1982 Salvadoran presidential election

none January 2022 August 2025 1982 Salvadoran presidential election El Salvador presidential Legislative no 1977 Salvadoran presidential election 1977 29 April 1982 1984 Salvadoran presidential election 1984 Álvaro Magaña, President of El Salvador (1982–1984).png Álvaro Magaña Democratic Action Party (El Salvador) 36 67.92% ARENA Nationalist Republican Alliance Hugo César Barrera Nationalist Republican Alliance 17 32.08% President José Napoleón DuarteBefore the 1982 election, José Napoleón Duarte was President of the Revolutionary Government JuntaBosch 1999 54 and was stylized as "President of the Republic".Dutriz Hermanos 1992 29 Christian Democratic Party (El Salvador) Álvaro Magaña Democratic Action Party (El Salvador) Presidential elections were held in El Salvador on 29 April 1982. The election was indirect rather than being a popular vote; the Constitutional Assembly voted on three candidates nominated by the Armed Forces of El Salvador (FAES). Álvaro Magaña, a moderate and the leader of the Democratic Action Party (AD), won the election with 36 votes. In September 1981, the ruling Revolutionary Government Junta (JRG) scheduled a Constitutional Assembly election for March 1982. In April 1982, the new members of the Constitutional Assembly held a public session to elect the country's provisional president from three candidates approved by the armed forces. Magaña won 36 votes, defeating Hugo César Barrera of the Nationalist Republican Alliance (ARENA) who won 17 votes. Magaña became President on 2 May 1982 and served until 1 June 1984. His role was mostly symbolic and held little power; most power was vested with the military and Roberto D'Aubuisson, the president of the Constitutional Assembly. D'Aubuisson, the leader of ARENA, was initially expected to win the election. The United States pressured the military and the Constitutional Assembly not to select D'Aubuisson as a presidential candidate due to his connections to death squads in the country's civil war. After the election, D'Aubuisson accused General Jaime Abdul Gutiérrez, a member of the JRG, of rigging the election in Magaña's favor. Political background thumb|right|upright=0.9|alt=A black-and-white photograph of José Napoleón Duarte speaking at a press conference|José Napoleón Duarte, president of the Revolutionary Government Junta at the time of the 1982 presidential election Salvadoran president General Carlos Humberto Romero of the National Conciliation Party (PCN) was overthrown in a coup d'état by junior military officers on 15 October 1979 beginning the Salvadoran Civil War.Bosch 1999 28McClintock 1985 248–249 The coup's leaders, Colonels Adolfo Arnoldo Majano and Jaime Abdul Gutiérrez, declared the establishment of the Revolutionary Government Junta (JRG) consisting of two military officers (themselves) and three civilians (Mario Antonio Andino, Román Mayorga Quirós, and Guillermo Ungo).Bosch 1999 28 Majano served as the JRG's chairman until 14 May 1980 when the armed forces replaced him with Gutiérrez.Dutriz Hermanos 1992 25 On 13 December 1980, the JRG was restructured and consisted of four members with José Napoleón Duarte as its President; the other three members were José Ramón Ávalos Navarrete, Gutiérrez, and José Antonio Morales Ehrlich. Ávalos, Duarte, and Morales were members of the Christian Democratic Party (PDC).Bosch 1999 54 On 15 September 1981, under Duarte's lead, the JRG scheduled an election for the Constitutional Assembly to occur in March 1982. The Constitutional Assembly was responsible for drafting a new constitution and establish the process to hold a presidential election.Haggerty 1990 43–44Central Intelligence Agency 1984 6 thumb|right|alt=A parliament diagram chart showing the Constitutional Assembly in 1982|The composition of the Constitutional Assembly at the time of the 1982 presidential election The election was scheduled to be held on 28 March 1982,Krennerich 2005 276 but on the day the election was held, the rebel Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN) launched a military offensive against the