Salvador Sánchez Cerén - Misplaced Pages

President of El Salvador from 2014 to 2019 In this Spanish name, the first or paternal surname is Sánchez and the second or maternal family name is Cerén.

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His ExcellencySalvador Sánchez Cerén
Sánchez Cerén in 2017

80th President of El Salvador
In office 1 June 2014 – 1 June 2019
Vice President	Óscar Ortiz
Preceded by	Mauricio Funes
Succeeded by	Nayib Bukele
48th Vice President of El Salvador
In office 1 June 2009 – 1 June 2014
President	Mauricio Funes
Preceded by	Ana Vilma de Escobar
Succeeded by	Óscar Ortiz
Minister of Education of El Salvador
In office 1 June 2009 – 3 July 2012
President	Mauricio Funes
Preceded by	Darlyn Meza
Succeeded by	Hato Hasbún
Deputy of the Legislative Assembly of El Salvador from San Salvador
In office 1 May 2000 – 1 May 2009
7th President pro tempore of CELAC
In office 26 January 2017 – 14 January 2019
Preceded by	Danilo Medina
Succeeded by	Evo Morales

Personal details
Born	(1944-06-18) 18 June 1944 (age 80) Quezaltepeque, El Salvador
Citizenship	El Salvador Nicaragua (since 2021)
Political party	Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front
Spouse	Margarita Villalta de Sánchez (m. 1968)
Children	4
Alma mater	Escuela Alberto Masferrer
Occupation	Politician, soldier, teacher
Cabinet	Cabinet of Salvador Sánchez Cerén
Signature
Military service
Allegiance	Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front
Branch/service	Farabundo Martí Popular Liberation Forces
Years of service	1972–1992
Rank	Commander
Battles/wars	Salvadoran 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 former politician, guerrilla commander, and school teacher who served as the 80th president of El Salvador from 2014 to 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 the 49th vice president under Mauricio Funes from 2009 to 2014. He was also an FMLN guerrilla leader during the Salvadoran Civil War and is the first former rebel to serve as El Salvador's president.

Early life

Salvador Sánchez Cerén was born in Quezaltepeque, El Salvador on 18 June 1944. His father was Antoino Alfonso Sánchez, a carpenter and artisan, and his mother was Dolores Hernández, a food vendor. Sánchez Cerén was one of twelve children. His surnames were erroneously registered as "Sánchez Cerén" rather than "Sánchez Hernández" using his maternal grandmother's surname rather than his mother's as per Spanish naming customs. The error was never corrected.

In Sánchez Cerén's youth, he attended the José Dolores Larreynaga Schooling Center for his primary and secondary education. Beginning at the age of 16, he attended the Alberto Masferrer Superior Normal School and studied to become a public school teacher; he graduated in 1963. Sánchez Cerén taught at three schools in La Libertad Department: the Mixed Rural School in Huizúcar from 1963 to 1964, the Mixed Rural School in San Matías from 1964 to 1966, and the Mixed Urban School in Quezaltepeque from 1966 to 1979. In December 1965, he joined the National Association of Salvadoran Educators (ANDES 21 de Junio), the country's first teacher's union.

Salvadoran Civil War

In 1972, Sánchez Cerén joined the Farabundo Martí Popular Liberation Forces (FPL) militant organization. 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.

During the civil war, Sánchez Cerén was the leader of the Farabundo Martí Popular Liberation Forces and was one of the members of the FMLN General Command.

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.

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."

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.

Between 2001 and 2004 he served as the general coordinator of his party. From 2001 to 2004, Sánchez Cerén and Schafik Hándal (the leader of the FMLN during the civil war) were the leaders of the Socialist Revolutionary Current (CRS), the FMLN's "orthodox and radical" ("ortodoxa y radical") faction in the Legislative Assembly. On 27 January 2006, Sánchez Cerén became the FMLN's leader within the Legislative Assembly shortly following Hándal's death, the FMLN's previous legislative leader.

Vice President of El Salvador

In 2007, reformist FMLN journalist and aspiring presidential candidate Mauricio Funes selected Sánchez Cerén, an orthodox FMLN member, as his vice presidential candidate for the 2009 presidential election. Funes' bid to seek the party's nomination for the 2004 presidential election was vetoed by Hándal as he was not an orthodox member and had no militant background with the FMLN during the civil war. Funes' selection of Cerén to be his vice presidential candidate secured him party leadership's support to become the FMLN's 2009 presidential candidacy. During the 2009 presidential campaign, the right-wing Nationalist Republican Alliance (ARENA) accused Cerén of causing destruction during the civil war, of being responsible for assassinations and kidnappings, and criticized his support for Cuban leader Fidel Castro.

