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Dominant communist in El Salvador's politics

28.01.2006

SCHAFIK HĮNDAL was a leading member of the Communist Party of El Salvador for more than 40 years, and dominated, until his death, the left-wing alliance that took shape after the bloody civil war ended in 1992. He stood unsuccessfully for president in 2004, but never lost his political grip despite growing criticism.
The Hįndal family came from Palestine, settling in El Salvador in the 1920s. Schafik enrolled at the national university in San Salvador in 1949, to read law, and joined the Communist Party. As El Salvador was ruled by an unstable alliance of conservative landowners and military officers, this meant a life of clandestine meetings, punctuated by periods of exile. But Hįndal made his way steadily up the party hierarchy, becoming general secretary in 1972.
Hįndal’s skills were as an orator and a behind-the-scenes negotiator. He nevertheless took command of the military wing of the party, the Armed Forces of Liberation (FAL), when the country slid into civil war at the end of the 1970s. He did little fighting, but acted mainly as linkman with the Soviet Union and Cuba, where he had strong ties. Communist countries were anxious to counter the influence of the United States which, under Presidents Reagan and Bush, was pouring in military aid to shore up the tottering Government.
In 1980, the Salvadorian communists and four other organisations formed the Farabundo Martķ National Liberation Front (FMLN), and launched what they hoped would be a “final offensive”. But the Government hung on, and by the early 1990s both sides agreed to negotiate. Hįndal was one of the FMLN delegates to the talks, and after the fighting stopped he emerged as the leading figure in the newly legal FMLN party.
It was not long before the dogmatic and authoritarian Hįndal began to fall out with his former comrades-in-arms, however, and he presided over a succession of purges that removed rivals advocating a more open and flexible style of politics. The FMLN lost the 1994 and 1999 presidential elections, but Hįndal was elected to parliament in 1997, serving three successive terms. He won the presidential nomination for the 2004 elections, but was defeated by Tony Saca of the rightwing Arena party.
Schafik Hįndal, Salvadorian politician, was born on October 13, 1930. He died on January 24, 2006, aged 75.

Source: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/obituaries/article721267.ece

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