History of El Salvador
Encyclopedia
The history of El Salvador has been a history of struggle against conquistadors, empires, dictatorships and world powers to be free. El Salvador was one of the regions that resisted the Spanish invasion led by Pedro de Alvarado who had to fight Atlantica and retreat several times back to Guatemala. After the independence several Spanish Creole took over the government and economy getting rid of all the land protections and benefits that the indigenous people had which caused some sectors to rise against the government in the 19th century. Anastacio Aquino, king of the Nonoualquenos, led the rebellion against abuse of power and corruption but it was repressed by the government. This repression would have repercusions in the future of El Salvador. La matanza, and all the liberation movements from the 1930s to 1980s would originate from the injustices committed by the Spanish rule, Creoles and other foreign power interventions.
, the area that now is El Salvador
was composed of three indigenous states and several principalities. The indigenous inhabitants were the Pipils, a tribe of the nomadic people of Nahua settled down for a long time in central Mexico. The region of the east was populated and the governed by the Lencas. The North zone of the Lempa Hi River
was populated and governed by the Chortis, a Mayan people
.
Early in their culture, the Pipil became one of the few Mesoamerican indigenous groups to abolish human sacrifice. Otherwise, their culture was similar to that of their Aztec
and Maya
neighbors. Remains of the historical culture are still found at ruins such as Tazumal
(near Chalchuapa), San Andrés
, and Joya de Cerén
(north of Colón).
was forced to retreat by Pipil warriors. In 1525, he returned and succeeded in bringing the district under control of the Audiencia of Mexico
. It was Alvarado who named the district for El Salvador ("The Savior") and was appointed its first governor, a position he held until his death in 1541. The area was under the authority of a short-lived Audiencia of Panama from 1538 to 1543, when most of Central America was placed under a new Audiencia of Guatemala. In 1609 the territory of the Audiencia of Guatemala was created into a captaincy general
to deal with threats to the area from foreign incursions into the Caribbean. In 1786, the Republic of El Salvador, which previously had been broken up into many corregimientos
, was transformed into an intendancy
, as part of the Bourbon Reforms
. This change brought economic and political unity to the area, and aided in the development of a sense of Salvadoran nationalism over the next century.
" in El Salvador came in 1811, at the hands of Criollo
elite. Many intellectuals and merchants had grown tired of the overpowering control that Spain still had in the American colonies, and were interested in expanding their export markets to Britain and the United States. Indigenous uprisings aimed at Spanish subjugation plagued the territory at this time, and they were re-interpreted by the Republicans to serve their purpose and show popular support for independence. Thus a movement grew amongst the middle class Criollo
and Mestizo
classes. Ultimately, the 1811 declaration of independence failed when the governor-general of Guatemala sent troops to San Salvador in order to crush the movement. However, the momentum was not lost and many of the people involved in the 1811 movement became involved in the 1821 movement.
In 1821, El Salvador and the other Central American provinces declared their independence from Spain. When these provinces joined the First Mexican Empire
in early 1822, El Salvador resisted, insisting on autonomy for the new Central American countries. Guatemalan troops sent to enforce the union were driven out of El Salvador in June 1822. El Salvador, fearing incorporation into Mexico, petitioned the United States government for statehood. But in 1823, a revolution in Mexico ousted Emperor Agustín de Iturbide
, and a new Mexican congress voted to allow the Central American provinces to decide their own fate. That year, the United Provinces of Central America
was formed of the five Central American states under General Manuel José Arce
.
In 1832, Anastasio Aquino
led an indigenous revolt against Criollos and Mestizos in Santiago Nonualco
, a small town in the province of San Vicente
. The source of the discontent of the indigenous people was lack of land to cultivate. The problem of land distribution has been the source of many political conflicts in Salvadoran history.
The Central American federation was dissolved in 1838 and El Salvador became an independent republic.
