The republic of El Salvador is situated on the Pacific coast of Central America. Area: 21,041 sq km (8,124 sq mi). Pop. (1995 est.): 5,768,000. Cap.: San Salvador. Monetary unit: Salvadoran colón, with (Oct. 6, 1995) a free rate of ₡ 8.75 to U.S. $1 (₡13.83 = £1 sterling). President in 1995, Armando Calderón Sol.
On April 30, 1995, the United Nations Observer Mission in El Salvador ended its job of monitoring the 1992 peace accords between the government and the guerrillas. A small UN office was to remain until October 31 to verify the last parts of the accords to be implemented, principally the land-transference program and compensation for ex-combatants. A newly appointed human rights commissioner was to be primarily responsible for monitoring the human rights situation.
The National Civilian Police (PNC) proved unable to cope with the wave of crime sweeping El Salvador. Youth gangs, allegedly from inner-city Los Angeles, gained a foothold, and it was reported in the newspapers that there was a death every hour as a result of crime. The government sent 5,000 soldiers to support police patrols on highways and rural areas. Also emerging during the year were death squads whose targets were criminal rather than political, and there were attacks on the young gang members. By July there had been 17 killings attributed to the Black Shadow death squad and another 20 to other groups. A raid on 14 suspected members of the Black Shadow group revealed three of them to be members of the PNC. In San Salvador in June, authorities discovered an arsenal of sophisticated weapons that belonged to a criminal gang called Los Benedictos, notorious for assassinations, kidnappings, and car thefts. The group, whose leader was captured, was linked to arms trafficking and a network of organized crime in Central America.
In May the value-added tax was raised from 10% to 13% in a congressional pact between the ruling Nationalist Republican Alliance party and the Democratic Party, a newly created offshoot of the former guerrilla party, the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front. The tax increase was one of several elements in a program designed to pay for land transfers, electoral and judicial reforms, and the repair of infrastructure damaged during the civil war. The slow pace of implementation of the reintegration and compensation programs of the 1992 accords led to demonstrations by former combatants of both sides. In July a former guerrilla was killed in clashes between police and 600 protesters traveling to the capital. In August former combatants took to the streets and occupied public buildings to demand the fulfillment of the 1992 accords. The government claimed it was doing everything possible.
This updates the article El Salvador, history of.