El Salvador

El Salvador The smallest and most densely populated Central American country, the instability which marked its political system following its independence from Spain in 1821 was not overcome until 1903, when a newly created oligarchy of coffee-plantation owners came to monopolize power. This facilitated the expansion of its large coffee estates at the expense of small peasants. The social tension thus created culminated in a peasants' uprising in 1931–2, which was suppressed by the military. Subsequently, the coffee-growing oligarchy relinquished its political power to the military in return for the latter's support of its economic monopoly. In the following decades, economic modernization and population growth stood in increasing contrast to the continued economic predominance of las catorce, the fourteen families owning most of the land. Tensions mounted during the 1970s, when the defeat of the military's presidential candidate could only be averted through large-scale repression. After a military coup of reforming officers on 15 October 1979, a coalition of Christian Democrats, Socialists, and Communists joined the military government, only for the left-wing groups to leave it three months later.

In response to the assassination by government agents of the Roman Catholic Archbishop, Oscar A. Romero, the opposition parties joined in March 1980 to form the left-wing Frente Farabundo Martí de Liberación Nacional (FMLN, National Liberation Front). In January 1981 civil war broke out between the FMLN and government forces, which received crucial support from a USA worried about a potential spread of Communism in the region. The stalemate between the two sides, the end of the Cold War, and the conclusion of a regional peace settlement negotiated by Arias, enabled the signing of a peace settlement on 16 January 1992. Political, social, and judicial reforms were subsequently enacted, the military reduced, and the FMLN guerrillas disbanded.

In the elections of 20 March 1994, the FMLN became the largest opposition party, while the majority of the ruling right-wing Alianza Republicana Nacionalista (ARENA, National Republican Alliance) under Armando Calderón Sol (b. 24 June 1968) was confirmed. The FMLN became the largest parliamentary party in the 2000 elections, after the presidential elections of 1999 confirmed the ARENA candidate, Francisco Flores Pérez. The country continued to be torn by the question of reconciliation between those implicated in the civil war. Also the government struggled to assert law and order to fight one of the world's highest murder rates. In an effort to create a more stable economc and overcome widespread poverty, Pérez introduced the US dollar as a national currency to stabilize the economy in 2001.