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

Panama’s Gardí Sugdub Becomes a Climate Migration Case as Sea Levels Rise

The laughter of children running through the alleys of Gardí Sugdub is no longer heard. Everything changed a year ago when nearly all of...

Salvadoran Journalist Killed in Honduras Despite Protection

Salvadoran journalist Javier Antonio Hércules Salinas was shot and killed in Santa Rosa de Copán, Honduras, about 200 km northwest of Tegucigalpa. Gunmen ambushed...

How a Costa Rican Forest Turned My Bad Day Around with Wildlife Wonders

It happened as soon as I hung up. I was immediately grumpy. I had just completed a video call about wildlife monitoring services with...

Costa Rica, Panama, and Honduras Advance to Final Round of 2026 World Cup Qualifiers

Costa Rica, Panama and Honduras advanced early this Saturday to the final round of the Concacaf qualifiers for the 2026 North American World Cup,...

Costa Rica’s Migrant Crisis: A Paradise for Tourists, a Hell for Detained Deportees

Costa Rica, celebrated for its rainforests and beaches, is facing sharp criticism for its treatment of migrants. The Jesuit Migrant Service of Costa Rica...

Costa Rican Fishermen Sound Alarm on Gulf of Nicoya’s Overfishing Crisis

In Costa Rica’s Gulf of Nicoya, fishermen are raising urgent concerns about a growing crisis threatening their livelihoods and the region’s marine ecosystems. Illegal...
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