El Salvador's had elite depended on production of a single export crop, indigo
. This led the elite to be attracted to certain lands while leaving other lands, especially those around former volcanic eruptions, to the poor subsistence farming mestizos and the Indian communes. In the middle of the 19th century, however, indigo was replaced by chemical dyes. The landed elite replaced this crop with a newly demanded product, coffee
. The lands that had once been dependent for the product (indigo) were suddenly quite valuable. The elite-controlled legislature
and president
passed vagrancy laws that removed people from their land and the great majority of Salvadorans became landless. Their former lands were absorbed into the coffee plantations (fincas).
's coup, and 1944, when he was deposed, there was brutal suppression of rural resistance. The most notable event was the 1932 Salvadoran peasant uprising
headed by Farabundo Martí
and the government retaliation, commonly referred to as La Matanza (the 'slaughter'), which followed. In this 'Matanza', approximately 30,000 indigenous people and political opponents were murdered, imprisoned or exiled. Until 1980, all but one Salvadoran temporary president was an army officer. Periodic presidential elections were seldom free or fair.
From the 1930s to the 1970s, authoritarian governments employed political repression and limited reform to maintain power, despite the trappings of democracy. The National Conciliation Party was in power from the early 1960s until 1979. Fidel Sánchez Hernández
was president from 1967 to 1972. In July 1969, El Salvador invaded Honduras
in the short Football War
related to the Honduran appropriation of land held by Salvadoran immigrants. During the 1970s, there was great political instability. In the 1972 presidential election, opponents of military rule united under José Napoleón Duarte
, leader of the Christian Democratic Party
(PDC). Amid widespread fraud, Duarte's broad-based reform movement was defeated. Subsequent protests and an attempted coup were crushed and Duarte exiled. These events eroded hope of reform through democratic means and persuaded those opposed to the government that armed insurrection was the only way to achieve change. As a consequence of this social discontent, left-wing revolutionary groups began to gain strength.
in December 1981. The United States supported the government and Cuba and other Communist states supported the insurgents now organized as the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front
(FMLN). The Chapultepec Peace Accords
marked the end of the war in 1992 and FMLN became one of the major political parties.
During the 12-year civil war, human rights violations by both the government security forces and left-wing guerrillas were rampant. The accords established a Truth Commission
under UN auspices to investigate the most serious cases. The commission recommended that those identified as human rights violators be removed from all government and military posts. Thereafter, the Legislative Assembly
granted amnesty for political crimes committed during the war. Among those freed as a result were the Salvadoran Armed Forces (ESAF) officers convicted in the November 1989 Jesuit murders and the FMLN ex-combatants held for the 1991 murders of two U.S. servicemen. The peace accords also established the Ad Hoc Commission to evaluate the human rights record of the ESAF officer corps.
In accordance with the peace agreements, the constitution
was amended to prohibit the military from playing an internal security role except under extraordinary circumstances. Demobilization of Salvadoran military forces generally proceeded on schedule throughout the process. The Treasury Police, National Guard
, and National Police were abolished, and military intelligence functions were transferred to civilian control. By 1993—nine months ahead of schedule—the military had cut personnel from a war-time high of 63,000 to the level of 32,000 required by the peace accords. By 1999, ESAF strength stood at less than 15,000, including uniformed and non-uniformed personnel, consisting of personnel in the army, navy, and air force. A purge of military officers accused of human rights abuses and corruption was completed in 1993 in compliance with the Ad Hoc Commission's recommendations. The military's new doctrine, professionalism, and complete withdrawal from political and economic affairs leave it one of the most respected institutions in El Salvador.
More than 35,000 eligible beneficiaries from among the former guerrillas and soldiers who fought in the war received land under the peace accord-mandated land transfer program, which ended in January 1997. The majority of them also received agricultural credits.
In the presidential elections of March 21, 2004, ARENA was victorious again, this time with the candidate Elias Antonio Saca González, securing the party's fourth consecutive term. In the same election, economist Ana Vilma de Escobar became El Salvador's first female vice president. The election result also marked the end of the minor parties (PCN, PDC, and CD), which failed get the 3% required by electoral law to maintain their registration as parties.