JRG and the armed forces to prevent the election from occurring. The offensive failed and Salvadorans cast their votesBosch 1999 110 to elect all 60 seats on the Constitutional Assembly.Krennerich 2005 281 The election was free and fair.Haggerty 1990 xx The election resulted in the PDC winning 24 seats, the Nationalist Republican Alliance (ARENA) winning 19 seats, the PCN winning 14 seats, the Democratic Action Party (AD) winning 2 seats, and the Salvadoran Popular Party (PPS) winning 1 seat.Krennerich 2005 281McClintock 1985 295Schooley 1987 62 The centrist PDC, which had been El Salvador's ruling party up to the election, lost its governing majority to the conservative PCN and ARENA.Haggerty 1990 44Central Intelligence Agency 1984 5 Prelude After the March 1982 election, the Constitutional Assembly was scheduled to elect a provisional president to govern El Salvador until the new constitution was formally adopted.Haggerty 1990 147 The presidential candidates would be selected by the armed forces.Schooley 1987 63Artiga-González 2015 130 Roberto D'Aubuisson, the leader of ARENA, was a favorite to become President as he was elected as the president of the Constitutional Assembly on 22 April and many election observers believed he would win.Haggerty 1990 44McClintock 1985 296 D'Aubuisson was a former military officer with connections to far-right death squadsHaggerty 1990 147 and was implicated in the assassination of Archbishop Óscar Romero in March 1980.McClintock 1985 296 The United States pressured Minister of National Defense General José Guillermo García, the armed forces, and the Constitutional Assembly to not elect D'Aubuisson as President as it could have potentially damaged El Salvador's international image and potentially prevent the United States from sending the Salvadoran government further military aid in the civil war.Haggerty 1990 147Sharpe Diskin 1984 532 Ultimately, D'Aubuisson was not selected as ARENA's presidential candidate by the armed forces who instead chose Hugo César Barrera, a D'Aubuisson loyalist.Schooley 1987 63Central Intelligence Agency 1984 30 The other candidates were Álvaro Magaña (a moderate, friend of the military, and the leader of AD) and a politician of the PCN.Schooley 1987 63Central Intelligence Agency 1984 42 Results Decretos Constituyentes Nº 4, 5 y 6, del 29 de abril de 1982 es The presidential election was held on 29 April 1982 and occurred in a public session of the Constitutional Assembly.Dutriz Hermanos 1992 63 The Constitutional Assembly elected Magaña as the provisional president with 36 votes. Barrera came in second with 17 votes.Schooley 1987 63 There were 7 abstentions.Decamilli Achinelli 1983 184 Pablo Mauricio Alvergue of the PDC, Mauricio Gutiérrez Castro of ARENA, and Raúl Molina Martínez of the PCN were elected as Magaña's co-vice presidents.Artiga-González 2015 130Dutriz Hermanos 1992 63 The results were published by Diario Oficial, the official government newspaper, later that day in Decrees No. 4 and 6.Artiga-González 2015 130 1982 Salvadoran presidential election Democratic Action Party Álvaro Magaña 36 Nationalist Republican Alliance Hugo César Barrera 17 National Conciliation Party Unknown candidate 0 60 7 100.00 Schooley 1987, p. 63 & Decamilli Achinelli 1983, p. 184 Aftermath D'Aubuisson criticized the result of the election, accusing Gutiérrez of imposing "his personal decision to put Álvaro Magaña in the presidency" upon the Constitutional Assembly despite a "categorical no" from ARENA.Schooley 1987 63 ARENA had previously accused Magaña of being a "Communist" and a "little Jew".McClintock 1985 296 Magaña became President of El Salvador on 2 May 1982.Krennerich 2005 293 Magaña was El Salvador's first civilian president in over fifty years.Gould Vrana 2025 195 Magaña appointed a cabinet that consisted of ARENA, PCN, and PDC members.Haggerty 1990 147 During Magaña's presidency, he rejected negotiating with the FMLN to share power in El Salvador.Central Intelligence Agency 1984 42 Although Magaña was the country's president, the office was largely symbolic and most power was vested in