"Ifirst heard the expression "strategic incompetence" in El Salvador in December 1993. Along with my partner and two friends, I'd been recruited to do some electoral training there. We were working with the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front, or FMLN, a coalition of leftist parties that had led a long-running guerrilla war against a series of US-backed autocratic governments. I'd visited El Salvador once before, during the 1989 elections, when armed troops were overseeing the voting."
"I remembered watching as people deposited their ballots into transparent plastic bags, their choices clearly visible to the world-and to the soldiers. (Not exactly what you'd call a "free and fair" election.) A new round of national elections was scheduled for early 1994, and, for the first time, instead of boycotting it, the FMLN was running its own candidates. This was a risky choice."
The term "strategic incompetence" emerged in El Salvador in December 1993 during electoral training with the FMLN. The FMLN was a coalition of leftist parties that had waged a long guerrilla war against US-backed autocratic governments. Earlier elections, such as in 1989, featured armed troops overseeing voting and transparent plastic bags that exposed voters' choices. In early 1994 the FMLN ran candidates for the first time rather than boycotting, despite assassinations of several candidates. Longstanding clandestine organizing norms limited contact, and running an open campaign represented a profound cultural shift for many members.
Read at The Nation
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