No menu items!

COSTA RICA'S LEADING ENGLISH LANGUAGE NEWSPAPER

HomeEl SalvadorFormer guerrilla sworn in as El Salvador president

Former guerrilla sworn in as El Salvador president

SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador – Former guerrilla commander Salvador Sánchez Cerén was sworn in Sunday as president of El Salvador with the pressing tasks of dealing with violent gangs, a struggling economy and endemic poverty.

Sánchez Cerén, 69, promised to govern “with honesty, austerity, efficiency and transparency.”

“After long years of fighting for justice and democracy in my country, I receive the presidential sash with humility and profound respect, with a commitment to exercise the presidency for all Salvadorans,” he said.

A former teacher, Sánchez Cerén belonged to the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front and rose to become one of the guerrilla group’s top commanders, under the nom de guerre Leonel González, during the country’s bloody 1979-1992 civil war.

He was elected president on March 9, defeating the conservative ARENA party candidate Norman Quijano by less than a quarter of a percentage point.

In doing so, he became the fourth former leftist guerrilla to be elected president in Latin America after Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua, José Mujica in Uruguay, and Dilma Rousseff in Brazil.

Sánchez Cerén succeeded Mauricio Funes, a former journalist whose FMLN government in 2009 ended two decades of conservative rule, mostly under ARENA. Sánchez Cerén was Funes’s vice president.

He inherits a country beset by violent gangs, and poverty affecting 40 percent of the population of the tiny but populous Central American country.

Trending Now

Hondurans March to Mark 2009 Coup as Election Battle Heats Up

Thousands of government supporters marched Saturday in the capital of Honduras to commemorate the anniversary of the 2009 coup that ousted then-leftist President Manuel...

Costa Rican Court Orders Release of Migrants Deported Under Trump Deal

A court on Tuesday ordered Costa Rican authorities to release foreign migrants who had been detained in a shelter after being deported under an...

Retired Nicaraguan Army Captain Sentenced to 50 Years for Treason

A retired military officer was sentenced to 50 years in prison in Nicaragua for the crime of "treason against the homeland," his family denounced...

Costa Rica’s Pride 2025 Closing Event Bans Minors, Sparks Outrage

Costa Rica’s Pride 2025 closing event, set for June 29 at San José’s Plaza de la Democracia, was thrown into controversy when the government...

Costa Rica’s Rare Birds at Risk as Human Activity Threatens Extinction

Costa Rica’s bare-necked umbrellabird, a striking black bird with a red throat pouch and crest, is in trouble. A new study in Nature Ecology...

Guatemala Offers Asylum to Nicaraguan Migrants Deported by U.S.

Guatemalan President Bernardo Arévalo announced on Friday that his country will grant asylum to Nicaraguan migrants deported by the United States who do not...
spot_img
Costa Rica Tours
Costa Rica Coffee Maker Chorreador
Costa Rica Coffee Maker Chorreador
Costa Rica Travel Insurance
Costa Rica Rocking Chait
Costa Rica Travel

Latest News from Costa Rica