El Salvador

A country located in Central America . The capital is San Salvador , and Spanish is spoken. El Salvador means savior in Spanish. Among Spanish- speaking countries, it is the only country with the definite article El in its name. Likewise, the capital's name, San Salvador, means 'Holy Savior.' With a land area of ​​21,041km ² , it is the smallest country in Central America.[3] , the population is estimated to be approximately 6,830,000 in 2023.

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Originally, there was Olmec influence, and the northeastern region was under the influence of the Mayan civilization .[4] In the southeastern region, which was not influenced by the Mayan civilization, many Native American tribes lived by hunting and gathering.

It was colonized by Spain in the 16th century when it conquered Mexico and expanded its territory to Central America, and agriculture such as cotton, balsam, and indigo was carried out. During the Spanish colonial period, most of the land was controlled by elite white Spanish families, and the natives were exploited and forced to work as slaves. In 1811 José Matthias Delgado raised a rebellion, which was soon suppressed. However, after independence from the Spanish colonies in 1821, it was a territory of Mexico , and in 1823 it formed the Federal Republic of Central America with Guatemala , Nicaragua , Honduras , and Costa Rica . After the Confederation was dissolved in 1838, it became an independent country. All countries belonging to the Central American Commonwealth, except for Costa Rica, have one thing in common in that they adopt a national flag based on a blue-white bicolor design.

In the late 1940s, the Óscar Osorio (1950-1956) regime focused on strong investment incentives in the form of tax cuts, and in the 1960s, the Julio Adalberto Rivera (1962-1967) regime promoted industrialization through the US 'Alliance for Progress' and 'Central American Common Market (CACM)' policies. We pushed ahead. El Salvador benefited the most from the Central American Common Market system as a relatively advanced industrial country, and as trade expanded, existing industries continued to grow. The share of industry in GDP increased from 14.5% in 1960 to 18.5% in 1975, and the annual growth rate during the same period reached an average of 7.3%. However, in the late 1970s, about 60% of workers at small and medium-sized enterprises earned wages that were less than the minimum cost of living. In 1969, there was a soccer war with Honduras . From the beginning, the relationship between the two countries was not good due to issues such as immigration and land distribution, and the reason was that public sentiment rapidly deteriorated and exploded due to the World Cup qualifiers .

Meanwhile, the military has dominated the country's politics throughout the mid-20th century, arresting and deposing the elected president in 1972 and installing a candidate of its own as president. In 1979, a new regime was established in Nicaragua , close to El Salvador, following an extreme right-wing coup , and the assassination of Archbishop Óscar Romero while leading the democratization and popular struggle against the military regime led to the activity of left-wing rebel groups such as the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN). When a revolutionary regime was established in Nicaragua and the United States intervened in Nicaragua, Cuba, and El Salvador, it also intervened in the civil war. The U.S. government pursued a strategy of suppressing guerrillas while minimizing U.S. military intervention as much as possible. Accordingly, the United States increased the government army and modernized its equipment by sending military aid, and by 1983, the size of the government army increased to 53,000 troops. From 1980 to 1990, El Salvador received a total of $1 billion in aid from the United States. Additionally, the United States dispatched at least 100 military advisors to El Salvador to command and train the Salvadoran government forces. Throughout the 1980s, 80,000 people died in El Salvador's civil war, and 500,000 fled the country. The United States, wary of the expansion of left-wing forces, supported the El Salvador military, which committed all kinds of cruel atrocities during the civil war. According to the El Salvador Truth Commission (Comisión de la Verdad para El Salvador) after the civil war, 95% of the violence committed between January 1980 and July 1991 was committed by the government (government forces, police, and pro-government militias) and 5% by the FMLN.

The FMLN attempted to overthrow the state, but its power was weak due to its limited regional base.[5] It failed repeatedly, weakened after the Cold War , and entered into peace negotiations when Christiani became president in the 1989 presidential election.

