República de El Salvador

Note: Mauricio Funes of the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front, a former Marxist guerrilla army turned political party, was elected president on March 15, 2009 with 51.3% of the vote over Rodrigo Ávila, National Republican Alliance, 48.7%. This marks the first time the National Republican Alliance has lost a presidential election since the end of El Salvador’s civil war in 1992. Funes takes office on June 1, 2009, with his party holding only 35 of 84 seats in the Legislative Assembly.

Political Status: Part of the Captaincy General of Guatemala that declared independence from Spain in September 1821; member of the United Provinces of Central America that was launched in 1823; status as independent political entity formalized in constitution of ...