The Obama Diary

President Obama and President Mauricio Funes of El Salvador during their meeting in the Oval Office, March 8, 2025

Time: Of all the politicians President Barack Obama encounters during his current Latin American tour, none is likely to be more welcoming than Salvadoran president Mauricio Funes. Elected in 2009 as El Salvador’s first leftist leader since the end of its bloody civil war in 1992, Funes — much like Obama himself — is a youthful populist who campaigned as a progressive but governs as a pragmatist. A political neophyte, Funes’ pro-business and anti-crime policies have transformed the former CNN en Espanol correspondent into the great Gringo hope of Central America.

As El Salvador struggles with a stagnant economy, rising drug-trafficking trade and one of the world’s highest murder rates, the Obama visit on March 22 is a high-profile effort to ensure Funes’ hope is not merely hype. Unlike Chile and Brazil — Obama’s other Latin American destinations — El Salvador offers little in terms of natural resources or geopolitical might. Instead, El Salvador’s success is as much symbolic as strategic — a Cold War-era battleground that’s traded civil war for civil society while neighboring governments still deal with coups, corruption and communism.

“Funes has cultivated a sense of inclusion, tolerance and civility within a very stable democracy,” says Joseph Tulchin, visiting fellow at Harvard University’s David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies. “He represents [America’s] bet on peace, a bet on democracy — he’s a reformist in a region where there aren’t that many around.”

Full article here

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All times Eastern

2:45PM: The First Family arrives in San Savador, El Salvador

3:30PM: President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama participate in an arrival ceremony

3:50PM: President Obama holds a bilateral meeting with President Funes

4:20PM: President Obama holds an expaned bilateral meeting with President Funes

4:55PM: President Obama and President Funes hold a joint press conference

*** Afternoon schedule not yet announced ***

10:10PM: President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama attend an official dinner hosted by President Funes

The President returns to Washington on Wednesday