Fifteen years after the Peace Accords, the democratic process in El Salvador rests on a precariously balanced system since the Legislative Assembly decreed an amnesty after the accords. As a result of this amnesty, no one responsible for crimes carried out before, during and after the war has been convicted.
In the postward period, El Salvador began to have problems with high crime "Maras" or gangs, mainly due to the deportation of Salvadorans living in the United States illegal. The two programs - Mano Dura and Mano Superdura - created to combat crime have failed.
Currently, El Salvador's largest source of foreign currency is remittances sent by Salvadoreans abroad; these have been estimated at over $2 billion. There are over 2 million Salvadorans living abroad in countries including the United States, Canada, Mexico, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Australia, and Sweden.
In the 2009 presidential elections, FMLN candidate Mauricio Funes, a former journalist, won the presidency. This was the first victory of a leftist party in El Salvador's history. Funes took over as President June 1, 2009 together with Salvador Sanchez Ceren as Vice President.
Before the Spanish conquest
Before the Spanish conquestSpanish colonization of the Americas
Colonial expansion under the Spanish Empire was initiated by the Spanish conquistadores and developed by the Monarchy of Spain through its administrators and missionaries. The motivations for colonial expansion were trade and the spread of the Christian faith through indigenous conversions...
, the area that now is El Salvador
El Salvador
El Salvador or simply Salvador is the smallest and the most densely populated country in Central America. The country's capital city and largest city is San Salvador; Santa Ana and San Miguel are also important cultural and commercial centers in the country and in all of Central America...
was composed of three indigenous states and several principalities. The indigenous inhabitants were the Pipils, a tribe of the nomadic people of Nahua settled down for a long time in central Mexico. The region of the east was populated and the governed by the Lencas. The North zone of the Lempa Hi River
Lempa River
The Lempa River is a 422 km long river in Central America. Its sources are located in between the Sierra Madre and the Sierra del Merendón in southern Guatemala, near the town of Olopa. In Guatemala the river is called Río Olopa and flows southwards for 30.4 km before entering Honduras and...
was populated and governed by the Chortis, a Mayan people
Maya peoples
The Maya people constitute a diverse range of the Native American people of southern Mexico and northern Central America. The overarching term "Maya" is a collective designation to include the peoples of the region who share some degree of cultural and linguistic heritage; however, the term...
.
Early in their culture, the Pipil became one of the few Mesoamerican indigenous groups to abolish human sacrifice. Otherwise, their culture was similar to that of their Aztec
Aztec
The Aztec people were certain ethnic groups of central Mexico, particularly those groups who spoke the Nahuatl language and who dominated large parts of Mesoamerica in the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries, a period referred to as the late post-classic period in Mesoamerican chronology.Aztec is the...
and Maya
Maya civilization
The Maya is a Mesoamerican civilization, noted for the only known fully developed written language of the pre-Columbian Americas, as well as for its art, architecture, and mathematical and astronomical systems. Initially established during the Pre-Classic period The Maya is a Mesoamerican...
neighbors. Remains of the historical culture are still found at ruins such as Tazumal
Tazumal
Tazumal is a Pre-Columbian Maya archeological site in Chalchuapa, El Salvador. Tazumal means, "the place where the victims were burned," in K'iche'....
(near Chalchuapa), San Andrés
San Andrés, El Salvador
San Andrés is a pre-Hispanic site of El Salvador, whose occupation began around the year 900 BC as an agricultural town in the valley of Zapotitán in the department of La Libertad...
, and Joya de Cerén
Joya de Cerén
Joya de Cerén is an archaeological site in La Libertad Department, El Salvador featuring a pre-Columbian Maya farming village preserved remarkably intact under layers of volcanic ash...
(north of Colón).