President of El Salvador

In 2012, Sánchez Cerén announced his intention to run for president of El Salvador in the 2014 presidential election. The FMLN nominated Cerén as its presidential candidate and Cerén selected reformist Óscar Ortiz and his vice presidential candidate. During the 2014 presidential campaign, ARENA made similar accusations against Cerén as they had done in 2009.

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 percent of the vote, compared with 49.89 percent for Quijano. Quijano denounced the result of the election as being fraudulent and called on the armed forces to intervene in the situation, although he later denied calling for such an intervention or coup d'état. The Supreme Electoral Court (TSE) ratified Sánchez Cerén's victory on 13 March 2014 and rejected ARENA's calls for a recount.

Sánchez Cerén became the first former guerrilla commander to become president of El Salvador; he was the third to run for the presidency after Facundo Guardado in 1999 and Hándal in 2004. Sánchez Cerén was also the second former guerrilla to become the president of a Latin American country democratically after Uruguay's José Mujica in 2010. Sánchez Cerén stated that he would form a "national coalition" with right-wing parties and businesses to form a moderate government.

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

From 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) but have had to contend with the right-wing opposition which has blocked the reforms in parliament.

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.

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

During Sánchez Cerén's presidency, around 23,000 Salvadorans became the victims of homicides for an average of 13 homicides per day.

Post-presidency

In December 2020, Sánchez Cerén and his family left El Salvador for Nicaragua. On 22 July 2021, Salvadoran attorney general Rodolfo Delgado ordered Sánchez Cerén's arrest on charges of embezzlement, illicit enrichment, and money laundering up to $530,000 dollars. A few days later on 30 July 2021, the Nicaraguan ministry of the interior granted Sánchez Cerén, his wife (Margarita Villalta de Sánchez), and three of his children Nicaraguan citizenship.

In July 2023, Sánchez Cerén was sanctioned by the United States Department of State for "significant corruption by laundering money" as vice president.

Personal life

Sánchez Cerén married Villalta in 1968. The couple has four children: Antonio, Claudia, Fátima, and Ivett.

Electoral history

Year	Office	Party		Main opponent and party		Votes for Sánchez Cerén				Result	Swing		Ref.
Year	Office	Party		Main opponent and party		Total	%	P.	±%	Result	Swing		Ref.
2009	Vice President of El Salvador		FMLN	Arturo Zablah	ARENA	1,354,000	51.32	1st	N/A	Won		Gain
2014	President of El Salvador		FMLN	Norman Quijano	ARENA	1,315,768	48.93	1st	N/A	Runoff	N/A
2014	President of El Salvador		FMLN	Norman Quijano	ARENA	1,495,815	50.11	1st	N/A	Won		Hold