Of course, during this period, there were intermittent clashes with each other, but the government and the FMLN side were tired of each other even if they repeatedly fought in the civil war, so they eventually came to a peace agreement. The civil war ended in 1992 when an armistice took effect and the FMLN was reborn as a legitimate political party. Since then, the right-wing party ARENA has been in power for a long time. However, the presidents who had been in office in the meantime were in poor condition, such as suffering from corruption and bribery suspicions due to close ties with the business world, and gangs were rampant as they failed to properly deal with the social chaos immediately after the civil war.

This situation continued until the 2000s, and in the 2009 presidential election, Mauricio Funes, a politician from the FMLN party, was elected president.[6] With the birth of the left-wing government for the first time in 20 years, it implemented a policy of strongly cracking down on organized crime by gangs. However, because the gangs opposed the government so strongly and there was no welfare policy to prevent organized crime, the crime eradication policy was not very effective, and El Salvador's crime rate remained high, and President Funes also moved from the middle of his term. Like presidents, he is plagued by suspicions of corruption. During his tenure, he eventually went into exile in Nicaragua due to suspicions that he had enriched himself illegally through accounting manipulation. #

The successor, President Sánchez Serendo, was also evaluated as having suffered from a sluggish economy with an annual economic growth rate of only 2-3% throughout his term in office, and was unable to respond strongly to pressure from the United States. He is evaluated as not very competent in resolving public security issues, and his approval rating remains in the 30% range. Due to his crushing defeat in the 2018 general and presidential elections, the possibility of regaining power in the 2019 presidential election is said to be out of reach. President Seren is also in a lame duck situation, with prosecutors announcing that he is suspected of using aid funds received from Taiwan as election funds , except for improving security . However, after winning a landslide victory in the general and local elections, Arena, a right-wing political party, made a huge mistake by passing a bill to privatize the capital, leading to growing skepticism and disillusionment with the two existing parties in El Salvador, saying that both are rotten and incompetent in securing security. It's in progress.[7]

In the 2019 presidential election, Nayib Bukele , the third centrist candidate and former mayor of San Salvador, far surpassed the approval ratings of the existing candidates from both parties and was elected with 53% of the vote in the first round.[8] It is questionable whether the FMLN will be able to function properly as a ruling party as even the existing fixed votes are flowing to Bukele.

ARENA also lost in the 2009 and 2014 presidential elections, but by a narrow margin, and was able to exert a certain level of influence because it maintained its position as one party in the general elections. However, it suffered a huge blow as it recorded the lowest vote rate, far below the vote rate in the 2009 and 2014 presidential elections. In addition, President Nayib Bukele's popularity has been so high due to improved security through large-scale arrests of gangsters and his relatively better response to COVID-19 compared to other countries, so there are no signs that his approval rating will rebound. Of course, there is a lot of talk about it being overly authoritarian, but it gets high marks for being able to move around at night.

Since the 1990s, El Salvador has developed somewhat, and is economically better off than Guatemala, Honduras, or Nicaragua. However, it is only relative, and the country is officially classified as a developing country so far because of its low per capita GDP and wide gap between the rich and the poor .

On February 9, 2020, when President Naib Bukele and military police armed with automatic weapons occupied San Salvador's parliament, lawmakers protested that it was an attempted coup. #

Allegations have been raised that the Salvadoran government made a deal with a notorious criminal organization to lower the murder rate. # Sentenced to 133 years in prison for the murder of five Jesuit priests from Spain in 1989 during the civil war in El Salvador. #

On January 5, 2021, a court in El Salvador ordered former President Saca to return to the national treasury $4.4 million (approximately 4.8 billion won) in wealth he had fraudulently accumulated while in office. #

On February 1, 2021, Doctors Without Borders announced that it would suspend activities in El Salvador until its safety was guaranteed following the attack on an ambulance in El Salvador. #

In the 2021 general election, President Nive Boulee's NI has set a record of the first party to achieve more than half of the seats since the El Salvador Peace Agreement, and the coalition ruling party has crossed the amendment, and the old two parties, FMLN and Arena, have only a lot of seats that are much less than the amendment. It has fallen. However, since President Nive Boulee has secured the Constitutional Line , Bitcoin has been designated as an official currency, and in El Salvador, the opinion of this has been divided and the support rate of President Boulee, which was high, has also dropped significantly. However, his judgment is being reevaluated due to the recent rise in the value of Bitcoin.

