El Salvador

Funes first restores ties with Cuba

Article published on the 2009-06-02 Latest update 2009-06-02 14:34 TU

El Salvador's President Mauricio Funes and his wife Wanda Pignato at his swearing-in ceremony in San Salvador, 2 June 2009.
(Photo: Reuters/ Luis Romero)

Former journalist Mauricio Funes was sworn in as president of El Salvador on Monday. His first act as president of the Central American country, was to restore diplomatic relations with Cuba, which were severed 50 years ago. El Salvador had been the only Latin American country left that had no ties with Havana.

Watched by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton at the ceremony in San Salvador, Funes also vowed to improve relations with the United States. "Historically, we are bound by many ties, in particular by the presence of millions of our compatriots who live there, work there and build their dreams there," he said.

Earlier, Clinton said she was confident that relations between El Salvador and the United States would get better, not least of all because of a change of attitude in Washington.

 "Some of the difficulties that we've had historically in forging strong and lasting relationships in our hemisphere are a result of our perhaps not listening, perhaps not paying close enough attention."

The ceremony was also attended by Presidents Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva of Brazil and Michelle Bachelet of Chile and Cuban Vice-President Alfredo Lazo.

The leftist president said his government would bring, "wisdom and integrity" and also launched an "anti-crisis plan" to create 100,000 jobs in the next 18 months.

Funes is the head of the FMLN party, which was formed by former Marxist rebels who were involved in a 12-year civil war from 1980-1992. 

When asked whether his party still held a grudge against the US for its support of the country's military government during the civil war, he said his government could work well with the Obama administration.

"We are willing to turn the page. I am convinced that we need to turn the page," Funes told a joint press conference with Clinton.