
consequences could be ominous.
BLAU