Armando Calderón Sol

Who is Armando Calderón Sol?

Armando Calderón Sol was President of El Salvador from June 1, 1994 to June 1, 1999, representing the Nationalist Republican Alliance.

Armando Calderón Sol was born in San Salvador, on June 24, 1948.

Armando Calderón Sol attended the exclusive primary and secondary school Colegio Externado San José, graduating in 1966. In 1977, Calderón Sol received a graduate degree in Jurisprudence and Social Sciences from Universidad Nacional de El Salvador. He is a lawyer, a businessman, and one of the founders of ARENA.

During his term as Mayor in San Salvador from 1988 to 1994 he built the Monument to "Hermano Lejano" at the end of the Comalapa Highway and Blvd. Los Proceres and also built the bust monuments along the Proceres Boulevard. He promoted physical exercise and initiated a bicycle circuit in the San Jacinto neighborhood on Avenida Cuba.

Later when he ran for president in 1994 he won the presidential office during the second elections against the Leftist candidate Dr. Ruben Zamora from the CD-FMLN coalition. Calderón Sol is acknowledged in the press for restoring the status-quo after the civil war, which ended on January 16, 1992. He advocated the privatization of state-owned telephone companies and pension funds to try to stimulate the economy and modernize the country's infrastructure. He is also known for having promoted reforms to make El Salvador competitive in the maquila industry, removing trade barriers across the board, including removal of protection of local agriculture. This had the unintended consequence of disrupting small scale farming, drive migration to larger cities and create a cheaper labor supply for the maquilas. Calderón Sol is also credited with the integration of former guerrillas combatants back into civilian life. He is also known for having initiated the privatization of the telecommunications company Antel, as well as the electrical works CAESS, public hospitals and pension funds. He followed president Alfredo Cristiani's neoliberal approach, and his structural adjustment programs.