Álvaro Magaña

Álvaro Alfredo Magaña Borja (October 8, 1925, Ahuachapán, El Salvador – July 10, 2001) was the President of El Salvador from 1982 to 1984, and member of the Nationalist Republican Alliance (ARENA).

Biography

He received his Masters degree from the University of Chicago in 1995. He was a bank president before the election of 1982. He was sworn in by Roberto D'Aubuisson after the U.S. refused to honor his election due to his alleged connections with the death squads. Magaña was elected by the Assembly of the Republic, for not even the Vice-Presidential candidate was allowed to take office. His inauguration as President on May 2, 1982, marked the beginning of elected government in El Salvador after the junta of 1979-1980. In 1982, the Salvadoran political parties decided that it was time to move on from the rule of the Junta Revolucionaria de Gobierno, or JRG, and decided to install Dr. Álvaro Magaña as head of state. Soon after, both political parties met at Magaña's farm in Apaneca and decided that under Magaña's provisional government, both parties would share in the ministerial posts. José Napoleón Duarte willingly relinquished his power as head of state and head of the Junta to Magana, briefly, and instead focused on building up his own Christian Democrat Party with the help of the United States and planned to take back power in the 1984 elections.

References

Political offices
Preceded by Revolutionary Government Junta	Presidents of El Salvador 1982–1984	Succeeded by José Napoleón Duarte