El Salvador,officially the Republic of El Salvador,is a country in Central America. It is bordered on the northeast by Honduras,on the northwest by Guatemala,and on the south by the Pacific Ocean. El Salvador's capital and largest city is San Salvador. The country's population in 2024 was estimated to be 6 million according to a government census.
The economy of El Salvador has experienced relatively low rates of GDP growth,in comparison to other developing countries. Rates have not risen above the low single digits in nearly two decades –part of a broader environment of macroeconomic instability which the integration of the United States dollar has done little to improve. One problem that the Salvadoran economy faces is the inequality in the distribution of income. In 2011,El Salvador had a Gini Coefficient of .485,which although similar to that of the United States,leaves 37.8% of the population below the poverty line,due to lower aggregate income. The richest 10% of the population receives approximately 15 times the income of the poorest 40%.
The history of El Salvador begins with several distinct groups of Mesoamerican people,especially the Pipil,the Lenca and the Maya. In the early 16th century,the Spanish Empire conquered the territory,incorporating it into the Viceroyalty of New Spain ruled from Mexico City. In 1821,El Salvador achieved independence from Spain as part of the First Mexican Empire,only to further secede as part of the Federal Republic of Central America two years later. Upon the republic's independence in 1841,El Salvador became a sovereign state until forming a short-lived union with Honduras and Nicaragua called the Greater Republic of Central America,which lasted from 1895 to 1898.
Presidential elections were held in El Salvador on 21 March 2004. Antonio Saca of the Nationalist Republican Alliance (ARENA) party won the election with 57% of the vote,avoiding the need for a run-off on 2 May.
The Nationalist Republican Alliance is a conservative,center-right to right-wing political party of El Salvador. It was founded on 30 September 1981 by retired Salvadoran Army Major Roberto D'Aubuisson. It defines itself as a political institution constituted to defend the democratic,republican,and representative system of government,the social market economy system and nationalism.
Elías Antonio "Tony" Saca González is a Salvadoran politician who was President of El Salvador from 1 June 2004 to 1 June 2009. He is currently serving a minimum 10-year prison sentence on corruption charges.
JoséNapoleón Duarte Fuentes was a Salvadoran politician who served as President of El Salvador from 1 June 1984 to 1 June 1989. He was mayor of San Salvador before running for president in 1972. He lost,but the election is widely viewed as fraudulent. Following a coup d'état in 1979,Duarte led the subsequent civil-military Junta from 1980 to 1982. He was then elected president in 1984,defeating ARENA party leader Roberto D'Aubuisson.
The National Coalition Party is a nationalist political party in El Salvador. Until 2011 it was known as the National Conciliation Party. It was the most powerful political party in the country during the 1960s and 1970s,and was closely associated with the Salvadoran military. Julio Adalberto Rivera Carballo,a candidate of the National Conciliation Party,was elected president in 1962,and the next three presidents were also from the party. After the 1979 coup the party declined in influence but continued to exist.
The Christian Democratic Party is a Salvadoran political party. From 2011 to 2012,the party was renamed to Party of Hope before reverting to the Christian Democratic Party. The PDC has been led by Reinaldo Carballo since 2023.
Carlos Mauricio Funes Cartagena is a Salvadoran politician and former journalist who served as the 41st President of El Salvador from 2009 to 2014. Funes won the 2009 presidential election as the candidate of the left-wing Farabundo MartíNational Liberation Front (FMLN) party and took office on 1 June 2009. Since 2016,Funes and his immediate family have been living in exile in Nicaragua due to allegations of criminality during his tenure. In July 2023,he was placed under sanctions by the U.S. State Department due to his conviction in absentia for negotiations related to the gang truces he made while in office,illicit enrichment,and tax evasion.
Legislative and local elections were held in El Salvador on 11 March 2012 to choose 84 members of the legislative assembly and 262 mayors. The election was carried out by the Supreme Electoral Tribunal. The opposition Nationalist Republican Alliance (ARENA) narrowly defeated the Farabundo MartíNational Liberation Front (FMLN) and its ally Grand Alliance for National Unity (GANA).
Presidential elections were held in El Salvador on 2 February 2014,with a second round held on 9 March since no candidate won an outright majority. The primary candidates were Vice-President Salvador Sánchez Cerén of the FMLN,San Salvador Mayor Norman Quijano of ARENA,and Former President Antonio "Tony" Saca. Saca represented GANA,the National Conciliation Party,and the Christian Democratic Party in the UNIDAD coalition. Incumbent President Mauricio Funes was ineligible to run for a consecutive second term. Sánchez Cerén and Quijano emerged as the contestants in the runoff held on 9 March in which Sánchez Cerén was declared the victor.
Roberto Joséd'Aubuisson Munguía is a Salvadoran politician,and the mayor of Santa Tecla since 2015. d'Aubuisson was a member of the Salvadoran Legislative Assembly from 1997 to 2015. He was also a member of the National Executive Council (COENA) of Nationalist Republican Alliance (ARENA) from 2014 until 2016.
Patricia Escobar de Arzú,also known as Patricia de Arzú,is a Salvadoran-Guatemalan entrepreneur and politician. She is the widow of former president of Guatemala and mayor of Guatemala City,Álvaro ArzúIrigoyen,having served as First Lady of Guatemala from January 14,1996,to January 14,2000,and as First Lady of Guatemala City from 1991 to 1996,and again from 2004 until his death in 2018. She was an unsuccessful presidential candidate in the 2011 elections for the Unionist Party.
Presidential elections were held in El Salvador on 3 February 2019,with Salvadorans electing the president and vice president for a five-year term from 2019 to 2024.
Juan Carlos Calleja Hakker is a Salvadoran businessman and former politician. Calleja is currently the CEO of Grupo Éxito and the vice president of the Calleja Group which owns Supermercados Super Selectos,the largest supermarket chain in El Salvador. He was the presidential candidate for the Nationalist Republican Alliance (ARENA) during the 2019 presidential election. He received 31.72 percent of the vote and came in second place to Nayib Bukele,the election's winner.
Legislative elections were held in El Salvador on 18 February 2021. Salvadorans elected all 84 deputies of the Legislative Assembly,all 262 mayors of municipal councils of the country's municipalities,and all 20 of El Salvador's deputies to the Central American Parliament (PARLACEN).
Irma Michelle Martha Ninette Sol Schweikert de Castro,commonly known Michelle Sol,is a Salvadoran politician and businesswoman who currently serves as the minister of housing of El Salvador. She previously served as the mayor of Nuevo Cuscatlán from 2015 to 2019,and was a candidate for mayor of La Libertad Este in 2024.
General elections were held in El Salvador in February and March 2024. In the first round on 4 February,voters elected the president,vice president,and all 60 deputies of the Legislative Assembly. In the second round on 3 March,voters elected mayors and municipal councils for all 44 of the country's municipalities and all 20 of El Salvador's deputies to the Central American Parliament (PARLACEN).
Juan Manuel de Jesús Flores Cornejo,nicknamed "El Chino",is a Salvadoran politician who has served as the secretary-general of the Farabundo MartíNational Liberation Front (FMLN) since 2024. Flores served as the mayor of Quezaltepeque from 2003 to 2012 and then later as a deputy of the Legislative Assembly from La Libertad from 2012 to 2021. He was the presidential candidate for the FMLN in the 2024 general election with running mate was Werner Marroquín. He lost in a landslide to incumbent President Nayib Bukele,accumulating only 6.40 percent of the vote. Flores supports El Salvador further strengthening relations with the People's Republic of China.
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