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Travel to El Salvador — Unbiased reviews and
great deals from TripAdvisorEl Salvador
| Republic of El Salvador National
name: República de El Salvador President: Antonio Saca (2004)
Current government officials
Land area: 8,000 sq mi (20,720 sq km);
total area: 8,124 sq mi (21,040 sq km) Population (2008 est.): 7,066,403 (growth
rate: 1.6%); birth rate: 25.7/1000; infant mortality rate: 22.1/1000;
life expectancy: 72.0; density per sq km: 341
Capital and largest city (2003 est.):
San Salvador, 1,791,700 (metro. area), 504,700
(city proper) Other large cities:
Santa Ana, 167,200; San Miguel, 145,100; Zacatecoluca, 36,700 Monetary units: Colón; U.S. dollar
Languages:
Spanish, Nahua (among some Amerindians)
Ethnicity/race:
mestizo 90%, white 9%, Amerindian 1%
National Holiday:
Independence Day, September 15
Religions:
Catholics 83%; growing population of evangelical
Protestants (1992) Literacy rate:
80% (2003 est.) Economic summary:
GDP/PPP (2007 est.): $41.65 billion; per capita $5,800. Real
growth rate: 4.7%. Inflation: 3.9%. Unemployment:
6.2%—but the economy has much underemployment. Arable land:
32%. Agriculture: coffee, sugar, corn, rice, beans, oilseed,
cotton, sorghum; beef, dairy products; shrimp. Labor force:
2.87 million; agriculture 9.7%, industry 29.6%, services 60.7% (2007
est.). Industries: food processing, beverages, petroleum,
chemicals, fertilizer, textiles, furniture, light metals. Natural
resources: hydropower, geothermal power, petroleum, arable
land. Exports: $3.98 billion (2007 est.): offshore assembly
exports, coffee, sugar, shrimp, textiles, chemicals, electricity.
Imports: $8.667 billion (2007 est.): raw materials, consumer
goods, capital goods, fuels, foodstuffs, petroleum, electricity.
Major trading partners: U.S., Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua,
Mexico, Germany, China (2006). Communications: Telephones: main lines in
use: 1.037 million (2006); mobile cellular: 3.852 million (2006).
Radio broadcast stations: AM 52, FM 144, shortwave 0 (2005).
Television broadcast stations: 5 (1997). Internet
hosts: 12,519 (2007). Internet users: 637,100 (2005). Transportation: Railways: total: 562 km;
note: railways not in operation since 2005 because of disuse and lack
of maintenance due to high costs (2007). Highways: total:
10,866 km; paved: 2,827 km (including 327 km of expressways); unpaved:
8,059 km (2000 est.). Waterways: Rio Lempa partially navigable
(2004). Ports and harbors: Acajutla, Puerto Cutuco.
Airports: 65 (2007). International
disputes: in 1992, the ICJ ruled on the delimitation of "bolsones"
(disputed areas) along the El Salvador-Honduras boundary, but despite
OAS intervention and a further ICJ ruling in 2003, full demarcation of
the border remains stalled; the 1992 ICJ ruling advised a tripartite
resolution to a maritime boundary in the Gulf of Fonseca advocating
Honduran access to the Pacific; El Salvador continues to claim tiny
Conejo Island, not identified in the ICJ decision, off Honduras in the
Gulf of Fonseca.
Major sources and definitions
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Geography
Situated on the Pacific coast of Central
America, El Salvador has Guatemala to the west and Honduras to the north
and east. It is the smallest of the Central American countries, with an
area equal to that of Massachusetts, and it is the only one without an
Atlantic coastline. Most of the country is on a fertile volcanic plateau
about 2,000 ft (607 m) high.
Government
Republic.
History
The Pipil Indians, descendants of the Aztecs,
likely migrated to the region in the 11th century. In 1525, Pedro de
Alvarado, a lieutenant of Cortés's, conquered El Salvador.
El Salvador, with the other countries of Central
America, declared its independence from Spain on Sept. 15, 1821, and was
part of a federation of Central American states until that union dissolved
in 1838. For decades after its independence, El Salvador experienced
numerous revolutions and wars against other Central American republics.
From 1931 to 1979 El Salvador was ruled by a series of military
dictatorships.
In 1969, El Salvador invaded Honduras after
Honduran landowners deported several thousand Salvadorans. The four-day
war became known as the “football war” because it broke out during a
soccer game between the two countries.
In the 1970s discontent with societal
inequalities, a poor economy, and the repressive measures of dictatorship
led to civil war between the government, ruled since 1961 by the
right-wing National Conciliation Party (PCN), and leftist antigovernment
guerrilla units, whose leading group was the Farabundo Martí National
Liberation Front (FMLN). The U.S. intervened on the side of the military
dictatorship, despite its scores of human rights violations. Between 1979
and 1981, about 30,000 people were killed by right-wing death squads
backed by the military. José Napoleón Duarte—a moderate civilian who was
president from 1984 to 1989—offered an alternative to the political
extremes of right and left, but Duarte was unable to end the war. In 1989,
Alfredo Cristiani of the right-wing Nationalist Republican Alliance
(ARENA) was elected. On Jan. 16, 1992, the government signed a peace
treaty with the guerrilla forces, formally ending the 12-year civil war
that had killed 75,000.
In 1998, Hurricane Mitch devastated the country,
leaving 200 dead and over 30,000 homeless. In Jan. and Feb. 2001, major
earthquakes struck El Salvador, damaging about 20% of the nation's
housing. An even worse disaster beset the country in the summer when a
severe drought destroyed 80% of the country's crops, causing famine in the
countryside.
In 2004, Antonio Saca of ARENA was elected
president. The nation implemented a free-trade agreement (CAFTA) with the
U.S. in March 2006, the first Central American country to do so.
See also Encyclopedia: El Salvador
U.S. State Dept. Country Notes:
El Salvador
Statistical Data Index (In Spanish Only) www.minec.gob.sv/presenta.htm .
Information Please® Database, © 2008 Pearson Education,
Inc. All rights reserved.
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