Spanish conquest and rule
The first Spanish attempt to subjugate this area failed in 1524, when Pedro de AlvaradoPedro de Alvarado
Pedro de Alvarado y Contreras was a Spanish conquistador and governor of Guatemala. He participated in the conquest of Cuba, in Juan de Grijalva's exploration of the coasts of Yucatan and the Gulf of Mexico, and in the conquest of Mexico led by Hernan Cortes...
was forced to retreat by Pipil warriors. In 1525, he returned and succeeded in bringing the district under control of the Audiencia of Mexico
Real Audiencia of Mexico
The Royal Audience of Mexico was the highest tribunal of the Spanish crown in the Kingdom of New Spain or the Kingdom of Mexico...
. It was Alvarado who named the district for El Salvador ("The Savior") and was appointed its first governor, a position he held until his death in 1541. The area was under the authority of a short-lived Audiencia of Panama from 1538 to 1543, when most of Central America was placed under a new Audiencia of Guatemala. In 1609 the territory of the Audiencia of Guatemala was created into a captaincy general
Captaincy General of Guatemala
The Captaincy General of Guatemala , also known as the Kingdom of Guatemala , was an administrative division in Spanish America which covered much of Central America, including what are now the nations of Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala, and the Mexican state of Chiapas...
to deal with threats to the area from foreign incursions into the Caribbean. In 1786, the Republic of El Salvador, which previously had been broken up into many corregimientos
Corregidor (position)
A corregidor was a local, administrative and judicial position in Spain and its empire. He was the highest authority of a Corregimiento. In the Americas a corregidor was often called an alcalde mayor. They began to be appointed in fourteenth century Castile and the institution was definitively...
, was transformed into an intendancy
Intendant
The title of intendant has been used in several countries through history. Traditionally, it refers to the holder of a public administrative office...
, as part of the Bourbon Reforms
Bourbon Reforms
The Bourbon Reforms were a set of economic and political legislation introduced by the Spanish Crown under various kings of the House of Bourbon throughout the 18th century. The reforms were intended to stimulate manufacturing and technology in order to modernize Spain...
. This change brought economic and political unity to the area, and aided in the development of a sense of Salvadoran nationalism over the next century.
Independence
The first "shout of independence1811 Independence Movement
The 1811 Independence Movement known in El Salvador as the Primer grito de independencia was the first of a series of revolts in Central America in El Salvador against Spanish colonialism and dependency on the Captaincy General of Guatemala.- Antecedents :At the beginning of the 19th century,...
" in El Salvador came in 1811, at the hands of Criollo
Criollo people
The Criollo class ranked below that of the Iberian Peninsulares, the high-born permanent residence colonists born in Spain. But Criollos were higher status/rank than all other castes—people of mixed descent, Amerindians, and enslaved Africans...
elite. Many intellectuals and merchants had grown tired of the overpowering control that Spain still had in the American colonies, and were interested in expanding their export markets to Britain and the United States. Indigenous uprisings aimed at Spanish subjugation plagued the territory at this time, and they were re-interpreted by the Republicans to serve their purpose and show popular support for independence. Thus a movement grew amongst the middle class Criollo
Criollo people
The Criollo class ranked below that of the Iberian Peninsulares, the high-born permanent residence colonists born in Spain. But Criollos were higher status/rank than all other castes—people of mixed descent, Amerindians, and enslaved Africans...
and Mestizo
Mestizo
Mestizo is a term traditionally used in Latin America, Philippines and Spain for people of mixed European and Native American heritage or descent...
classes. Ultimately, the 1811 declaration of independence failed when the governor-general of Guatemala sent troops to San Salvador in order to crush the movement. However, the momentum was not lost and many of the people involved in the 1811 movement became involved in the 1821 movement.
