The Center-Left appears to be on the verge of new gains in normally conservative nations in Central America, solidifying a sweep in the leadership of most Latin America countries. 

With more than 80 percent of the votes counted in Costa Rica's presidential election, Luis Guillermo Solis of the left-leaning Citizens' Action Party has a one-percentage-point lead over Johnny Araya of the governing National Liberation Party.  Araya had led in opinion polls and early returns.  But he might have been damaged by a scandal that brought ridicule to his campaign.  A photo of an Araya rally had been clumsily and obviously photoshopped, provoking an online onslaught of parodies including such “attendees” as George Clooney, The Beatles, Colonel Sanders of Kentucky Friend Chicken, and Goku from Dragonball.

Costa Rica’s Presidential election goes to a run-off on 6 April.

In El Salvador, Left-wing candidate Salvador Sanchez Ceren of the FMLN party has a convincing 10-percentage-point lead over his nearest competitor.  But he failed to get a solid 50 percent.  Sanchez Ceren’s Farabundo Marti Liberation Front became a political party at the end of the El Salvador civil war in 1992.  For twelve years before that, he and the party were partisans in the war.

In the 9 March runoff, Sanchez Ceren and the FMLN’s highly popular health, welfare, and education programs will face right-wing former San Salvador Mayor Norman Quijano and his promise to crackdown on the murderous drug gangs that have given the country one of the world’s highest murder rates, although it is dropping.