El Salvador History

By | October 12, 2021

Then followed the dictatorship of General Maximiliano Hernández Martínez, which lasted twelve years. In 1944 the old caudillo had to resign. After various events, from 1950 to 1956 the paternalistic regime of Colonel Oscar Osorio was founded, based on the hegemony of an ad hoc party . Osorio’s successor was another colonel, José María Lemus. A progressive revolt was put down in 1961 and the government passed into the hands of a military junta. The following year, after a new Constitution and new elections, the presidency of the Republic was entrusted to Colonel Julio Adalberto Rivera, candidate of the National Conciliation Party, who was followed, in 1967, by Colonel Fidel Sánchez Hernández and in 1972 Colonel Arturo Armando Molina. In June 1969, El Salvador and Honduras were the protagonists of a brief undeclared war, resulting from deep economic and social conflicts. Meanwhile, the political life of the country continued to be troubled by very serious episodes of violence that forced the government to resort to the state of siege several times. In the mid-1970s, guerrilla formations such as the Farabundo Martí Front for National Liberation (FMLN) appeared. According to usaers, the elections of 1977, held in a climate of violence, brought General Carlos Humberto Romero, candidate of the National Conciliation Party, to the presidency. Fierce clashes between the police forces on the one hand and peasants, workers, left-wing militants on the other, continued to bloody the country; in the’ October 1979 a group of young officers carried out a coup d’état which dismissed General Romero. One of the leaders of the coup, A. Majano, under pressure from the right-wing military (headed by Defense Minister J. García), handed over the command of the Armed Forces to Colonel Jaime Abdul Gutiérrez. With the presidency (1980) of José Napoleón Duarte, leader of the Christian Democratic Party, the FMLN escalated the guerrilla warfare, while US interference opened an international political case. Following the troubled April 1982 elections, independent economist Alvaro Magaña assumed the provisional presidency. The political climate, however, remained very tense due to the escalation of the civil war. The guerrillas continued their raids, strengthened by Soviet support and the help of neighboring Nicaragua. With the presidential elections of 1984 the Christian Democrat Duarte returned to the presidency, who immediately obtained the support of the United States. The offers of dialogue with the guerrillas, made repeatedly by Duarte starting from 1985, did not serve to pacify the country and dissatisfaction with government policy grew, while the army returned to acquire the role of sole guarantor of security.

The right took advantage of this evolution, and in the legislative and municipal consultations of March 1988 with the ARENA (Nationalist Republican Alliance) they obtained a strong success and overtook the Christian Democratic Party. The “death squads”, supporters of the army, reappeared and the guerrilla attacks became more frequent, whose political leader G. Ungo had also obtained the electoral representation of the left. In the presidential election of March 1989 ARENA (Nationalist Republican Alliance) achieved strong success and surpassed the Christian Democratic Party. The “death squads”, supporters of the army, reappeared and the guerrilla attacks became more frequent, whose political leader G. Ungo had also obtained the electoral representation of the left. In the presidential election of March 1989 Alfredo Cristiani, candidate of the ARENA, was elected to the highest office of the state, promising national reconciliation. Faced with the lack of agreement for the dissolution of the contras in Nicaragua, in the international meetings in Tela, Honduras (August 1989), and in the rapidly changing picture of international communism, the FMLN then took vigorous military action, even going so far as to almost entirely occupy the capital (November 12, 1989): the failure of the attempt to develop a popular insurrection, however, forced the guerrillas to a rapid retreat. The accentuation of international isolation, which emerged following the widespread echo caused by the participation of military personnel in the killing of six Jesuits at the University of San Salvador (November 16, 1989), did not prevent the Salvadoran government from obtaining the support of Central American presidents. gathered at the San Isidro Summit, Costa Rica (12 December 1989), which ended with an invitation to the FMLN to lay down their arms, also signed by Nicaragua, which had been its main supplier. Taking advantage of the alleviation of regional tensions induced by the electoral defeat of the sandinistas in the neighboring country, new negotiations were agreed in Geneva in April 1990; nevertheless, the guerrillas continued until the resumption of negotiations after the 1991 elections which recorded, alongside the victory of the ARENA, a consistent advance of the left.

The negotiations, which took place with the mediation of the UN, finally ended with the peace agreement signed by the parties in Mexico City in 1992, which was followed by the dismantling of the military apparatus of the FMLN and its transformation into a party. politic. In the same year, the border disputes with Honduras that had been at the origin of the 1969 war ended. election as President of the Republic of his candidate, Armando Calderón Sol. In 1995, the riots continued due to the lack of distribution of land and housing to former combatants. L’ UN he decided to extend the mandate of his observers, while continuing the trickle of attacks against the leaders of the FMLN who, since the signing of the agreement in 1996, had left over 40 dead on the ground. With the following elections, the FMLN, in which paramilitary organizations aligned to the opposition had converged, achieved an unprecedented victory: it obtained 27 seats in Parliament against 28 in the ARENA. However, on 7 March 1999, an ARENA candidate, Francisco Flores, was elected president of the Republic again. In November 2000, the difficult economic situation in which the country had been facing for decades led the conservative government to launch an ambitious economic program, which provided for the replacement of the local currency, the colón, with the US dollar from January 2001. The plan, which was not positively received by the population and the FMLN, was intended to influence trade within the new Free Trade Treaty signed with Mexico, Guatemala and Honduras, in force since early 2001, and aimed to attract foreign investments in the country. The legislative elections of March 2003 saw the victory of the FMLN, which became the country’s leading political force. The presidential elections of March 2004 were won by Elias Antonio Saca, candidate of ARENA, the ruling party, while the FMNL candidate did not even reach the ballot. In March 2006 the legislative elections won by ARENA were held and in January 2009 the FMLN obtained the majority to govern; the following presidential elections in March saw the winner of the journalist Mauricio Funes supported by the FMLN. In the March 2012 elections, the conservative ARENA coalition won the legislative elections, winning 33 seats, compared to 31 for the FMLN. The 2014 presidential elections were won by S. Sánchez Cerén, a member of the FMLN. However, the party failed to form a majority in the 2015 legislative elections for a single seat, which made government jobs more difficult for President Sánchez Cerén, who was succeeded by conservative party candidate N. Bukele. The 2014 presidential elections were won by S. Sánchez Cerén, a member of the FMLN. However, the party failed to form a majority in the 2015 legislative elections for a single seat, which made government jobs more difficult for President Sánchez Cerén, who was succeeded by conservative party candidate N. Bukele. The 2014 presidential elections were won by S. Sánchez Cerén, a member of the FMLN. However, the party failed to form a majority in the 2015 legislative elections for a single seat, which made government jobs more difficult for President Sánchez Cerén, who was succeeded by conservative party candidate N. Bukele.

El Salvador History