EL SALVADOR - Quick Facts

Together with the other countries of Central America, El Salvador declared independence from Spain in 1821. The Republic of El Salvador was established in 1859, but for more than a century thereafter, civil strife and military rule dominated the country.

In the 1970s, long-simmering discontent with societal inequities and dictatorship erupted into a full-scale civil war between the government, the right-wing National Republican Alliance (ARENA) party, and leftist, antigovernment guerrilla fighters associated with the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN). The United States intervened on behalf of the government, despite criticisms that El Salvador's government, in collusion with the military, was responsible for countless human rights violations. In 1984, a moderate civilian, José Napoleón Duarte Fuentes, became the country's first democratically elected president in more than half a century. In 1992, under President Alfredo Cristiani, a moderate ARENA leader, a peace accord was finally negotiated, ending the civil war.

The ARENA and the FMLN have remained political rivals. All presidents since Cristiani have been pro-American ARENA leaders (to the extent that El Salvador has adopted the U.S. dollar as its national currency), and the FMLN generally dominates Parliament. In the March 21, 2004, presidential election, media mogul Elias Antonio "Tony" Saca won by a wide margin against the FMLN candidate, veteran guerrilla leader Schafik Handal.

In El Salvador, suffrage is 18 and universal, and the president serves a five-year term by absolute majority vote. In the event that no candidate receives more than 50 percent of the vote, a runoff election is required.

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