On the 200th anniversary of El Salvador's independence, thousands of citizens took to the streets in the capital, San Salvador, and elsewhere to protest against the Naib Bukele government. #

On April 24, 2022, the government of El Salvador announced an extension of the state of emergency. #

It has a mild tropical climate with alternating dry and rainy seasons, and there are many mountainous areas. In the northern part of the country is Elpital Mountain (2,732 m), the highest in El Salvador.

The land is very small. Originally, the central America nation , south of Mexico , is sitting in a small place in a small place, but it is narrow, but El Salvador is a smaller country with a larger territory area compared to the neighboring area . Nevertheless, the population is 2/3 of Honduras, and the population overcrowding is serious. Bellez is as small as El Salvador, but Belize has only 400,000 people, much less than El Salvador, and El Salvador has a volcanic and mountainous terrain. Originally, most of the land was forests, but now most of them have been collected in the process of clearing for agriculture. As a result, the environmental destruction is serious, and the damage of natural disasters such as hurricanes is also worrying. So El Salvador has a severe population outflow. Especially I go to the United States .

Because it is part of the Pacific Ring of Fire , it is also prone to seismic activity. Major earthquakes occurred in 1986 and 2001, causing great damage, and more recently, the 2016 El Salvador earthquake occurred.

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There has been a steady population outflow due to the economic and political reasons explained above, but the exodus was serious until the 2010s. To some extent, Honduras had a smaller population than El Salvador until the mid- 1990s, but this was reversed in the mid-1990s. In recent years, the illegal immigrants coming across the Rio Grande have come from Mexico instead of coming from Mexico.[9] , the ratio between this country and neighboring countries Honduras and Guatemala was increasing day by day, and most of the illegal immigration of children, teenagers, and women was done not to make a lot of money, but to survive. Before President Bukele came to power, at that time, gangsters were fighting against each other, shooting and killing or assaulting people if they did not give them 10 to 40 dollars a week, so in order to run a store, you had to give even a penny to the gang members, and there was no chaos, such as gang members fighting with each other or bragging about killing people.[10] So, under the influence of this time, Mexico The Mexican Immigration Office stands at various points along Mexican National Highway 200 in the Chiapas region and on the way up to the state of Tamaulipas, and the inspections in the Mexican state of Chiapas are particularly famous for being quite strict. In this region, passports and visas are required for people with different skin or hair colors.

However, since the 2020s, security has greatly improved due to President Bukele's strong security policy, and illegal immigration to the United States has begun to decrease noticeably. Recently, in conjunction with the Trump administration 's strong policy of deporting illegal immigrants, an unusual phenomenon has been occurring in which illegal immigrants living in the United States, and even some legal immigrants, are voluntarily returning to El Salvador.

Overall, the social atmosphere is rigid. This is a general characteristic of Central America , including neighboring countries Honduras and Guatemala . The biggest reason for this is that, unlike other South American countries, the country has a small territory and is not rich. As the society suffered from poverty and war for a long time, the social atmosphere also lost its leisure. Even if you call an Uber driver, South American drivers talk and chat with customers until their mouths are worn out, but this is not the case in El Salvador and they do not say anything unnecessary. In general, even people in service jobs have (relatively) little smiles and are the type to say only what they have to say. Might be good if you like quiet. Therefore, if you come here after seeing people who are friendlier than anyone else in Mexico or South America, you may be disappointed by the atmosphere that is different from the rest of Central and South America. Illegal immigrants to the United States who grew up mixed with other Latinos are much kinder, funnier, and speak English well than people who were born and raised their whole lives in El Salvador. If there is a particularly friendly and friendly person in El Salvador, it is likely that he or she has experience in the United States. Men are better, but women are truly the most unfriendly, uninteresting, and quiet in Latin America.

In the past , there were many El Salvadorans mainly in California , but now they are rapidly increasing in New York and New Jersey . In New York City , the original Hispanics were equal in numbers with the Puerto Ricans . These El Salvadorans have settled in large numbers in Harlem 's Spanish Harlem and Bronx , Queens ' Jamaica and East Brooklyn , where security is still insecure , and Salvadoran gangs often fight over territory with black gangs. Because the areas overlap each other, both of them confront each other in a way that you die and I die, and gunfights, assaults, and murders occur, and the police and FBI are cracking down.

