El Salvador is a country in Central America, bordered on the northeast by Honduras, on the northwest by Guatemala and on the south by the Pacific Ocean.
History
Thanks to the permanence of a strong oligarchy, composed of coffee producers, El Salvador began the 20th Century with a relative stability but the dynasty, pressed by international pressure, was forced to agree to a free election in 1931 that led to the accession of Arturo Araujo… Only, six months later, to be deposed by a military coup. Farabundo Marti, a rural leader who had converted to Syndicalism following the French Revolution and the Central American secession, started a popular revolt and called upon the neighbouring country ; the Central Americans responded by invading the country on 22 January 1932, defeating the Salvadoran Army in a week, before Salvador was annexed into the Social Republic of Central America on 11 July 1932.
Farabundo Marti would himself rise to the charge of President of the Social Republic in 1935, deposing Genovevo de la O in a military coup ; aligned on the Sorelians, Marti presided over the invasion of Nicaragua (1936) and Honduras (1941), continued the Nicaragua Canal project and was close to the CWR before the World War, where the country remained neutral owing to distances. In 1947, Mexico invaded Central America as part of the Alliance, forcing Marti to go underground upon defeat in 1948. After having his forces depleted by the Americans, Marti went into exile in 1953 in Chile, where he died in 1957, murdered by American agents.
El Salvador recovered its independence in 1952, under General Oscar Osorio, a former Syndicalist military officer who turned to collaboration with the Americans : the Central American experience, however, made any return of the pre-revolutionary oligarchy impossible, as popular dissent was unable to be repressed; the Salvadoran political climate soon became particularly violent, between neo-Syndicalist militias and American-backed far right militias, leading to a military coup in 1969 and a coup attempt in 1972. The high level of corruption seen during the Presidency of José Napoléon Duarte Fuentes (1972-1980) further radicalized Salvadoran politics, leading to riots and targeted assassinations during the 1980 election. The 1983 krach totally destroyed the fledging economy and the conservatives forces, backed by the Robertson Administration, threw their weight behind pyrist military officer Roberto D’Aubuisson, who was elected President for the Nationalist Republican Alliance in 1984.
D’Aubuisson, with full support of Washington, initiated a self-coup in 1985, assuming full dictatorial powers and launched a massive crackdown upon leftist militias and supporters, suspending human rights and authorizing extrajudicial killings and arrests, often perpetrated by foreign mercenaries and supporters. D’Aubuisson was hailed as a hero in far right circles in Europe and North America, being presented as “the sane man’s response to the return of Syndicalism” ; dubbed by some as a “Salvadoran genocide”, the D’Aubuisson regime led to more than 200,000 deaths and disappearences, also directed towards Amerindian populations. A frequent guest of Pat Robertson in the White House, D’Aubuisson was forced to scale down his rhetoric after Al Gore threatened Salvador with a blockade and expelling from the Havana Treaty Organization ; D’Aubuisson died on esophageal cancer shortly before ending his second and last term in 1992.
Laicized Catholic priest Rutilio Grande won the 1992 presidential election as head of a “back to normalcy” coalition and was able to restore democracy along with law and order, but the scars inflicted by the D’Aubuisson regime upon Salvador were unable to heal, as the executioners were free and the victims not served justice ; the wounds opened once and for all after the 2001 earthquake, that destroyed an economy that had not quite recovered. Political violence in Salvador led to the assassination of two presidents (Rodrigo Avila in 2007 ; Eduardo D’Aubuisson, Roberto’s son, in 2019) and a military coup in 2021, under the pretense of restoring order in a scarred society.
Political situation
Prior to the 2021 coup, El Salvador was an unitary presidential constitutional republic with an unicameral Legislative Assembly and an independent judiciary. Since the World War and the end of the Social Republic of Central America, the Salvadoran political life was dominated by the National Action Party (center-left), the Christian Democratic Party (centrist), the National Republican Alliance (right-wing) but in fact, Salvador counts thousands of political groups, either from the far right or the far left, all inclined towards changing life and society, even through violent means and targeted killings, with as many ideologies as they are people, whether they be neo-syndicalists, pyrists, Doriotists, Legionarists, neo-Kemites, neo-Pagans or just anarchists.
But on 8 June 2021, Vice Admiral René Merino Monroy, Minister of Defense, seized power in a bloodless military coup from President Carmen Aida Lazo, citing the “growing concern over the chaotic political debate in Salvador”, leading to putting the whole country under martial law and to suspend the Constitution ; Monroy was elected President in a snap election by the Legislative Assembly, legitimizing his coup and providing him with emergency powers until the scheduled 2024 presidential election. Educated in the United States, Merino Monroy has been quite successful in forcing political militias to abandon their weaponry, become registered as political parties or detaining those who resisted… or killing them. Nevertheless, the military regime is seen as being of little concern for the United States, who didn’t take any retaliatory action against Salvador.
Social situation, population
Counting almost 6,5 million inhabitants, most notably without a sizeable African population (due to historical circumstances and having no coast on the Atlantic) but of mostly mestizo origin, El Salvador has never really recovered from four decades of political violence and so did its population, pushing millions to immigration to the United States or neighboring countries, along with massive urbanization, leading the capital, San Salvador, to be overridden with slums. As such, public education, human rights and health care have significantly dropped.
Nevertheless, as opposed to similar countries such as Honduras, organized crime failed to take root in Salvador, owing to heightened government scrutiny and vigilantism activities by political groups from both sides, managing to restore law and order as long as politics and territorial expansion not concerned.
Economy
A member of the Havana Treaty Organization, Salvador has never quite managed to go pass the agricultural stage, focusing on coffee, sugar cane and cotton, a system that benefited to the local oligarchy ; all efforts to evolve to manufacturing or industry have been hampered by the 1983 krach and, after the massive disruption brought by the D’Aubuisson regime, the 2001 earthquake that contributed to send the Salvadoran colon into the abyss. The country remains poor and outpaced in both tourism and foreign investment by neighbouring countries.
Nevertheless, Salvador has a prodigal son, the 15th wealthiest man in the world, Nayib Bukele, who was born in the country and immigrated to the United States before making a fortune estimated in 2022 to 65 billion dollars with Netzcash exchange. A popular hero for the Salvadoran masses, the tycoon has massively invested into his home country’s economy, cultivating relations with all political parties and the military, even the country has yet to benefit from the trickle down…
Military
In charge of the country since 2021, the Salvadoran military has had a reputation for being better at handling issues than politicians, having assumed power three times since the World War, with the heavy collaboration between the D’Aubuisson administration counting. Still popular for the average Salvadoran, the Army reamins however small and heavily dependent on the United States, with many reports of summary executions of opposants being filed by human rights groups.
Culture
Much lesser known for its local culture and landscapes than neighbouring countries such as Guatemala, Costa Rica or Nicaragua, and thus irrelevant in the eyes of the average tourist, Salvador has been known for its football team and being a high place for liberation theology, as seen with President Rutilio Grande, a former priest, and Archbishop Oscar Romero.