El Salvador Travel Guide

On the back of the profits from the coffee boom, the first decades of the twentieth century were a period of relative economic stability and development for El Salvador. Transport links, including railways, and a communications system were put into place, education expanded and a functioning civil judicial system established. It was, however, also a period of deepening social polarization . The elite dominated business and the state machine, working alongside a small, mainly urban, middle class. The vast majority, however, lived in the most basic of conditions, marginalized both in the countryside and, increasingly, in the urban centres. Despite regular elections, democracy existed in name only, with the bulk of the population denied access to both the political process and the coffee profits. Despair and anger at conditions was reflected in growing civil and criminal violence , in turn dealt with by increasing repression - of which the Guardia Nacional (National Guard), formed in 1912, soon became a highly feared instrument.

The surprise election of Liberal president Pío Romero Bosque in 1927 was, for the majority, a sign that things could change for the better. Vowing to make El Salvador a truly democratic society, Romero took steps to restrain the worst excesses of the police and Guardia Nacional and - to the alarm of the oligarchy -ensure that civil rights were observed for all. Romero's successor Arturo Arujo, winning what was possibly the first truly democratic election in 1931, also vowed to continue on the same course.