References

"Member State: El Salvador – Government Officials". Organization of American States. August 2009. Archived from the original on 30 November 2018. Retrieved 4 January 2025.
Ochoa, Cecca (7 March 2014). "Presidential Elections in El Salvador: The Lion vs. The Dentist". North American Congress on Latin America. Retrieved 4 January 2025.
Sánchez Cerén: de guerrillero a presidente de El Salvador. BBC (17 March 2014)
"Salvadorean ex-rebel Sanchez Ceren wins vote". BBC News. 13 March 2014.
^ Pérez Salazar, Juan Carlos (17 March 2014). "Sánchez Cerén: De Guerrillero a Presidente de El Salvador" [Sánchez Cerén: From Guerrilla to President of El Salvador]. BBC Mundo (in Spanish). Mexico City, Mexico. Retrieved 4 January 2025.
^ Ortiz de Zárate, Roberto, ed. (March 2014). "Salvador Sánchez Cerén". Barcelona Centre for International Affairs (in Spanish). Retrieved 4 January 2025.
"Salvador Sánchez Cerén (No Vigente)" [Salvador Sánchez Cerén (No Updated)]. Government of El Salvador (in Spanish). 22 February 2024. Retrieved 4 January 2024.
^ López Bernal, Carlos (2016). "Schafik Jorge Hándal: Y la Reconfiguración del Frente Farabundo Martí para la Liberación Nacional (1992–2014)" [Schafik Jorge Hándal: And the Reconfiguration of the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (1992–2014)]. Sociedades en Conflicto: Movimientos Sociales y Movimientos Armados en América Latina [Societies in Conflict: Social Movements and Armed Movements in Latin America] (in Spanish). Latin American Council of Social Sciences. pp. 95–118. doi:10.2307/j.ctvtxw20d.9. ISBN 9789877225273. JSTOR j.ctvtxw20d.9.
"Sánchez Cerén (Biography)". Mauricio Funes: Un cambio seguro (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 17 February 2009. Retrieved 16 March 2009.
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.
"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.
Salvador Sanchez Ceren wins El Salvador's presidential election. LA Times (13 March 2014). Retrieved on 2016-01-08.
^ Renteria, Nelson; O'Boyle, Michael; Stargardter, Gabriel (12 March 2014). Gardner, Simon; Shumaker, Lisa (eds.). "El Salvador Army Rules Out Coup in Election Result Dispute". Reuters. San Salvador, El Salvador. Retrieved 4 January 2024.
Sabo, Eric; Cota, Isabella (13 March 2014). "El Salvador Ratifies Sánchez Cerén Election Victory". Bloomberg News. Retrieved 4 January 2025.
"FMLN pide despenalizar aborto en casos de violación - elsalvador.com". 11 October 2016. Retrieved 15 October 2018.
"Salvador : 30 ans de prison pour une ado violée ayant perdu son bébé". 7 July 2017. Retrieved 15 October 2018.
"El Salvador mining ban a victory for democracy over corporate greed". 30 March 2017. Retrieved 15 October 2018.
Silva Ávalos, Héctor (3 June 2019). "Ex-President Sánchez Cerén Leaves El Salvador Facing Same Threats". InSight Crime. Retrieved 4 January 2024.
^ Renteria, Nelson; Garrison, Cassandra (30 July 2021). Ellis, Aurora (ed.). "Nicaragua Grants Nationality to Former Salvadoran President Accused in Corruption Probe". Reuters. San Salvador, El Salvador. Retrieved 4 January 2025.
Renteria, Nelson; Solomon, Daina Beth (22 July 2021). Cameron-Moore, Simon; Perry, Michael (eds.). "El Salvador Orders Arrest of Ex-President Sanchez Cerén in Graft Probe". Reuters. San Salvador, El Salvador. Retrieved 4 January 2025.
Urbina, Javier (27 February 2024). "Expresidente Salvador Sánchez Cerén Enfrentará Juicio en Agosto" [Former President Salvador Sánchez Cerén Will Face Trial in August]. La Prensa Gráfica (in Spanish). Retrieved 4 January 2025.
"State Department Sanctions 2 Former Salvadoran Leaders, Dozens of Officials in Central America". Associated Press. Mexico City, Mexico. 19 July 2023. Retrieved 4 January 2024.

External links

Archived official website (in Spanish)

Political offices
Preceded byDarlyn Meza	Minister of Education of El Salvador 2009–2012	Succeeded byHato Hasbún
Preceded byAna Vilma de Escobar	Vice President of El Salvador 2009–2014	Succeeded byÓscar Ortiz
Preceded byMauricio Funes	President of El Salvador 2014–2019	Succeeded byNayib Bukele
Honorary titles
Preceded byDanilo Medina	President pro tempore of CELAC 2017–2019	Succeeded byEvo Morales

Portals:

v t e Heads of state of El Salvador
Post-independence (1821–1823)	Barriere Delgado Filísola Codallos Consultive Junta Prado
Federal Republic of Central America (1823–1841)	J. Rodríguez Prado J. V. Villacorta Prado Cornejo J. D. Villacorta Cornejo Morazán J. San Martín Prado J. San Martín C. Salazar G. Salazar Escolán Silva Espinoza F. Gómez Vigil T. Menéndez Vigil T. Menéndez Cañas Morazán Silva Cañas Ramírez Lindo
Republic of El Salvador (1841–1931)	Lindo Arce Marín J. J. Guzmán D. Villacorta Marín J. J. Guzmán Arce Palacios Malespín Palacios J. E. Guzmán Palacios Aguilar Palacios Aguilar Medina Quirós Vasconcelos R. Rodríguez Vasconcelos Dueñas Quirós Dueñas J. M. San Martín Dueñas V. Gómez J. M. San Martín J. Hernández J. M. San Martín Dueñas Campo Dueñas Campo Zepeda Santín Barrios Santín J. E. Guzmán Peralta Barrios Dueñas González Méndez González del Valle Zaldívar Guirola Zaldívar Figueroa Rosales F. Menéndez C. Ezeta A. Ezeta Gutiérrez Regalado Escalón Figueroa M. Araujo C. Meléndez Quiñónez C. Meléndez Quiñónez J. Meléndez Quiñónez P. Romero A. Araujo
Military presidents (1931–1979)	Civic Directory Hernández Martínez A. Menéndez Hernández Martínez A. Menéndez Aguirre Castaneda Revolutionary Council of Government Osorio Lemus Junta of Government Civic-Military Directory Cordón Rivera F. Sánchez A. Molina C. Romero
Salvadoran Civil War (1979–1992)	Revolutionary Government Junta Magaña Duarte Cristiani
Post-Civil War (since 1992)	Cristiani Calderón Flores Saca Funes S. Sánchez Bukele C. Rodríguez
– Acting or provisional president – Military junta

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