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El Salvador
Area: 21,040 sq km
Population: 6.9 million (2005)
Capital City: San Salvador (1.8 million)
People: Mestizo 90%, Caucasian 9%, Indigenous 1%
Languages: The official language is Spanish.
Religion(s): Predominantly Roman Catholic (86%)
Currency: The American Dollar is the official currency in El Salvador. Although some prices are still quoted in the Salvadorean Colon, payment is expected in Dollars. The exchange rate is fixed at US\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\$1.00 = 8.75 Salvadorean Colón.
Major Political Parties: Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN), Nationalist Republican Alliance (ARENA), National Conciliation Party (PCN), Christian Democratic Party (PDC).
Government: El Salvador has a republican system of government consisting of three separate and independent branches: the Executive Branch, headed by the President; the Legislative Branch; and the Judicial Branch headed by the Supreme Court.
Head of State: Elias Antonio Saca.
Prime Minister/Premier: Not applicable
Foreign Minister: Francisco Laínez Rivas.
Membership of International Groups/Organisations:
El Salvador is a member of the United Nations and several of its specialised agencies; the Organisation of American States (OAS), the Central American Common Market (CACM), The Central American Parliament (PARLACEN) and the Central American Integration System (SICA) whose General Secretariat is based in El Salvador. El Salvador has also been chosen as for the Headquarters of the Puebla-Panama Plan (PPP). It actively participates in the Central American Security Commission (CASC) which seeks to promote regional arms control. El Salvador is a member of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and is pursuing regional free trade agreements. El Salvador has joined its six Central American neighbours in signing the Alliance for Sustainable Development known as the Conjunta Centro-America – USA or CONCAUSA to promote sustainable economic development in the region. El Salvador was the first Central American country to ratify the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) with the USA on 18 December 2004. The Agreement has now been ratified by all participants with the exception of Costa Rica. Together with its neighbours, El Salvador has successfully negotiated a Political Dialogue and Co-operation Agreement with the EU, which was signed in Rome on 15 December 2004. El Salvador was one of the first members to join the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in 1957.
GEOGRAPHY
The smallest country in Central America, El Salvador is bordered by Honduras to the north and east and to Guatemala to the west. It has a 307 km coastline on the Pacific and is the only country in the region not to have a Caribbean shore. Known as the land of volcanoes – with the attendant seismic activity – the terrain is mountainous with a narrow coastal belt and central plateau. In the west of the country, the Santa Ana volcano is active.
HISTORY
300-600 El Salvador forms part of the Mayan Empire.
1524 Spanish adventurer Pedro de Alvarado conquers El Salvador.
1540 Indigenous resistance finally crushed and El Salvador becomes a Spanish colony.
1821 El Salvador gains independence from Spain but joins the Mexican empire.
1823 El Salvador becomes part of the United Provinces of Central America, which also encompass Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua.
1840 El Salvador becomes fully independent following the dissolution of the United Provinces of Central America.
1859 President Gerardo Barrios introduces coffee growing.
1932 Some 30,000 are killed during the suppression of a peasant uprising led by Agustine Farabundo Marti. Right-wing National Conciliation Party (PCN) comes to power in the wake of a military coup.
1969 On July 14 war broke out on the Honduras-El Salvador border ostensibly caused by a disputed result in a soccer match between the two countries. After three days, around two thousand deaths and a complete rupture of diplomatic relations, the Organisation of American States (OAS) negotiated a cease-fire.
Only in 1992 did both sides accept an International Court of Justice ruling demarcating the border in its current location.
1977 Guerrilla activities by the left-wing Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN) intensify amidst reports of increased human rights violations by government troops and death squads. General Carlos Romero elected President.
1979-81 Around 30,000 people are killed by army-backed right-wing death squads.
1979 General Romero ousted in coup by reformist officers who install a military- civilian junta, but this fails to curb army backed political violence.
1980 Archbishop of San Salvador and human rights campaigner Oscar Romero assassinated; Jose Napoleon Duarte becomes the first civilian president since 1931.
1981 France and Mexico recognise the FMLN as a legitimate political force but the US continues to assist the Salvadorian Government whose army continues to back right-wing death squads.
1982 Extreme right-wing National Republican Alliance (ARENA) wins parliamentary elections, held in an atmosphere of considerable violence. Duarte wins presidential election. Duarte begins quest for negotiated settlement with FMLN.
1989 FMLN attacks intensify; another ARENA candidate, Alfredo Cristiani, voted president in elections widely believed to have been rigged.
1992 Government and FMLN sign United Nations sponsored peace accord; FMLN recognised as political party.
1993 Government declares amnesty for those implicated by UN-sponsored commission on human rights atrocities.
1994 ARENA candidate Armando Calderon Sol elected president.
1997 FMLN makes good progress in parliamentary elections; leftist Hector Silva elected Mayor of San Salvador.
1999 ARENA candidate Francisco Flores beats former guerrilla Facundo Guardado in presidential election.
2001 January, February – massive earthquakes kill 1,200 people and leave a million homeless.
2004 21 March Presidential Elections Antonio Saca of the ARENA party wins in the first round with 57.51% of the votes (a second round not therefore being required). The main opposition FMLN party, led by Schafik Handal, trailed at 35.9%
2004 1 June inauguration of new Salvadorean President Elias Antonio Saca.
