ABSTRACT

The El Salvador of the 1990s is markedly different from the violent, chaotic days of 1980. Each party to the Salvadoran conflict is able to claim some success. The Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN) began in January 1981 as a Cuban-supported, loose confederation of insurgent factions whose goal was to create an insurrection in El Salvador similar to that which occurred in Nicaragua in July 1979. After 1989, however, the USSR was quite forthcoming on Central America, including joint statements urging the FMLN to reach a peace agreement and reincorporate themselves into Salvadoran society. El Salvador has a violent history of oligarchie rule and, since the 1930s, of domination by the armed forces. The Salvadorans held free elections in 1982 to select a constitutional assembly, named Alvaro Magana provisional president from 1982 to 1984, wrote a constitution, and held presidential elections in 1984.