In the past, SBS' news program mentioned that in El Salvador, drunk driving is punishable by firing squad .[11] In fact, the embassy in Korea protested that the content was wrong because El Salvador does not have the death penalty. However, since entering a prison in El Salvador is so poor that it can be considered a death penalty, it is not wrong at all to say that a punishment equivalent to a firing squad awaits.

As of 2017, the Press Freedom Index scored 27.24 points, ranking 62nd, one notch higher than Korea , which scored 27.61 points, but in 2019 , Korea ranked 41st with 24.94 points[12] , El Salvador dropped further to 81st with 29.81 points, widening the gap.

Since El Salvador is a country where abortion is legal under Catholic doctrine, between 2000 and 2011 at least 129 women were prosecuted in connection with the abortion ban. and in 2018 On November 12, a woman who was sexually assaulted by her stepfather and tried to have an abortion by giving birth to her child was tried for attempted murder, and criticism is coming and going ( # ). However, the woman was acquitted by the court ( # ).

2016 On October 12 , a bill allowing limited abortions was submitted to the National Assembly by the FMLN, the ruling party in El Salvador ( # ). And to protect water resources, it passed the world's first law banning metal mining from the ground, allowing salt and stone ( # , # ). And El Salvador's parliament, along with Guatemala's, passed a law banning minors from marrying ( # ).

They even imprisoned a mother who had a miscarriage , calling her a murderer. #

Even after Nayib Bukele became president, there appears to be no room for the abortion law to be passed for the time being due to negative sentiment toward abortion, so it appears that it will still have to wait a long time before abortion surgery is allowed in El Salvador.

There are no public holidays in El Salvador in February, July and October.

Since the civil war broke out in El Salvador in the 1970s, security instability has been a chronic social problem, and since the end of the civil war, the mafia has run rampant, to the point where it is said that the two major mafias , MS-13 and the 18th Street Gang , rule El Salvador at night. In the past, it had the highest murder crime rate in the world and public security was very poor. As of 2015, the murder rate in El Salvador is 108.64 per 100,000 people, which is the highest in the world, and is close to 150 times that of South Korea . For reference, second place is Honduras, the neighboring country . In other words, these two countries are going back and forth over whether they have first or second place in murder crime rates. Coincidentally, they are the parties involved in the soccer war sparked by the World Cup qualifiers .[13] Public security began to improve in 2016 as the crime rate began to decrease, and as of the 2020s , the country was considered one of the safest in the entire American continent .[14]

In terms of the punishment structure, parole was common with abandonment as a whole. It seems generous, but the reality is a gutter. The Central American region also has people's legal appraisal, so the punishment of felons is severe, but prisons are insufficient and management is inadequate due to budget or manpower problems, so they repeatedly arrest and release them. However, since President Buquele took office, it has been changed to shutting up and catching a lot while declaring a state of emergency from time to time. Of course, the budget problem was also aggravated, but even so, confining criminals improved security to the point where they could go out without worrying at night. Of course, this was partly due to the fact that El Salvador is a small country and has a high population density, so it is difficult for criminals to find a place to escape in El Salvador.[15]

El Salvador began a mass trial on the 8th (local time) against the Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) gang, an international criminal organization that has been the object of fear for many people ( # ). On this day, the prosecution brought 16 executives of the criminal organization to court, and the remaining members observed the trial via video from their respective prisons. There are almost 100 lawyers in this trial , and the trial will continue until November due to the large number of witnesses and the amount of evidence.

2020 As of April , in El Salvador, where security was so bad, the number of homicides, which had been up to 600 per day, has dropped to an average of 2 per day, thanks to the current President Naib Bukele 's active crime control policy and the aftermath of the COVID-19 infection .

However, that does not mean that violent crime is low. A total of 53 murders occurred over three days from April 24th to 26th. In particular, 24 people were murdered on the 24th, making it the day with the most murders since President Bukele took office.

