El Salvador election suggests end of Latin American coups

Loory: The 12-year civil war in El Salvador ended 17 years ago, and few remember how tragic and brutal it was. In a country of 6 million, 70,000 were killed, either by soldiers of the right-wing government controlled by the ARENA Party or guerrillas of the left-wing Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN). El Salvador became the site of the last battle of the Cold War. After a peace agreement was signed, the FMLN was allowed to take part in politics, but from 1992 until last week, ARENA continued to control the government. The FMLN won the presidential election, and so there was a peaceful transfer of power to Mauricio Funes, a former television talk show host and a stringer for CNN. Funes, who had the support of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, has promised to maintain good relations with the United States and govern more like President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva of Brazil. Many in the U.S. remember how the administration of Ronald Reagan spent billions of dollars to put down the FMLN insurgency. The victory was 51 to 49 percent, comfortable but not exactly a landslide. Is there any possibility of renewed violence in El Salvador because of this election?