In 1821, El Salvador and the other Central American provinces declared their independence from Spain. When these provinces joined the First Mexican Empire
First Mexican Empire
The Mexican Empire was the official name of independent Mexico under a monarchical regime from 1821 to 1823. The territory of the Mexican Empire included the continental intendencies and provinces of New Spain proper...
in early 1822, El Salvador resisted, insisting on autonomy for the new Central American countries. Guatemalan troops sent to enforce the union were driven out of El Salvador in June 1822. El Salvador, fearing incorporation into Mexico, petitioned the United States government for statehood. But in 1823, a revolution in Mexico ousted Emperor Agustín de Iturbide
Agustín de Iturbide
Agustín Cosme Damián de Iturbide y Aramburu , also known as Augustine I of Mexico, was a Mexican army general who built a successful political and military coalition that was able to march into Mexico City on 27 September 1821, decisively ending the Mexican War of Independence...
, and a new Mexican congress voted to allow the Central American provinces to decide their own fate. That year, the United Provinces of Central America
Federal Republic of Central America
The Federal Republic of Central America, known as the United Provinces of Central America in its first year of creation, was a sovereign state in Central America, which consisted of the territories of the former Captaincy General of Guatemala of New Spain...
was formed of the five Central American states under General Manuel José Arce
Manuel José Arce
General Manuel José Arce y Fagoaga was a decorated General and president of the Federal Republic of Central America from 1825 to 1829.- Background :...
.
In 1832, Anastasio Aquino
Anastasio Aquino
Anastasio Mártir Aquino was a Salvadoran indigenous leader who led the Insurrection of the Nonualcos, a campesino uprising in El Salvador during the time it belonged to the Federal Republic of Central America.Aquino was born into a family belonging to the Taytes of the...
led an indigenous revolt against Criollos and Mestizos in Santiago Nonualco
Santiago Nonualco
Santiago Nonualco is a municipality in La Paz department of El Salvador."Nonualco" means tribe of mutes in the native Nahuat language. There are three "Nonualcos" in the area, the other two are San Juan Nonualco and San Pedro Nonualco....
, a small town in the province of San Vicente
San Vicente
San Vicente can refer to:*Argentina**San Vicente, Buenos Aires**San Vicente Partido*Bolivia**San Vicente Canton, Bolivia and its seat San Vicente*Chile**San Vicente, Chile*Colombia**San Vicente del Caguán** San Vicente, Antioquia...
. The source of the discontent of the indigenous people was lack of land to cultivate. The problem of land distribution has been the source of many political conflicts in Salvadoran history.
The Central American federation was dissolved in 1838 and El Salvador became an independent republic.
The oligarchy
El Salvador in its early history was controlled in an international manner. This form of control was aided by its geography; it had unbridged rivers that could only be crossed at fords and it lacked linking highway that could handle wheeled vehicles. Thus the "Fourteen Families" (actually many dozens of families) that have controlled El Salvador's history were all but feudal lords. Although the constitution was amended repeatedly (in 1855, 1864, 1871, 1872, 1880, 1883, and 1886), several elements remained constant throughout. The wealthy landowners were granted super-majority power in the national legislature (for example, the 1824 constitution provided for a unicameral legislature of 70 deputies, in which 42 seats were set aside for the landowners). The president, selected from the landed elite, was also granted significant power throughout. Each of El Salvador's 14 regional departments had a governor appointed by the president. The rapid changes in the constitution are mainly due to the attempts of various presidents to hold onto power. (For example, President Gerardo Barrios created a new constitution to extend his term limit.)From Indigo to Coffee: Displacement
El Salvador's had elite depended on production of a single export crop, indigo
Indigo dye
Indigo dye is an organic compound with a distinctive blue color . Historically, indigo was a natural dye extracted from plants, and this process was important economically because blue dyes were once rare. Nearly all indigo dye produced today — several thousand tons each year — is synthetic...
. This led the elite to be attracted to certain lands while leaving other lands, especially those around former volcanic eruptions, to the poor subsistence farming mestizos and the Indian communes. In the middle of the 19th century, however, indigo was replaced by chemical dyes. The landed elite replaced this crop with a newly demanded product, coffee
Coffee
Coffee is a brewed beverage with a dark,init brooo acidic flavor prepared from the roasted seeds of the coffee plant, colloquially called coffee beans. The beans are found in coffee cherries, which grow on trees cultivated in over 70 countries, primarily in equatorial Latin America, Southeast Asia,...
