El Salvador today and brief history

El Salvador Today:

El Salvador (Spanish: República de El Salvador, literally meaning "Republic of the Savior"; original name in Nahuatl was Cōzcatlān) is the smallest and also the most densely populated country in Central America. It borders the Pacific Ocean between Guatemala and Honduras. It lies on the Gulf of Fonseca, as do Honduras and Nicaragua further south.


It has a population of approximately 7.2 million people as of 2009[5]. The capital city of San Salvador is, by some distance, the largest city of the republic. In 2001 El Salvador dropped its own currency, the colón, and adopted the U.S. dollar instead.

And a brief history as it shows on wikipedia:

Civil War (1980 to 1992)


The Salvadoran Civil War was predominantly fought between the government of El Salvador and a coalition of four leftist groups and one communist group known as the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN). This coalition got organized in 1980 after Fidel Castro of Cuba requested that there be a common front. Castro had a lot of influence in the region and provided weapons through Nicaraguan territory (then in the hands of President Ortega).

Subversive activity started with "El Grupo" (a group that later would be called E.R.P.) and also the FPL that initiated activities after Cayetano Carpio (its leader) broke in ideology from now extinct El Salvador's Communist Party (PCES). In 1970, the FPL guerrilla force was small and didn't have military training. Later the FPL was one of the largest organizations inside of the FMLN coalition.

In the beginning of the conflict, the PCES didn't believe in taking power by force, but through elections. The ERP split off, creating the RN (National Resistance) after ERP leaders killed the leftist poet Roque Dalton, whom they believed had spied for the American CIA. Approximately 75,000 people were killed in the war.[8] The Salvadoran Civil war was fought in the context of the global Cold War, with Cuba and the USSR backing the Marxist-Leninist rebels and the United States backing the right wing military Salvadoran government.

On January 16, 1992 the government of El Salvador represented by president Alfredo Cristiani and the guerrilla represented by the commanders of the five guerrilla groups such as Shafick Handal, Joaquin Villalobos, Salvador Sanchez Ceren, Francisco Jovel and Eduardo Sancho signed the Peace Agreements ending a 12 year civil war in the Chapultepec Castle in Mexico. The international community was present and there was wide admiration because after the signature of the president he stood up and shook hands to all the now ex-guerrilla commanders. The Peace Agreements included reduction of the Army, the dissolution of the National Police, Treasury Police and National Guard. The dissolution of the Civilian Defense, a paramilitary group. The organization of a new Civil Police and the end of impunity with which the government would leave recommendation to a Commission of the Truth.

End of the 20th century

From 1989 until 2004, Salvadorans favored Nationalist Republican Alliance (ARENA) party, voting ARENA presidents in every election (Alfredo Cristiani, Armando Calderón Sol, Francisco Flores Pérez, Antonio Saca).

Economic reforms since the early 1990s have brought major benefits in terms of improved social conditions, diversification of its export sector, and access to international financial markets at investment grade level, while crime remains a major problem for the investment climate.

21st century

The unsuccessful attempts of the left-wing party to win presidential elections led to its selection of a journalist rather than a former guerrilla leader as a candidate. On March 15, 2009, Mauricio Funes, a television figure, became the first president from the FMLN party. He was inaugurated on June 1, 2009. One focus of the Funes government has been revealing the alleged corruption from the past government.