The angry President Bouleet is now a special countermeasure, which is the killing permit of the military and 24 hours of blockade in prison . In addition, in order to prevent crime instructions in the prison, the same gang members who are imprisoned are not allowed to live in one shot, and plates are installed in a cell bar to block communication between the cells facing each other.

However, controversy arose. On April 27 , a tweet was posted on the President's Office's Twitter account, containing photos of semi-nude inmates in a prison in El Salvador. This is where prisoners were called in while relocation and construction were being carried out. Accordingly, Duncan Tucker of the international human rights organization Amnesty said that the photos are incredibly inhumane, and that they remind him of scenes from the darkest moments in human history. In addition, while COVID-19 is currently in vogue, it was pointed out that there is a high risk of infection due to close contact between inmates. In other words, it is no different from convening without caring about quarantine. The LA Times also criticized, saying, "Efforts to reduce contact to prevent infection in South America have been in vain as El Salvador's prisons have driven prisoners into groups."

There was even an incredible incident where the victim, who was almost killed not by the perpetrator but by a gang member, was arrested and imprisoned. #
As controversy arose, President Bucale posted a video on Twitter showing him ordering a crime inside a cell, saying that the murder occurred the day after the video was filmed. In the video, an inmate is seen saying, 'Shoot him in the face.' There was a conflict between those who said that human rights should be guaranteed even to criminals and those who said that this measure was taken to prevent serious crimes such as murder. Related news .

On April 6, 2022, El Salvador's parliament approved a bill that would make media outlets that reproduce or disseminate messages from criminal organizations punishable by 10 to 15 years in prison. #

Just over a week after El Salvador declared a state of emergency to 'war against gangs', the military and police were mobilized and more than 5,000 gang members were arrested. # This continued, and by April 11, 2022, more than 9,000 gang members had been arrested in a single day. # On December 16, 2022, El Salvador celebrated the first day in history without a single murder case . President Nayib Bukele celebrated by posting this on Twitter. #

In February 2023, CECOT, the largest prison in Latin America, was built and 2,000 prisoners were transferred at once.

When a police officer was killed by a gang member in May 2023, President Naib Bukele was furious and mobilized 5,500 military and police officers to launch a large-scale search operation and gang subjugation operation. #

Since the declaration of the state of emergency, approximately 75,000 people, or 1.2% of El Salvador's population , have been imprisoned.[16] At least 153 people died due to poor detention conditions.[17][18] However, the number of victims of murder cases decreased from more than 2,000 in 2019 to around 1,000 in 2020 and 2021, and the number of murder cases also plummeted by 30% compared to the previous year, to 495 in 2022 and 154 in 2023. As of 2023, El Salvador's murder rate was 2.4 per 100,000 population, a significant decrease compared to 2015 ( 105.2 per 100,000 population ) and 2022 (7.8 per 100,000 population). Naturally, El Salvador's Justice Minister Gustavo Villatoro said, "This is the lowest number of murder crimes in the past 30 years." “It is a historic record,” he boasted, adding, “It is also the lowest figure in the Americas, excluding Canada.” Of course, it is not that low in absolute terms, but[19] However, compared to the past when it was a lawless area, it is true that security has improved greatly to a level where one can feel at ease.[20] # In the end, thanks to the stabilization of security, President Bukele won a landslide victory in the 2024 presidential election, taking 83% of the votes despite a 70% counting rate, and was re-elected. In addition, public order has become more and more stable, reaching a record of 1.3 murders in 2025 , which is a murder rate so low that it cannot be found anywhere else in the entire American continent. As a result, El Salvador has become the safest country in the American continent , and statistically, it has become a very safe country by global standards, comparable to East Asia such as Korea and Japan .[21]

However, despite continued security improvements, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Korea continues to issue a special travel advisory, level 2.5 travel warning , throughout El Salvador , a measure that does not reflect the security situation in El Salvador at all. This is the same as in any dictatorship where the government ignores constitutional rights and arrests them, and in fact, it does not apply to foreigners such as Korean tourists. No other country in the world has issued a travel warning as high for El Salvador as Korea has. For reference, as of 2026, Honduras , which has much less security than El Salvador , is a level 2 traveler system , so there seems to be a big problem with fairness.

