Nationalist Republican Alliance

The Nationalist Republican Alliance (ARENA) is a Salvadoran political party, located on the right-wing political spectrum. It was founded in 1981 by the Salvadoran soldier Roberto d'Aubuisson Arrieta, with the aim of participating in the elections to the Constituent Assembly of 1982.

Defined according to its statutes as a political institution made up of «Salvadorans who defend the democratic, republican and representative system of government; the social market economy system and nationalism", according to his estimates it has approximately 200,000 militants, including 92,000 affiliates with the right to participate in internal party decision-making.

It was the main political opposition party in El Salvador since its defeat in the 2009 presidential elections and one of the main political leaders of the Salvadoran right. Since the promulgation of the 1983 Constitution, it has been the political party that has governed the country for the longest time, with four consecutive presidential terms between 1989 and 2009, as well as the main party in the Legislative Assembly in seven of the eleven legislatures installed since 1985. It is part of of the Democratic Alliance in the Central American Parliament (PARLACEN), as well as a member of the International Democratic Union (IDU) and its regional Union of Latin American Parties (UPLA), and of the originally anti-communist World League for Freedom and Democracy (WLFD).

It was found prominent at the national level with offices in each departmental capital and in the vast majority of the country's municipalities, and organized into eight sectors for "human promotion and political, economic, and social development," its sectors being most noteworthy women, the Nationalist Republican Youth and the sector of Salvadorans abroad —mainly based in cities in the United States.

The main governing body is the General Assembly, which represents all affiliates through the participation in it of delegates from the party structures and popularly elected officials belonging to the party, as well as the National Executive Council (COENA). which, as the governing body, is elected by the affiliates for a period of three years. In 2016, elections were held for COENA in which Mauricio Interiano was elected president with about 46.5% of the votes along with his electoral list and in which the head of the party's faction in the Legislative Assembly stands out —the deputy Alberto Romero — as director of Legislative Affairs, and the president of the Municipal Corporation of the Republic of El Salvador and mayoress of Antiguo Cuscatlán —Milagro Navas— as director of Municipal Affairs.

History

Tomb of Roberto d’Aubuisson Arrieta, the eldest of the Salvadoran army, founder of the right-wing Republican Alliance (ARENA) and one of the most controversial characters in national history at the end of the 20th century.

After the 1979 coup d'état, right-wing organizations began to distance themselves from the Armed Forces, some of them coming together in the Salvadoran Nationalist Movement and to which elements of the Movement for Peace and Work and the Women's Front would later join, as well as other farmer organizations in the eastern region of the country to form the Broad National Front (FAN), the germ of the current political party. In 1980, the Armed Forces arrested several FAN leaders, including Roberto d'Aubuisson, after the assassination of the Archbishop of San Salvador —Óscar Arnulfo Romero— and who would later decide to go into exile in Guatemala.

In Guatemala, during 1981, d'Aubuisson along with other exiles began to shape the structures and guidelines that would lead to the creation of the political party, including those known as "13 principles", and which would finally be presented before a small audience in Guatemala City on May 2, 1981. Finally, as stated in the party's statutes, the founding of the Alianza Republicana Nacionalista occurred on September 30 of the same year.

On December 4, 1981, ARENA registered as a party in the Central Election Council and prepared for the Constituent Assembly elections. Roberto d'Aubuisson, Ricardo Ávila, Ricardo Valdivieso and Emilio Redaelli denounced what they considered a communist information attack in February 1982. Two months before the elections on February 26, 1982, the ARENA staff suffered an attack on their home, from which few emerge unscathed. The same d'Aubuisson was the object of an attack on Saturday, February 27 of that same year.

d’Aubuisson had already been campaigning for several months. The ARENA march sounded on the radios and blue, white and red flooded the streets. Also in the running were the PDC, the heirs to power after the 1979 coup, and various right-wing parties.

The party arose as a response to the insurgency of the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN), which sought, through arms, to overthrow the government and install a state regime inspired by the governments of revolutionary Cuba and of Sandinista Nicaragua.

Because of its strong anti-communist line, the party had the support of some members of the Republican Party of the United States, such as former Senator Jesse Helms, who supported D'Aubuisson in the process of developing the party. After the 1984 presidential elections, which ARENA lost to the PDC candidate, under criticism for his extremism, d'Aubuisson stepped aside and decided to choose the hitherto little-known coffee grower Alfredo Cristiani as his candidate. In its ideology, the party claims to believe in a democratic and representative system of government, emphasizing individual rights, the family as the nucleus of society, and respect for private property.

Three years before the 1989 presidential election, d'Aubuisson began to think about who would be the next presidential candidate. Four names were written in blue marker on a white board hung inside the messy room where COENA met, in the old party premises, on El Progreso street. In order they were: Manuel Pacas, Mauricio Gutiérrez Castro, Armando Calderón Sol and Alfredo Cristiani. Little by little he crossed out with an X until Cristiani's was left. "He is a good candidate, the only thing that worries me is that he is very educated and I don't know if he will be able to put my colleagues in the Armed Forces to rest," he commented. “Ultimately they are going to have to accept it,” he said. And he made sure that it was. Over the next few weekends he toured the country. "This is the candidate," he said. "d'Aubuisson, d'Aubuisson," the people shouted. That I tell them that this is the candidate; he is more educated, he knows how to speak English and I don't even have a visa,” he said one hot afternoon in Cojutepeque.

