Populists have risen to the wave of the satiety of the society

Martinez, who gave a conference in Santo Domingo yesterday on "The Latin American left in the new times" in the Global Democracy and Development Foundation (Funglode), which presides over former Dominican leader Leonel Fernandez, said that the left has not escaped either this situation of disenchantment and satiety of society with political parties.

The former Minister of Foreign Affairs of El Salvador considered that we are also facing a phenomenon in which "politics has been judicialized" and the mandate of some governments has been interrupted "not necessarily only from a judicial perspective but rather from a political calculation to interrupt the mandate of a left government ", as happened in Brazil with Dilma Rousseff.

The Salvadoran presidential candidate also considered that the emphasis of violence is placed on certain countries in Latin America and generally asks about Venezuela and Nicaragua when there are "things that are happening in other countries that do not see themselves with the same prism".

For Martinez, the left have the historical imperative of adapting to the new times we are living, without this meaning that a party must renounce its values, its historical principles but it has to change its methods of struggle, of work.

He also pointed out that the left parties must maintain the link with the population.

In this sense, Martinez, who won the internal elections of the leftist FMLN on May 27 and became the presidential candidate for the presidential elections of 2019, affirmed that the setback suffered by his party in the municipal and legislative elections of last March because they did not know how to listen to the demands and concerns of the population in time.

According to Martinez, the fundamental problems that currently concern the Salvadoran population are: security, employment generation and economic growth, and the future of social programs, which is a concern that did not exist ten years ago and that now worries that those programs will continue "if there is a change of government".

For this reason, he affirmed that his government proposal is oriented through "the development poles to respond to these three fundamental concerns, but with an integral approach taking advantage of the potential in tourism, in agroindustry, in logistics, and in trade.

Regarding security, Martinez said that although the goal is to continue reducing homicides, there is no denying the progress that has been made since El Salvador's homicide rate is currently one digit when in January 2016 it was 22 daily. .

Regarding corruption, he said that a "fight without truce and without borders" should be done and his approach is not only to harden the laws in his country but to strengthen alliances with other countries.

Asked about the caravan of Central American migrants that has been heading to the United States in recent weeks, Martinez said the only way to reduce migration flows is by investing in the countries of origin and highlighted that the arrival of Salvadorans to the southern border of the United States has decreased. by 60%.

However, he pointed out that the fact that there are Salvadorans in the caravan is that things are not "changing enough" and that is why in his government proposal he poses the "poles of development" that decentralize the concept of development executed and thought of the capital and taken to the territories.

As for the polls, which put him at a disadvantage against Nayib Bukele, candidate for the Presidency for the Great Alliance for National Unity (Gana), and Carlos Calleja, candidate for the Republican Nationalist Alliance (Arena), both right-wing formations , Martinez said that "the most likely is that the elections will be defined in a second round" and he hoped to be in that second round and win it.