Alfredo Cristiani
Encyclopedia
El Salvador
El Salvador or simply Salvador is the smallest and the most densely populated country in Central America. The country's capital city and largest city is San Salvador; Santa Ana and San Miguel are also important cultural and commercial centers in the country and in all of Central America...
from 1989 to 1994.
Born into a wealthy family in San Salvador
San Salvador
The city of San Salvador the capital and largest city of El Salvador, which has been designated a Gamma World City. Its complete name is La Ciudad de Gran San Salvador...
, he was educated at the 'Escuela Americana' (American School) in San Salvador and Georgetown University
Georgetown University
Georgetown University is a private, Jesuit, research university whose main campus is in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Founded in 1789, it is the oldest Catholic university in the United States...
in Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
, where he graduated with a degree in Business Administration. He returned to El Salvador to work for the family business, which included pharmaceuticals, coffee, cotton and until July 2008 the Semillas Cristiani Burkard (SCB) the Central American Monsanto Company representative, leading corn seed company focused on hybrid corn production.
He remained generally outside politics until the beginning of the 1980s when the armed conflict in El Salvador reached a critical point. As insurrection became more widespread, he became involved with the Liberal Nationalist Republican Alliance
Nationalist Republican Alliance
The Nationalist Republican Alliance is a conservative political party in El Salvador. It was founded on September 30, 1981, by Roberto D'Aubuisson, in order to oppose the reformist military junta that was ruling El Salvador at the time...
(ARENA), which had been founded by School of the Americas trained military intelligence officer Roberto D'Aubuisson
Roberto D'Aubuisson
Major Roberto D'Aubuisson Arrieta was the Salvadoran Army officer and political leader who founded the Nationalist Republican Alliance , which he led from 1980 to 1985...
. In March 1985 D'Aubuisson resigned after ARENA suffered a defeat in the presidential elections. Cristiani became leader of the party in 1988.
In the local and congressional elections of March 1988
Salvadoran legislative election, 1988
Legislative elections were held in El Salvador on 20 March 1988. The result was a victory for the Nationalist Republican Alliance, which won 31 of the 60 seats. Voter turnout was 59%.-Results:-Bibliography:...
, ARENA won 80% of the local votes and 31 of the 60 seats in the Congress; Cristiani won one of the seats. In the 1989 presidential election
Salvadoran presidential election, 1989
Presidential elections were held in El Salvador on 19 March 1989. The result was a victory for Alfredo Cristiani of the ARENA party, who secured a majority in the first round. The election marked the first time in Salvadoran history that power was transferred from one democratically elected...
, Cristiani was elected President with 53.8% of the vote.
After becoming President of El Salvador, he, with members of his cabinet, and other colleagues visited Europe and London. He was the principal guest at a dinner held in his honour by the Western Goals Institute
Western Goals Institute
The Western Goals Institute was a conservative pressure group in Britain, re-formed in 1989 from Western Goals UK, which originated in 1985 as an offshoot of the U.S. Western Goals Foundation...
at Simpsons-in-the-Strand, London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, on September 25, 1989. The guest list included figures such as Sir Alfred Sherman
Alfred Sherman
Sir Alfred Sherman, KBE, was a writer, journalist, and political analyst. Described by a long-time associate as "a brilliant polymath, a consummate homo politicus, and one of the last true witnesses to the 20th century", he began life as a Communist soldier in the Spanish Civil War but later...
(policy advisor to Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher, was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990...
), Professor Antony Flew
Antony Flew
Antony Garrard Newton Flew was a British philosopher. Belonging to the analytic and evidentialist schools of thought, he was notable for his works on the philosophy of religion....
, Zigmunt Szkopiak
Zigmunt Szkopiak
Dr. Zygmunt Szkopiak was a Polish scientist, diplomat and historian who from 1986 until its dissolution in 1990, served as the last Minister of Foreign Affairs in the London-based Polish government-in-exile....
, Denis Walker
Denis Walker
Wilfrid Denis Walker is a former Rhodesian cabinet minister resident in the United Kingdom. He is known for his monarchist activities and anti-communism and is also the Company Secretary, Director and Treasurer of the International Monarchist League and its UK subsidiary, the Constitutional...
and Dr Harvey Ward
Harvey Ward
Harvey Grenville Ward was Director-General of the Rhodesian Broadcasting Corporation, noted for his anti-communism and for his support for Ian Smith's government in Rhodesia and South Africa. He was a leading member of the Conservative Monday Club.-Background:Ward was born in Southern Rhodesia to...
, all of whom were active anti-communists.. This visit, along with others that included Spain, Italy, United States, Mexico, Venezuela, Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, and all Central American countries, was part of a diplomatic effort carried out by Cristiani and his delegates in order to find and secure international support for the peace negotiation efforts that were being carried out by his government. Support was actively and officially sanctioned by Venezuela, Mexico, and Spain, who would play an active role, along with the United Nations, in the negotiating process.
1989 was the beginning of a 20-year period of ARENA presidencies, and also marked only the second time in El Salvador's history that the ruling party peacefully surrendered power to the opposition. He was successful in the peace negotiations with the FMLN. The Salvadoran Civil War finally ended on January 16, 1992 with the Chapultepec Peace Accords
Chapultepec Peace Accords
The Chapultepec Peace Accords brought peace to El Salvador in 1992 after more than a decade of wrenching civil war.The treaty was negotiated by representatives of the Salvadoran government, the rebel movement FMLN, and political parties, with observers from the Roman Catholic Church and United...
