President Tony Saca of El Salvador
Source: Yahoo! Images

When we think of leaders named “Tony” – our first glint of thought is maybe of the great Tony Blair of the United Kingdom, who always has the right thing to say, yet whose actions speak louder than any of his eloquent words. He’s a great ally of civilization and some of his greatest work has been to help crush al-Qaida.

By coincidence, there’s another leader named Tony and in our own hemisphere, the great Tony Saca of El Salvador, whose leadership has turned tiny, beat-up, war-torn, communist-battered failed-state El Salvador a shining beacon of free markets and growing prosperity. You’ve heard of Asian Tiger states? El Salvador is the Americas Jaguar state. Saca’s country is a star, just as he is. Alone in Latin America, he has commited his country to fight the war on terror with troops in Iraq out of belief in freedom for all. More important, he has shown the whole world, full as it is of poor countries, the one way out of the mire of poverty and socialism through free trade, rule of law, increased freedom, property rights, sound currency, low taxes and Reaganesque faith in the future. And as Tony Blair is crushing al-Qaida, this Tony has come out swinging against the monstrous Hugo Chavez of Venezuela.

A magnificent man!

I have had the honor of seeing him in action myself. Since about one out of five Salvadorans lives in Los Angeles, Saca is a regular here in LA. I saw him speak at a visit here last year, and he was eloquent, friendly, pugnacious and fearless. He went after the leftwingers with a verbal brickbat, kind of like Rush Limbaugh might, calling them liars right to their faces, quite a sight to behold. Saca, interestingly, used to be a radio announcer back in El Salvador. He learned his craft well and beats the heck out of far-leftists who try to shout him down.

Tony Saca gave a lovely interview to the Financial Times this morning, which can be read here:

He tells the FT:

Socialist experiments, state experiments end up bankrupting countries,??????? said Mr Sacha. ???????We Äin El SalvadorÅ have already lived through it. We had an agricultural reform that was a disaster, we had a state takeover of the banks which was mired in corruption. The state should be small but strong. It should not get in the way.???????

He said he distrusted the region’s swing to the left because “it destroys liberties” and that El Salvador had “broken the cycle of slow growth.”

Not bad for a man whose family was forced into illegal alienhood in the U.S. as it fled communism. Now, he’s raising war-torn El Salvador up to U.S. standards on everything while not losing any of the unique and wonderful things that makes El Salvador El Salvador. And he is fearlessly challenging Hugo Chavez.

iViva Tony Saca!

President Tony Saca of El Salvador – another cute photo!
Source: EsMas, via Yahoo!

UPDATE: Tim at Tim’s El Salvador Blog has additional information, and a pretty interesting comments section, here.