2006 (24 January), Schafik Handel, the 75 year old leader of the opposition FMLN party dies of a heart attack. 2006 (17 March), Violeta de Menjivar from the FMLN party was declared the winner of the San Salvador Mayoral election, the first woman to hold the post.
POLITICS
El Salvador is a democratic republic governed by a President and an 84-member unicameral Legislative Assembly. The President is elected by universal suffrage and serves for a 5 year term by absolute majority vote. A second round run-off is required in the event that no candidate receives more than 50% of the first round vote. Members of the assembly, also elected by universal suffrage, serve for 3 year terms. The country has an independent judiciary and Supreme Court. The next Presidential election is due in 2009.
At the close of 1989, an end to the civil war seemed remote. Yet in April 1990, representatives of both the FMLN and the government, under the chairmanship of the UN, met and talked in Geneva in the first of a series of negotiations that would lead to peace. A lengthy and problem-ridden negotiating process resulted in a UN-brokered agreement, the Chapultepec Accords, signed on January 16, 1992, followed on February 1 by a formal cease-fire. On December 15, 1992, the day the FMLN registered as a formal political party, the civil war was formally ended. National elections took place in March 1994. The three major contending parties were ARENA, the FMLN and the PDC. In the first round of voting in the presidential elections, these parties gained 49%, 25% and 16% of the votes cast, respectively. Following a run off contest in April, Armando Calderon Sol, the ARENA candidate was elected President with 68.2% of the votes cast and was sworn in as President on 1 June 1994. ARENA candidate Francisco Guillermo Flores Perez became president in 1999 after beating former guerrilla Facundo Guardado. The last Presidential elections took place on 21 March 2004. Antonio Saca of the ruling ARENA party won by an overwhelming majority with 57.51% of the vote. The main opposition FMLN party, trailed with 35.9%. The other two contending parties - PDC-PDU Coalition and PCN failed to secure the 3% required to retain their legitimacy as political parties. Elections for the Legislative Assembly took place in March 2006. The governing ARENA party won 34 of the 84 seats, whilst the leftist FMLN won 32.
On 24 January 2006, Schafik Handel, the 75 year-old leader of the opposition FMLN party died of a heart attack.
ECONOMY
El Salvador's economy has undergone a transformation, moving from an agricultural economy, centred around coffee production, to a largely services-based economy focusing on commerce and financial services. In the past ten years manufacturing has also grown, thanks mainly to the development of the industries dealing with offshore assembly for re-export. Inflation is low and stable. Positive business climate features include a stable currency, rising international reserves, a low debt burden, continued tariff reductions, streamlined customs procedures and concrete progress in the government’s programme to privatise basic infrastructure such as telecommunications and energy distribution and the administration of pension funds.
Basic Economic Facts
Nominal GDP: 17.2 billion US (2005)
Nominal GDP per head: 2,000 US dollars (2004 est)
Annual growth: 2.8% (2005).
Inflation: 4.7% (2005)
Major industries: Offshore assembly exports, coffee, sugar, shrimp
Export partners: US 63%, Guatemala 12%, Honduras 7%, EU 3% (2002)
Import partners: US 53%, Guatemala 10%, EU 10%, Mexico 7% (2002)
INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
El Salvador’s Relations with Neighbours
Honduras
In July 1969, El Salvador and Honduras fought the 100-hour Soccer War over disputed border areas and friction resulting from the 300,000 Salvadoreans who had emigrated to Honduras in search of land and employment. The catalyst was nationalistic feelings aroused by a series of soccer matches between the two countries. The two countries formally signed a peace treaty on 30 October 1980 which put the border dispute before the International Court of Justice (ICJ). In September 1992 the Court issued a 400-page ruling awarding much of the disputed land to Honduras.
Alleged Salvadorean refusal to give effect to the ICJ’s judgement on the delimitation of the boundaries between the two countries, is an ongoing irritant and has led to Honduras raising the issue with the UN Security Council. In December 2003 the ICJ declined El Salvador's application for a revision of its 1992 ruling.
El Salvador’s Relations with the International Community
See Membership of International Organisations above.
Moves towards regional economic integration in Central America are continuing. During the early part of 2004, the five Central American countries concluded negotiations with the USA on the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA). Known in Spanish as the TLC (Tratado de Libre Comercio), the agreement was signed by El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and the Dominican Republic. El Salvador was the first country to ratify the agreement (18 December 2004), followed by Honduras (03 March 2005), Guatemala (10 March 2005) and Dominican Republic & Nicaragua in the Autumn of 2005. This leaves Costa Rica as the only country still to ratify. Violent protests greeted ratification in Honduras and Guatemala. During 2004 and early 2005 several Central American countries signed bilateral border agreements to simplify customs procedures for goods (and tourists) passing from one country to another.
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