. President Cristiani, during the signing ceremony of the 1992 peace accords walked to the ex-commanders of the FMLN and shook their hands as a spontaneous and non-expected gesture of reconciliation. He also walked to his wife and kissed her, sharing his happiness to the Salvadorean families.
He is also known for having started structural adjustment programs, following a strong neoliberal approach. He initiated the privatization of Salvadoran banks. His wife's family bought a considerable amount of stock of one of El Salvador's largest banks, Banco Cuscatlán, which was later bought by Citi Bank. He also is responsible for the privatization of Hotel Presidente. His government also supported a unilateral reduction of Salvadoran trade barriers, the introduction of the Value Added Tax
Value added tax
A value added tax or value-added tax is a form of consumption tax. From the perspective of the buyer, it is a tax on the purchase price. From that of the seller, it is a tax only on the "value added" to a product, material or service, from an accounting point of view, by this stage of its...
, and the elimination of other direct taxes. Despite the fact that the tax revenues were reduced, government expenditures remained high.
During his term as president, his Minister of the Presidency, the 73 year-old Dr. Jose Antonio Rodriguez Porth, was assassinated. This brought disapproval by the international community against Human Rights. His murder has been attributed to an urban commando of the FMLN.
He retired from politics in 1994 when his presidential term ended, and returned as president of the ARENA party in 2009 after the first presidential defeat of ARENA in twenty years. He is currently leading an institutional reform process of this political party.
He married Margarita Llach in 1970, and has three children and nine grandchildren.
Accusations
In 2008, two human rights organizations, The Center for Justice and Accountability and The Spanish Association for Human Rights, filed lawsuit in a Spanish court, against the former Salvadoran president Alfredo CristianiAlfredo Cristiani
Alfredo Félix Cristiani Burkard, popularly known as Alfredo Cristiani was President of El Salvador from 1989 to 1994....
and 14 members of the Salvadoran Military, for the direct responsibility of the massacre of the murdered scholars of UCA. Judge Eloy Velasco
Eloy Velasco
Eloy Velasco is a Spanish High Court Judge, known for being responsible to determine whether or not six former Bush officials should face criminal charges in Spain...
admitted this lawsuit in 2009, on the basis of the principle of universal justice.
According to former rector José María Tojeria, the jesuits and Universidad Centroamericana "José Simeón Cañas", had nothing to do with this lawsuit .
During the course of this judicial process, recognized Salvadoran personalities travelled to Spain to intercede for president Cristiani, and remove him from the list of the accused. One of the members of these delegations was Salvador Samayoa, former member of FPL
Fuerzas Populares de Liberación Farabundo Martí
.The Fuerzas Populares de Liberación "Farabundo Martí" was a left wing guerrilla military and political organization in El Salvador...
(the Marxist-Leninist Popular Liberation Front) and FMLNs high command. Another one of the members of the delegation was the Salvadoran politician Oscar Santamaría. Both of these personalities were part of the negotiating commissions of the FMLN and the Salvadoran government, which put an end to the Salvadoran Civil War. According to a cable from the US Embassy in El Salvador, both politicians were worried about the implications that this case could have in El Salvador. However, their efforts focused on president Cristiani's situationand . Salvador Samayoa was once Ignacio Ellacuría
Ignacio Ellacuría
Ignacio Ellacuría, S.J. was a Jesuit priest, philosopher, and theologian who did important work as a professor and rector at the Universidad Centroamericana "José Simeón Cañas" , a Jesuit university in El Salvador founded in 1965...
's assistant and close collaborator. Ellacuría was one of the slain scholars during this massacre, in which president Cristiani was implicated. Ellacuria was allegedly also the main target of the operation. Despite these efforts, an unknown witness in the case confessed about his participation in this massacre, implicating the High Command of the Salvadoran Military, as well as former president Alfredo Cristiani
Alfredo Cristiani
Alfredo Félix Cristiani Burkard, popularly known as Alfredo Cristiani was President of El Salvador from 1989 to 1994....
. Judge Velasco's resolution on the demand, initially included investigations on the 14 implicated members of the Salvadoran Military, excluding the former Salvadoran president, but including the Military High Command, represented by General (Colonel, at that time) René Emilio Ponce (who then was chief of defence of El Salvador). However, this new testimony opened up for the indictment of former president Cristiani as well . Some of the most compelling evidence that has been available for journalists, consists of notes taken by hand, during a meeting of the Salvadoran Military's High Command. The massacre was allegedly planned during this meeting, and both the military's High Command and the country's Executive, were probably aware, if not directly involved, in these planning meetings. Declassified documents by the CIA have recently shed new light on this case. These documents indicate that the CIA had for many years had knowledge of the Salvadoran government's plans to murder the jesuits. The court found 20 members of the Salvadoran military guilty on the counts of murder, terrorism and crimes against humanity. Together, these 20 Salvadorans could serve up to 270 years in a Spanish prison. However, the court did not have enough evidence to convict president Cristiani for encovering the crime. The court established that the military executed the jesuits, because they were strong advocates of a peaceful solution to the civil war. Ignacio Ellacuria was considered an obstacle to military victory over FMLN, because of his strong influence in favor of peace negotiations.