Salvador Sánchez Cerén
Sánchez Cerén in 2017
42nd President of El Salvador
In office
1 June 2014 – 1 June 2019
Vice PresidentÓscar Ortiz
Preceded byMauricio Funes
Succeeded byNayib Bukele
Vice President of El Salvador
In office
1 June 2009 – 1 June 2014
PresidentMauricio Funes
Preceded byAna Vilma de Escobar
Succeeded byÓscar Ortiz
President pro tempore of CELAC
In office
26 January 2017 – 14 January 2019
Preceded byDanilo Medina
Succeeded byEvo Morales
Deputy of the Legislative Assembly
In office
1 May 2000 – 1 May 2009
ConstituencySan Salvador
Personal details
Born (1944-06-18) 18 June 1944
Quetzaltepeque, El Salvador
CitizenshipNicaragua[1]
Political partyFarabundo Martí National Liberation Front
Spouse
​
​
(m. 1968)​
Children4
Alma materEscuela Alberto Masferrer
Signature
Military service
Allegiance Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front
Years of service1980–1992
RankCommander
Battles/warsSalvadoran Civil War

Salvador Sánchez Cerén (Spanish pronunciation: [salβaˈðoɾ ˈsantʃes seˈɾen]; born 18 June 1944), also known by his nom de guerre Leonel González, is a Salvadoran politician who served as the 42nd President of El Salvador between 1 June 2014 and 1 June 2019. He took office on 1 June 2014, after winning the 2014 presidential election as the candidate of the left-wing Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN). He previously served as Vice President under President Mauricio Funes from 2009 to 2014. He was also a guerrilla leader in the Civil War and is the first and only ex-rebel to serve as president.[2][3]

Early life

Sánchez Cerén was born in Quezaltepeque in the department of La Libertad, and was the ninth of twelve children, three of his siblings died at young age. His parents struggled to raise nine children. His father, Antonio Alfonso Sánchez was a carpenter and his mother, Dolores Hernández was a merchant. Salvador Sánchez Cerén at a young age had to work with his family to help the family survive. At a young age he was exposed to collective work. His working-class background has always characterized Salvador Sánchez Cerén as a man of communal living, anti-free trade, and redistribution of wealth. He attended Escuela de Varones José Dolores La Reynaga for his middle school education. He attended Alberto Masferrer School in San Salvador and it was there where his political consciousness and participation developed. After graduating as a teacher, he taught for ten years in public and rural schools.

Political ideology

His political ideology derives from the various revolutionary left-wing organizations of which he was a member. He became politically active in the late 1960s when he was a student at Alberto Masferrer School, but he was not part of any political organization until he was introduced to the Unified Popular Action Front (FUAR). The FUAR exposed him for the first time to the political arena and allowed his involvement in the student movement.

He was a member of the PRAM (Partido Revolucionario Abril y Mayo), a political party that was against the dictatorship and advocated anti-imperialism. Then he joined (UDN) Union Democratic Nacionalista and PAR (Partido Accion Renovadora). He was also a participant of the (UNO) Union Nacional Oppositora as a member of the UDN. In essence his experience and the things he learned in San Salvador at Masferrer school from his peers he took back to his town and began to implement it. He was an active member of the ANDES 21 de Junio, a teachers union that practiced and believed in the ideas of Paulo Freire and his analysis on pedagogy. In the 1970s he joined the Fuerzas Populares de Liberación "Farabundo Martí" (FPL), one of the five left-wing organizations, all of differing Marxist–Leninist tendencies, that later merged to form the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN).

Commander Leonel González

In 1980, following the start of the Salvadoran Civil War in 1979, Sánchez Cerén adopted the pseudonym Commander Leonel González, as he was also appointed to the position of "comandante" or commander.

In 1984 Sánchez Cerén became a Commanding General of the FMLN, until the signing of the Chapultepec Peace Accords in 1992, when the guerrillas surrendered their weapons and became a legal political party.[4] Under the leadership of Sánchez Cerén, the FMLN conducted itself in the following manner, according to US Ambassador Charles Glazer in a classified diplomatic cable.

