Mauricio Funes on Tuesday reaches his 100th day as president of El Salvador with a more than 80 percent approval rating, in spite of attempts by the opposition to paint his administration as a “government of deception.”

Funes, a former TV journalist who ran as a reformed leftist on the ticket of the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN), took office June 1 from conservative President Tony Saca, starting a new chapter in El Salvador's history by leading the first left-leaning government after a long line of right-wingers (NT, May 29).

A July CID-Gallup poll ranked Funes and fellow newly-elected president, Ricardo Martinelli of Panama, the most popular Central American leaders, both with an 86 percent favorability rating.

This Monday, local TV channel Telecorporación Salvadoreña released a public opinion poll by Mitofsky that shows his approval rating remains high at 85 percent.

Roy Campos, president of Mitofsky, said Funes is still in his “honeymoon” period. “The hope for changes (and) for a better life with the Funes win remains,” Campos said. His poll surveyed 1,200 Salvadorans at the end of August.

A recent Universidad Centroamericana survey gave Funes high marks too. The university's president, José María Tojeira, said the Funes administration started off on the right foot. “It's a government that began with a quite solid position because it gave stability to a country following an electoral period in which stability was in question,” said Tojeira, who is also a priest. The university president added that he considers the administration is “a kind of moderate-leftist government.”

Faced with the worst global economic crisis since the Great Depression, Funes scored points when he proposed a $587 million investment to build 25,000 homes and other social programs.

The opposition, the National Republican Alliance (ARENA), which governed the country for about two decades, said the FMLN-led administration “is headed toward becoming the ‘government of deception.'”

“100 days is a brief time period that's being used to criticize us,” Funes said at an event in Acajutla, southeast of San Salvador, in which the government handed over land to small farmers.

Free-trade agreements with China and Singapore appear to be well on their way.

On Monday, Costa Rica started the fourth round of negotiations with China on the specifics of a free-trade pact. The talks, which will last through the week, aim to further clarify what products China hopes to export to Costa Rica and which Chinese products are of greatest importance to Costa Rica. Representatives from the two countries will also discuss how the products will be transported and the monitoring of safety and health standards for goods traded, according to a statement by the Foreign Trade Ministry (COMEX).

Costa Rica also discussed a free-trade agreement with Singapore last Thursday at the Foreign Trade Promotion Office (PROCOMER), finishing a third round of negotiations.

The two nations discussed the trade of construction materials, infrastructure, the food industry, agriculture, and ornamental plants and flowers. The primary themes of this round of the talks included the importance of maintenance of the products to ensure that, when traded, they arrive in good condition.

In this vein, Singapore proposed the use of a product known as Purfresh, used to slow the maturation of a product and maintain its freshness. Purfresh is a packing product that contains nitrogen, which reduces the amount of existing oxygen, thereby limiting the development of harmful microorganisms during the shipping process. Though the use of this element will result in a small increase in the cost of transport, Emmanuel Hess, general director of PROCOMER, thinks it is a worthy investment.

“The fundamental idea behind these actions is for Costa Rican businesses from diverse sectors to be better informed about the innovative logistical models used for exports,” Hess said. “Businesses will be able to enjoy the best form of potential business and utilize an improved method of trade due to the free-trade agreements with China and Singapore.”

Both accords are expected to be finalized within the first half of 2010.

Officials with the United Nations have made Costa Rica the backdrop for a disarmament workshop beginning today in San José.

With representatives from nearly every Central American country, as well as Cuba, Mexico and the Dominican Republic, the conference is expected to piggyback off of a 2004 U.N. Security Council resolution against weapons of mass destruction.

With the mission of enhancing “national capacities for the management of export-control processes at a practical level, and to improve information- and experience-sharing between participating countries,” the two-day event will touch on ways to stem nuclear, chemical or biological weapon manufacture and transportation.

Costa Rica, the host country for the event, wasn't chosen by coincidence. The Central American country is one of the first in the Americas to disband its army and is home to the United Nation's University of Peace. Its president, Oscar Arias, also received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1987 for mediating a peace settlement to the region's civil wars of the 1980s.

The workshop is the fourth of its kind, and is organized by an arm of the United Nations, the Office of Disarmament Affairs.

The Museum of Costa Rican Art (MAC) and the National Theater will be exhibiting the work of the late Costa Rican artist Dinorah Bolandi from Friday through Dec. 14.

Winner of the most coveted cultural prize in Costa Rica, El Magón –although she refused to accept it – San José-born Bolandi is regarded as one of Costa Rica's most influential artists.

The exhibition will be made up of 11 pieces, including tapestry, drawings and oils, and will be on display in the Enrique Echandi Gallery of the National Theater.

Born in 1923, Bolandi started painting as a 12-year-old under the tutelage of artist Fausto Pacheco. She continued her studies in the U.S., spending two years at the Colorado Women's College, painting and studying classical guitar, before moving to New York City where she pursued her passion at the Art Students League.

She returned to Costa Rica in 1955, continuing her work at La Casa del Artista and later the University of Costa Rica. Bolandi died in 2004 and donated her work to the Central Bank of Costa Rica and the Museum of Costa Rican Art.