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 42nd 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..
As President, he oversaw a ban on metal mining for environmental reasons, switching diplomatic relations from Taiwan to China, and a partial abortion legalization, but also a high homicide rate, for which he was heavily criticized. He left office deeply unpopular, with his approval rating dropping from 37% in 2015 to 22% by 2018. On June 1, 2019, he was replaced by Nayib Bukele. He has since moved to Nicaragua with his family, with an arrest warrant from Salvadoran authorities for illicit enrichment, embezzlement, and money laundering.
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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 teachers' 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.
In 1983, Sánchez Cerén became the leader of the Farabundo Martí Popular Liberation Forces after its previous leader, Cayetano Carpio, committed suicide in Managua, Nicaragua. Sánchez Cerén also became one of the members of the FMLN General Command.
Political career
In the 2000 legislative election, Sánchez Cerén was elected as a deputy of the FMLN in the Legislative Assembly from the San Salvador Department. Coralia Margarita Polh Alvarado was elected as his alternate deputy. He was re-elected in 2003. He was re-elected for a third time in 2006; Francisco Rubén Alvarado Fuentes was his alternate.
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's 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's selection of Sánchez 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 relations with the People's Republic of China, ending El Salvador's relations with the Republic of China (Taiwan).
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. A few days later, on 30 July 2021, the Nicaraguan ministry of the interior granted Nicaraguan citizenship to Sánchez Cerén, his wife (Margarita Villalta de Sánchez), and three of his children.
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.