Historical Dictionary of Terrorism Third Edition

While most of the violence of the civil war is past, there have beena few incidents of political killings that appear to be vengeance killingsto settle old scores. On 20 February 1997 a machine-gun attackon an FMLN office in a region 20 miles north of San Salvador killedtwo FMLN activists. Salvador Sánchez, secretary-general of theFMLN, blamed these on remnants of right-wing death squads.In the presidential elections of 21 March 2004, the ARENA candidate,Tony Saca González, won the election with 57.7 percent ofthe vote, while FMLN candidate Shafik Handal placed second with35.7 percent of the vote. In the 12 March 2006 Legislative Assemblyelections, the ARENA party won 34 seats, the largest plurality out ofthe 84 seats, while the FMLN won 32 seats, although it had polled4,518 more votes than did ARENA.In the period 1999–2003 the FMLN split into two groups: the maingroup followed Shafik Handal and adhered to the FMLN’s socialistorientation, while another faction calling itself the Renovadores (RenewalMovement) followed Facundo Guardado, a former FPL leader,who claimed his ideology as being social democratic but who wasalso willing to accommodate neoliberal economic policies. Followinga poor showing in the 2003 legislative elections, the Renovadoresfaction dissolved itself.In the period 2004–2005 another split occurred when five FMLNLegislative Assembly members formed the Frente DemocraticoRevolucionario, using the same name of the FMLN political frontfrom the period of the civil war. Apart from one mayoral candidate,none of their candidates won office in the 2006 elections.FARAN, AL. See HARAKAT UL MUJAHIDEEN.FATAH, AL • 177FATAH, AL. Al Fatah, the oldest of the Palestinian guerrilla groups(founded in 1957), is the dominant member of the Palestine LiberationOrganization (PLO) and currently also the political party holdingthe presidency within the Palestinian Authority (PA) in control of theWest Bank. The name Fatah, the Arabic word meaning “conquest,” isalso the reverse acronym of the name Harakat al Tahrir al Filastiniyya,meaning “Palestinian Liberation Movement.” Throughout most ofits existence al Fatah was led and dominated by Yasir Arafat.The current goals of al Fatah are to seek establishment of an independent,secular Palestinian state on any part of “historic Palestineliberated from Zionist occupation” and to preserve the PLO and the