. The lands that had once been dependent for the product (indigo) were suddenly quite valuable. The elite-controlled legislature
Legislative Assembly of El Salvador
The Legislative Assembly is the legislative branch of the government of El Salvador.The Salvadoran legislature is a unicameral body....
and president
President of El Salvador
This page contains a list of Presidents of El Salvador.-Heads of State of El Salvador within the Federal Republic of Central America :*Pedro Barriere : 21 September 1821 - 28 November 1821*José Matías Delgado : 28 Nov 1821 - 9 February 1823...
passed vagrancy laws that removed people from their land and the great majority of Salvadorans became landless. Their former lands were absorbed into the coffee plantations (fincas).
Military Dictatorships
Between 1931, the year of Gen. Maximiliano Hernández MartínezMaximiliano Hernández Martínez
Maximiliano Hernández Martínez was the President of El Salvador from 1931 to 1944...
's coup, and 1944, when he was deposed, there was brutal suppression of rural resistance. The most notable event was the 1932 Salvadoran peasant uprising
1932 Salvadoran peasant uprising
The peasant uprising of 1932, also known as La matanza , was a brief, peasant-led rebellion that occurred on January 22 of that year in the western departments of El Salvador...
headed by Farabundo Martí
Farabundo Martí
Augustín Farabundo Martí Rodríguez was a social activist and a revolutionary leader in El Salvador.-Early life:Martí was born in Teotepeque, a farming community located in Departamento de La Libertad, El Salvador...
and the government retaliation, commonly referred to as La Matanza (the 'slaughter'), which followed. In this 'Matanza', approximately 30,000 indigenous people and political opponents were murdered, imprisoned or exiled. Until 1980, all but one Salvadoran temporary president was an army officer. Periodic presidential elections were seldom free or fair.
From the 1930s to the 1970s, authoritarian governments employed political repression and limited reform to maintain power, despite the trappings of democracy. The National Conciliation Party was in power from the early 1960s until 1979. Fidel Sánchez Hernández
Fidel Sánchez Hernández
Fidel Sánchez Hernández was a politician, general, and former President of El Salvador. It could be said that Sánchez Hernández led his country during a tumultuous era...
was president from 1967 to 1972. In July 1969, El Salvador invaded Honduras
Honduras
Honduras is a republic in Central America. It was previously known as Spanish Honduras to differentiate it from British Honduras, which became the modern-day state of Belize...
in the short Football War
Football War
The Football War , also known as the Soccer War or 100 hour War, was a four-day war fought by El Salvador and Honduras in 1969. It was caused by political conflicts between Hondurans and Salvadorans, namely issues concerning immigration from El Salvador to Honduras...
related to the Honduran appropriation of land held by Salvadoran immigrants. During the 1970s, there was great political instability. In the 1972 presidential election, opponents of military rule united under José Napoleón Duarte
José Napoleón Duarte
José Napoleón Duarte Fuentes was a Salvadoran political figure who, from March 3, 1980, to 1982, led the civil-military Revolutionary Government Junta that took power in a 1979 coup d'état...
, leader of the Christian Democratic Party
Christian Democratic Party
Christian democratic parties are those political parties that seek to apply Christian principles to public policy. The underlying Christian democracy movement emerged in 19th-century Europe, largely under the influence of Catholic social teaching, and it continues to be influential in Europe and...
(PDC). Amid widespread fraud, Duarte's broad-based reform movement was defeated. Subsequent protests and an attempted coup were crushed and Duarte exiled. These events eroded hope of reform through democratic means and persuaded those opposed to the government that armed insurrection was the only way to achieve change. As a consequence of this social discontent, left-wing revolutionary groups began to gain strength.
