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

Honduras Mayor Murdered in Motel Ambush Stirs Outrage

Francisco Martínez Domínguez, the mayor of San Isidro, a small municipality in Honduras, was brutally killed in Siguatepeque, about 90 km north of Tegucigalpa....

UN Experts Warn of Possible Nicaraguan Government Role in Exile’s Murder in Costa Rica

A team of UN human rights experts said Tuesday that involvement by the Nicaraguan government in the killing of retired major Roberto Samcam cannot...

Costa Rica Minister Slams NGO “Blackmail” Following Ocean Award

Last November, Costa Rica received the 2024 Oceans Advocate Rob Stewart Award at the annual “Save Our Oceans” gala, organized by Fins Attached in...

EU and Central America Launch First Meeting to Expand Trade Relations

The European Union and Central American nations came together for their first Association Council meeting in Brussels. They focused on growing trade and investment...

Costa Rica Police Uncover Second Cyanide-Laced Mining Operation in Crucitas

The environmental crisis in Crucitas persists. Police discovered and dismantled an artisanal mining material processing plant in a wooded area of Tatú Hill in Crucitas,...

Quiet Force, Loud Legacy: Jannik Sinner Beats Alcaraz for First Wimbledon Title

Jannik Sinner is the quiet man of tennis who has become a big noise, burnishing his legacy on Sunday by winning his first Wimbledon...
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