Armando Calderón Sol (24 June 1949 – 9 October 2017) was

President of El Salvador The president of El Salvador ( es, Presidente de El Salvador), officially known as the President of the Republic of El Salvador ( es, Presidente de la República de El Salvador), is the head of state and head of government of El Salvador. He i ...

from 1 June 1994, to 1 June 1999, representing the Nationalist Republican Alliance. He was the first president

elected Elected may refer to: * "Elected" (song), by Alice Cooper, 1973 * ''Elected'' (EP), by Ayreon, 2008 *The Elected, an American indie rock band See also *Election An election is a formal group decision-making process by which a population ...

in El Salvador after twelve years of

civil war A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...

Early life and education

Born in San Salvador in 1949, Calderón attended the exclusive primary and secondary school Colegio Externado San José, graduating in 1966. In 1977, Calderón received a graduate degree in

Jurisprudence Jurisprudence, or legal theory, is the theoretical study of the propriety of law. Scholars of jurisprudence seek to explain the nature of law in its most general form and they also seek to achieve a deeper understanding of legal reasoning a ...

and Social Sciences from Universidad Nacional de El Salvador. He was a lawyer, a businessman, and one of the founders of Nationalist Republican Alliance (ARENA), in September 1981.

Political career

Mayor of San Salvador

As Mayor of San Salvador from 1988 to 1994 he built the Monument to "Hermano Lejano" at the end of the Comalapa Highway and Blvd. Los Proceres and also built the bust monuments along the Proceres Boulevard. He promoted physical exercise and initiated a cyclist's circuit in the San Jacinto neighbourhood on Avenida Cuba.

President of El Salvador

Former Presidents and First Ladies of El Salvador

When he ran for president in 1994 he won the presidential office during the runoff elections against the leftist candidate, Dr. Ruben Zamora from the CD- FMLN coalition. Calderón is acknowledged in the press for restoring the status-quo after the

, which ended on 16 January 1992. He advocated the

privatization Privatization (also privatisation in British English) can mean several different things, most commonly referring to moving something from the public sector into the private sector. It is also sometimes used as a synonym for deregulation when ...

state owned State ownership, also called government ownership and public ownership, is the ownership of an Industry (economics), industry, asset, or Business, enterprise by the State (polity), state or a public body representing a community, as opposed to a ...

telephone companies and

pension funds A pension fund, also known as a superannuation fund in some countries, is any plan, fund, or scheme which provides retirement income. Pension funds typically have large amounts of money to invest and are the major investors in listed and priva ...

to stimulate the economy and modernize the country's infrastructure. He is also known for having promoted reforms to make El Salvador competitive in the

maquila A (), or (), is a word that refers to factories that are largely duty free and tariff-free. These factories take raw materials and assemble, manufacture, or process them and export the finished product. These factories and systems are present t ...

industry, removing

trade barrier Trade barriers are government-induced restrictions on international trade. According to the theory of comparative advantage, trade barriers are detrimental to the world economy and decrease overall economic efficiency. Most trade barriers work o ...

s across the board, including removing protection for local

agriculture Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled people t ...

. This had the unintended consequence of disrupting small scale farming, driving migration to larger cities (and abroad, especially the U.S.) and creating a cheaper labour supply for the maquilas. Calderón is also credited with the integration of former

guerrillas Guerrilla warfare is a form of irregular warfare in which small groups of combatants, such as paramilitary personnel, armed civilians, or irregulars, use military tactics including ambushes, sabotage, raids, petty warfare, hit-and-run tacti ...

combatants back into civilian life. He is also known for having initiated the privatization of the telecommunications company

ANTEL ANTEL ( es, Administración Nacional de Telecomunicaciones, lit=National Administration of Telecommunications) is Uruguay's government-owned telecommunications company, founded in 1974 as a separate legal entity after spinning off the telecommuni ...

and the electrical works company, CAESS (Compañía de Alumbrado Electrico de San Salvador), public hospitals and

. He followed president Alfredo Cristiani's neoliberal approach, and his

structural adjustment programs Structural adjustment programs (SAPs) consist of loans (structural adjustment loans; SALs) provided by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank (WB) to countries that experience economic crises. Their purpose is to adjust the coun ...

Death

Calderón Sol died on 9 October 2017 of lung cancer at a Houston, Texas, hospital at the age of 69.

References

External links

* https://web.archive.org/web/20030207070924/http://archive.laprensa.com.sv/19990703/
Extended biography of Armando Calderón Sol at Fundación CIDOB
{{DEFAULTSORT:Calderon Sol, Armando 1949 births 2017 deaths People from San Salvador Presidents of El Salvador Nationalist Republican Alliance politicians Mayors of places in El Salvador Mayors of San Salvador Deaths from cancer in Texas Deaths from lung cancer Sol family Grand Crosses with Diamonds of the Order of the Sun of Peru Collars of the Order of Isabella the Catholic