D'Aubuisson as President of the Constitutional Assembly and in the military.McClintock 1985 296 The Constitutional Assembly adopted a new constitution on 20 December 1983.Dutriz Hermanos 1992 62 Duarte won the 1984 presidential election after defeating D'Aubuisson in the second round.Krennerich 2005 289 & 293Haggerty 1990 160 Duarte was inaugurated on 1 June 1984.Krennerich 2005 293 See also Elections in El Salvador Notes References Citations 22em Bibliography 35em yes Artiga-González Álvaro 2015 Sztarkman Aráuz Hana Castillo Deras Valmore El Sistema Político Salvadoreño The Salvadoran Political System http://www.redicces.org.sv/jspui/bitstream/10972/2292/1/EL_SISTEMAPOLITICOSALVADOREÑO.pdf es United Nations Program for Development in El Salvador El Salvador 9789992355565 https://web.archive.org/web/20240711015704/http://www.redicces.org.sv/jspui/bitstream/10972/2292/1/EL_SISTEMAPOLITICOSALVADOREÑO.pdf 11 July 2024 dead 7 August 2025 amp Bosch Brian J. 1999 The Salvadoran Officer Corps and the Final Offensive of 1981 https://books.google.com/books?id=cuMWAAAAYAAJ en Jefferson, North Carolina; London McFarland & Company Incorporated Publishers 0786406127 99-26678 41662421 7 August 2025 Decamilli Achinelli José Leopoldo 1983 El Salvador, la Lucha por la Libertad El Salvador, the Fight for Liberty https://books.google.com/books?id=TZpqAAAAMAAJ es Madrid, Spain German-Ibero-American Cultural Circle 9788430093311 14761314 7 August 2025 1992 Documento de La Prensa Gráfica: El Conflicto en El Salvador Document of La Prensa Gráfica: The Conflict in El Salvador http://biblioteca.utec.edu.sv/siab/virtual/libros_PDF/27791.pdf dead es 2nd San Salvador, El Salvador Dutriz Hermanos 27088774 https://web.archive.org/web/20200203003757/http://biblioteca.utec.edu.sv/siab/virtual/libros_PDF/27791.pdf 3 February 2020 7 August 2025 Dutriz Hermanos 1992 https://www.cia.gov/library/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP04T00367R000100090001-3.pdf El Salvador: Significant Political Actors and Their Interaction en April 1984 7 August 2025 Central Intelligence Agency https://web.archive.org/web/20170123172358/https://www.cia.gov/library/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP04T00367R000100090001-3.pdf 23 January 2017 dead Central Intelligence Agency 1984 Gould Jeffrey L. Jeffrey Gould Vrana Heather 2025 El Salvador 1979: Reform or Repression https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/coups-detat-in-cold-war-latin-america-19641982/el-salvador-1979/236D51446A7A09FD6CEE88B86F78B3DC Cambridge, United Kingdom Carassai Sebastián Coleman Kevin Coups d'État in Cold War Latin America, 1964–1982 https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/coups-detat-in-cold-war-latin-america-19641982/1AB7E91D4278B39B74F3319919F806EC en amp Cambridge University Press 177–196 10.1017/9781009344821 9781009344821 1517993503 27 August 2025 Haggerty Richard A. 1990 El Salvador: A Country Study https://archive.org/details/elsalvadorcountr00hagg en 2nd Washington, D.C., United States Federal Research Division 9780525560371 89048948 1044677008 7 August 2025 Krennerich Michael El Salvador 2005 Nohlen Dieter Dieter Nohlen Elections in the Americas A Data Handbook Volume 1: North America, Central America, and the Caribbean https://books.google.com/books?id=-xZREAAAQBAJ en Oxford, United Kingdom Oxford University Press 270–299 9780191557934 58051010 7 August 2025 McClintock Michael 1985 The American Connection: State Terror and Popular Resistance in El Salvador https://archive.org/details/americanconnecti0000mccl/mode/2up en 1 London, United Kingdom Zed Books 9780862322403 1145770950 7 August 2025 Schooley Helen 1987 Conflict in Central America https://archive.org/details/conflictincentra0000scho_e0v6 en Chicago, United States St. James 9780912289762 1288399616 7 August 2025 Sharpe Kenneth E. Diskin Martin 1984 Facing Facts in El Salvador: Reconciliation or War en World Policy Journal Duke University Press 1 3 517–547 0740-2775 40208954 9990592334 amp El Salvador Politics Presidential El Salvador El Salvador Category:Presidential elections in El Salvador