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El Salvador is gearing up for a Presidential election this Sunday that could catapult a leader of the leftist FMLN party into power for the first time. Mauricio Funes, a former correspondent for CNN en Español, is a relatively new recruit of the FMLN and leads the conservative ARENA party’s candidate, Rodrigo Avila, in polls. Plagued by severe poverty and soaring crime rates, Salvadorans are being asked to choose between an Obama-style campaign of “change” by Funes, and defending “the values of God, country and freedom” by Avila. Only six weeks ago, El Salvador’s parliamentary elections were swept by FMLN candidates. FMLN guerilla fighters fought a protracted battle against a US-backed dictator-ship in the 1980s and have come a long way to the ballot box. The ARENA party, which has won the presidency four times in a row, has warned Salvadorans of the specter of Cuba and Venezuela-styled leadership if FMLN candidate Funes wins.

GUEST: Isaura Rivera-Anagnos, FMLN – Comisión de la Mujer, Joaquin Chavez, Fellow at the Department of History at New York University