The FMLN leadership described its ideology during the war in a document called "Fundamental Programs for the Salvadoran Revolution," a guerrilla manifesto captured from FMLN Commander Nidia Díaz (who would join Sánchez Cerén as an FMLN politician in the Salvadoran legislature) in April 1985. The FMLN's "fundamental programs" included the following points in 1991:

  • "To establish economic, political, cultural, technical and social bases to build the construction of socialism."
  • "The construction of democracy and socialism."
  • "Our organization is a working class party. Our ideology is Marxism-Leninism."[5]

Political career

In 2000, Sánchez Cerén was elected as a deputy for the FMLN in the Legislative Assembly and was re-elected in 2003 and 2006.[6] Between 2001 and 2004 he served as the general coordinator of his party. In 2006, following the death of Salvadoran Communist Party leader and FMLN Commander Schafik Hándal, he succeeded Hándal as head of the legislative portion of the FMLN. In April 2007 he was chosen as the running mate of Mauricio Funes in the 2009 presidential election. Funes and Sánchez Cerén defeated the ruling Nationalist Republican Alliance (ARENA).

President of El Salvador

Sánchez Cerén in 2015

Sánchez Cerén was nominated as the FMLN's presidential candidate for the 2014 presidential election.[7] Sánchez Cerén attained a plurality of votes in the first round but not the majority , so he and Norman Quijano competed in the second round. Sánchez Cerén received 50.11% of the vote, compared with 49.89% for Quijano in an election contested as fraudulent by the opposing candidate.[8]

Sánchez Cerén was sworn in as president of El Salvador on 1 June 2014.

Since October 2016, his government and the FMLN defended a project of partial legalization of abortion (in case of rape or of danger for the life of the mother)[9] but have had to contend with the right-wing opposition which has blocked the reforms in parliament.[10]

In April 2017, El Salvador became the first country in the world to forbid the mining of metal on its territory, for environmental and public health reasons.[11]

In August 2018, his government decided to establish diplomatic relationship with the People's Republic of China.

Personal life

In July 2023, he was sanctioned by the United States Department of State for "significant corruption by laundering money" during his tenure as vice president.[12]

References

  1. ↑ The Associated Press (30 July 2021). "Nicaragua grants citizenship to former Salvador president". Nicaragua has granted citizenship to former El Salvador President Salvador Sánchez Cerén, according to Nicaragua's official gazette.
  2. ↑ Sánchez Cerén: de guerrillero a presidente de El Salvador. BBC (17 March 2014)
  3. ↑ "Salvadorean ex-rebel Sanchez Ceren wins vote". BBC News. 13 March 2014.
  4. ↑ "Sánchez Cerén (Biography)". Mauricio Funes: Un cambio seguro (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 17 February 2009. Retrieved 16 March 2009.
  5. ↑ As cited from the original in Michael Waller, J. (1991) The Third Current of Revolution: Inside the 'North American Front' of El Salvador's Guerrilla War. Lanham: University Press of America, p. 19. ISBN 0819182311.
  6. ↑ "Salvador Sánchez Cerén". Asamblea Legislativa de la República de El Salvador (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 7 February 2008. Retrieved 16 March 2009.
  7. ↑ Thale, Geoff (29 January 2014). "Background Info. on the Upcoming Elections in El Salvador". Washington Office on Latin America.
  8. ↑ Salvador Sanchez Ceren wins El Salvador's presidential election. LA Times (13 March 2014). Retrieved on 2016-01-08.
  9. ↑ "FMLN pide despenalizar aborto en casos de violación - elsalvador.com". 11 October 2016. Retrieved 15 October 2018.
  10. ↑ "Salvador : 30 ans de prison pour une ado violée ayant perdu son bébé". 7 July 2017. Retrieved 15 October 2018.
  11. ↑ "El Salvador mining ban a victory for democracy over corporate greed". 30 March 2017. Retrieved 15 October 2018.
  12. ↑ "State Department sanctions 2 former Salvadoran leaders, dozens of officials in Central America". ABC News. Retrieved 20 July 2023.
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