In a presidential system, the president is the head of state and at the same time exercises executive power as the head of the executive branch. The term of office is 5 years and cannot be reappointed, but the Supreme Court in 2021 made an authoritative interpretation that indirectly allows the president to be reappointed. #

In addition, as it is a republic, the principle of separation of powers is established, so there is not only a government, but also a parliament and a court. In the case of parliament, there was a two-party system between ARENA and PDC in the 1980s , and a two-party system between ARENA and FMLN after the end of the civil war in 1992, but starting from the 2019 presidential election , new ideas are gaining dominance.

Surprisingly, two of the presidents are from Palestinian immigrants. Both are from GANA. Of course, Antonio Saka was from Arena and later made a party with a GANA, and Nive Boulee was from FMLN.

Before 2019, it received a score of 6 on the democracy index and was classified as a flawed democracy, but after Nayib Bukele, the country itself is evaluated to be becoming somewhat authoritarian. However, as his pro-Bitcoin policy and security maintenance policy are well-received, and many Salvadorans actually support him, it appears that the regime will remain in power longer than expected. According to the World Freedom Index, in 2020, right after Bukele came to power, political rights (PR) had 32 points and civil liberties (CL) had 34 points, with a total of 66 points, but in 2024, it had decreased to 21 points for PR and 32 points for CL, a total of 53 points.

On July 31, 2025, El Salvador's ruling party , Nueva Deas ( New Ideas ), passed a constitutional amendment in the National Assembly that would allow President Bukele to run for president without restrictions. There were concerns that Bukele could attempt a dictatorship based on his overwhelming popularity, but this is finally becoming a reality. #

It is a Christian country, with about 50% of the population being Catholic and the other half being Protestant. Catholic culture took root under the influence of the Spanish conquistadors, and each city has a large, old cathedral. Catholic holidays are also public holidays. Although all religions in the Third World are like this, Catholicism in this country, like Mexico, has many indigenous aspects due to the influence of indigenous culture.

However, when you actually visit, there are people who say, ‘I am a Catholic,’ but have not been to the cathedral for over 10 years.[22] As a member of the original faith, everyone is baptized and realizes that they are Catholic, but this concept is different from what we think of as going to church and attending mass every week. However, unlike in places like Europe , I think it is a very bad idea to become an atheist, even if you would rather change your church to Protestantism. Still, some studies show that about 20% of the population is non-religious.

In addition, Protestantism is increasing in El Salvador , centered on Anglicanism , Methodist Church , and Evangelicalism.[23]

Some natives of the jungle, such as the Huichol Indians of Mexico, reject Christianity and Spanish and still practice shamanism and speak only their own language. The El Salvadoran government is constantly trying to make them El Salvadorian. The problem is that there are many inhumane atrocities in this process. In fact, indigenous people are discriminated against in many places in Central and South America, but they reject Christianity and do not want to recognize those countries.

When Pope Francis canonized Archbishop Oscar Romero as a saint on October 14, 2018 (local time), there was a wave of celebration in El Salvador . #

The official language is Spanish . The Spanish spoken in El Salvador, like the Spanish in Central and South America, has some differences from mainland Spain. Additionally, some indigenous languages ​​are also used, especially among Native Americans . There are differences in the use of vos instead of tú and some word differences, but overall, considering accents, etc., it can be considered the easiest Spanish to understand in Central America.

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Although football is popular, the level of consciousness, such as sportsmanship and fairness of the referee, is serious enough to play soccer war . Naturally, El Salvador League is present, and the first league is Primera Division . For more information, see El Salvador Primera Division . See El Salvador's national team for national teams .

A famous player is Mágico Gonzales, who was active in the 70s, and there is no player well known to Korean soccer fans. Currently, most of the national team players are filled with players from their own leagues.[24]

2018 FIFA World Cup Russia between Sweden and South Korea on 18 June 2018 Group F The referee made an incomprehensible decision in the first game It is also the home country of Hoel Aguilar .

In addition to football, they play basketball , volleyball , and boxing , but they are not very popular and are just the same.

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