Salvadoran Civil War
In 1979 the reformist Revolutionary Government Junta took power. Both the extreme right and the extreme left now disagreed with the government and increased political violence quickly turned into a civil war. The initially poorly trained Salvadoran Armed Forces (ESAF) also engaged in repression and indiscriminate killings, the most notorious of which was the El Mozote massacreEl Mozote massacre
The El Mozote Massacre took place in and around the village of El Mozote, in Morazán department, El Salvador, on December 11, 1981, when Salvadoran armed forces trained by the United States military killed at least 200 and up to 1000 civilians in an anti-guerrilla campaign during the Salvadoran...
in December 1981. The United States supported the government and Cuba and other Communist states supported the insurgents now organized as the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front
Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front
The Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front is, since 1992, a left-wing political party in El Salvador and formerly a coalition of five revolutionary guerrilla organizations...
(FMLN). The Chapultepec Peace Accords
Chapultepec Peace Accords
The Chapultepec Peace Accords brought peace to El Salvador in 1992 after more than a decade of wrenching civil war.The treaty was negotiated by representatives of the Salvadoran government, the rebel movement FMLN, and political parties, with observers from the Roman Catholic Church and United...
marked the end of the war in 1992 and FMLN became one of the major political parties.
During the 12-year civil war, human rights violations by both the government security forces and left-wing guerrillas were rampant. The accords established a Truth Commission
Commission on the Truth for El Salvador
The Truth Commission for El Salvador was a truth commission established by the United Nations to investigate and report on human rights abuses during the civil war in El Salvador ....
under UN auspices to investigate the most serious cases. The commission recommended that those identified as human rights violators be removed from all government and military posts. Thereafter, the Legislative Assembly
Legislative Assembly of El Salvador
The Legislative Assembly is the legislative branch of the government of El Salvador.The Salvadoran legislature is a unicameral body....
granted amnesty for political crimes committed during the war. Among those freed as a result were the Salvadoran Armed Forces (ESAF) officers convicted in the November 1989 Jesuit murders and the FMLN ex-combatants held for the 1991 murders of two U.S. servicemen. The peace accords also established the Ad Hoc Commission to evaluate the human rights record of the ESAF officer corps.
In accordance with the peace agreements, the constitution
Constitution of El Salvador
The current constitution was put in place in 1983 and amended in 2003.-Provisions of the 1983 constitution:The Constitution of 1983 is in many ways quite similar to the constitution of 1962, often incorporating verbatim passages from the earlier document...
was amended to prohibit the military from playing an internal security role except under extraordinary circumstances. Demobilization of Salvadoran military forces generally proceeded on schedule throughout the process. The Treasury Police, National Guard
National Guard (El Salvador)
The Guardia Nacional of El Salvador was the Salvadoran gendarmerie. It was founded in 1912 by President Dr. Manuel Enrique Araujo. As agreed in the Chapultepec Peace Accords, it was disbanded on 16 January 1992...
, and National Police were abolished, and military intelligence functions were transferred to civilian control. By 1993—nine months ahead of schedule—the military had cut personnel from a war-time high of 63,000 to the level of 32,000 required by the peace accords. By 1999, ESAF strength stood at less than 15,000, including uniformed and non-uniformed personnel, consisting of personnel in the army, navy, and air force. A purge of military officers accused of human rights abuses and corruption was completed in 1993 in compliance with the Ad Hoc Commission's recommendations. The military's new doctrine, professionalism, and complete withdrawal from political and economic affairs leave it one of the most respected institutions in El Salvador.
More than 35,000 eligible beneficiaries from among the former guerrillas and soldiers who fought in the war received land under the peace accord-mandated land transfer program, which ended in January 1997. The majority of them also received agricultural credits.
Post-war period
The FMLN participated in the 1994 presidential election as a political party; Armando Calderon Sol, the ARENA candidade, won the election. During his rule, Calderón Sol implemented a plan of privatization of several large state enterprises and other neoliberal policies. The FMLN emerged strengthened from the legislative and municipal elections of 1997, where they won the mayoralty of San Salvador. However, internal divisions in the process of electing a presidential candidate damaged the party's image. ARENA again won the presidency in the election of March 7, 1999 with its candidate Francisco Flores.In the presidential elections of March 21, 2004, ARENA was victorious again, this time with the candidate Elias Antonio Saca González, securing the party's fourth consecutive term. In the same election, economist Ana Vilma de Escobar became El Salvador's first female vice president. The election result also marked the end of the minor parties (PCN, PDC, and CD), which failed get the 3% required by electoral law to maintain their registration as parties.
Fifteen years after the Peace Accords, the democratic process in El Salvador rests on a precariously balanced system since the Legislative Assembly decreed an amnesty after the accords. As a result of this amnesty, no one responsible for crimes carried out before, during and after the war has been convicted.
In the postward period, El Salvador began to have problems with high crime "Maras" or gangs, mainly due to the deportation of Salvadorans living in the United States illegal. The two programs - Mano Dura and Mano Superdura - created to combat crime have failed.
Currently, El Salvador's largest source of foreign currency is remittances sent by Salvadoreans abroad; these have been estimated at over $2 billion. There are over 2 million Salvadorans living abroad in countries including the United States, Canada, Mexico, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Australia, and Sweden.
In the 2009 presidential elections, FMLN candidate Mauricio Funes, a former journalist, won the presidency. This was the first victory of a leftist party in El Salvador's history. Funes took over as President June 1, 2009 together with Salvador Sanchez Ceren as Vice President.
See also
- History of the AmericasHistory of the AmericasThe history of the Americas is the collective history of the American landmass, which includes North and South America, as well as Central America and the Caribbean. It begins with people migrating to these areas from Asia during the height of an Ice Age...
- History of Central AmericaHistory of Central AmericaThe history of Central America is the study of the past of the region known as Central America.- Before European contact :In pre-Columbian times, most of modern Central America was part of the Mesoamerican civilization. The Native American societies of Mesoamerica occupied the land ranging from...
- History of Latin AmericaHistory of Latin AmericaLatin America refers to countries in the Americas where Romance languages are spoken. This definition, however, is not meant to include Canada, in spite of its large French-speaking population....
- History of North AmericaHistory of North AmericaThe history of North America is the study of the past, particularly the written record, oral histories, and traditions, passed down from generation to generation on the continent in the Earth's northern hemisphere and western hemisphere....
- List of Presidents of El Salvador
- Politics of El SalvadorPolitics of El SalvadorPolitics of El Salvador takes place in a framework of a presidential representative democratic republic, whereby the President of El Salvador is both head of state and head of government, and of a multi-party system. Executive power is exercised by the government. Legislative power is vested in...
- Spanish colonization of the AmericasSpanish colonization of the AmericasColonial expansion under the Spanish Empire was initiated by the Spanish conquistadores and developed by the Monarchy of Spain through its administrators and missionaries. The motivations for colonial expansion were trade and the spread of the Christian faith through indigenous conversions...
Further reading
- Anderson, Thomas P., Matanza ; El Salvador's communist revolt of 1932, Lincoln: Univ. of Nebraska Pr., 1971
- Grenier, Yvon, The Emergence of Insurgency in El Salvador: Ideology and Political Will, University of Pittsburgh Press 1999
- Hammond, John L., Fighting to Learn: Popular Education and Guerrilla War in El Salvador, Rutgers University Press 1998
- Aldo Lauria-Santiago (Herausgeber), Leigh Binford (Herausgeber), Landscapes of Struggle: Politics, Society, and Community in El Salvador: Politics, Society and Community in El Salvador, University of Pittsburgh Press 2004
- Julie D. Shayne, The Revolution Question: Feminisms in El Salvador, Chile, and Cuba, Rutgers University Press 2004
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- Tilley, Virginia Q., Seeing Indians: A Study of Race, Nation, and Power in El Salvador, University of New Mexico Press 2005
- Elisabeth J. Wood (Herausgeber), Peter Lange (Herausgeber), Robert H. Bates (Herausgeber), Insurgent Collective Action and Civil War in El Salvador, Cambridge University Press 2003