(from left to right): former president of El Salvador Alfredo Cristiani, then president Antonio Saca, former president Armando Calderón Sol, former first lady Elizabeth Aguirre de Calderón, former president Francisco Flores and former first lady Lourdes Rodriguez de Flores.

In elections, the party won the Presidency of the Republic with Alfredo Cristiani (1989-1994), Armando Calderón Sol (1994-1999), Francisco Flores (1999-2004) and Elías Antonio Saca. It should be noted that the party also won the Presidency of the Legislative Assembly with Gloria Salguero Gross (1994-1997). ARENA held the presidential post in every election since the end of the Salvadoran civil war until 2009. In the 2004 presidential election, Elías Antonio Saca was victorious defeating FMLN candidate Schafik Handal with 58% of the vote, compared to 36% of its rival, and the participation was 70%. In political participation (March 12, 2006) ARENA became the first political force with 147 mayors' offices (more than 50% of the national territory) and second in the Salvadoran parliament with 34 deputies (30% more than the municipal and deputies of the year 2003). In the 2009 elections, Norman Quijano's victory in the mayor's office of San Salvador can be highlighted. However, on March 15, ARENA lost the presidential elections with its representative Rodrigo Ávila and his running mate Arturo Zablah, before a victory for Mauricio Funes, with a difference of 70,000 votes. On March 13, 2014, Salvador Sánchez Cerén was announced the winner with 50.11% in a tight second round against Norman Quijano by a minimal but overwhelming number of 6,364 votes.

Given the conservative government policy, El Salvador maintains good relations with like-minded governments such as the United States. One of his "greatest achievements" in 2006 was an extension of the temporary work permit program (TPS), as well as the approval of the Free Trade Agreement between the United States, Central America and the Dominican Republic, being This is a step to concretize the project of the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas (FTAA). The detractors of the ARENA party question the total fidelity of the party to the liberal economic model.

On February 19, 2007, the Salvadoran deputies to the Central American Parliament, Eduardo d'Aubuisson, William Pichinte and José Ramón González, all members of the ARENA party, and their driver, Gerardo Ramírez, were kidnapped and later murdered in Guatemala.. Which according to Guatemalan authorities was given for being involved in drug trafficking.

On March 15, 2008, the party elected its candidate for the 2009 presidential elections, in which ARENA unsuccessfully tried to achieve its fifth consecutive victory. After a first process of primary elections, it was Rodrigo Ávila, director until a few weeks ago before his nomination of the National Civil Police. In the speech given by Ávila minutes after his confirmation as a candidate, he presented himself as the person who would "renew" the Salvadoran right. He also defined himself as an admirer of the party's founder, Roberto d'Aubuisson.

In October 2009, and after a restructuring of the National Executive Council (COENA), twelve deputies from the parliamentary group announced their resignation and declared themselves independent of the party leadership. After this departure, in the following months other deputies, mayors and deputies of the Central American parliament resigned. This group of politicians decides to unite under the banner of a new political movement called the Grand Alliance for National Unity (GANA) which was later established as a political party.

Before the departure of the group of deputies and due to investigations into the party's internal structures, in December 2009 COENA decided to expel former president Elías Antonio Saca, on charges of violating the party's principles and intervening in the process of internal election of the presidential candidate in the last election.

After the expulsion and other resignations in parliament, by April 2010 ARENA was left with a balance of eighteen deputies in the Legislative Assembly, out of thirty-two that it originally won in March 2009.

In 2015 ARENA once again confirmed itself as the leading political force by winning 35 deputies and 132 mayors with a renewed process and with internal secret voting by face.

On February 3, 2019, despite running for the elections in alliance with other minority parties, they suffered their worst fall when they lost to the current president Nayib Bukele.

ARENA is made up of 8 sectors: Agriculture, Farming, Business, Women, Youth, Worker, Professional, and Brother Abroad known as the eighth sector.

Election results

Presidential Elections

Election	Candidates	First round		Second round		Outcome	Note
		Votes	%	Votes	%
1984	Roberto D'Aubuisson	376.917	31.65 %	651.741	46.41 %	No. electorate
1989	Alfredo Cristiani	505.370	53.82 %			Yes. electorate
1994	Armando Calderón Sol	641.108	48,32 %	818.264	68.35 %	Yes. electorate
1999	Francisco Flores	614.268	51.96 %			Yes. electorate
2004	Elías Antonio Saca	1.314.436	57.71 %			Yes. electorate
2009	Rodrigo Ávila	1.284.588	48.68 %			No. electorate
2014	Norman Quijano	1.047.592	38.95 %	1.489.451	49.89 %	No. electorate
2019	Carlos Calleja	857.084	31.72 %			No. electorate

Parliamentary Elections

Year	Votes	%	Deputies		Legislature
			Scalls	+/-
1982	430.205	29.3 %	19/60	-	Opposition
1985	286.665	29.7 %	13/60	6	Opposition
1988	447.696	48.1 %	31/60	18	Opposition
1991	466.091	44.3 %	39/84	8	Government
1994	605.775	45,03 %	39/84	0	Government
1997	396.301	35.4 %	28/84	11	Government
2000	436.169	36.0 %	29/84	1	Government
2003	446.233	31.9 %	27/84	2	Government
2006	620.117	39.4 %	34/84	7	Government
2009	854.166	38.55 %	32/84	2	Opposition
2012	870.418	36.76 %	33/84	1	Opposition
2015	885.374	38.9 %	32/84	1	Opposition
2018	886.365	41.72 %	37/84	5	Opposition
2021	318.703	12.18 %	14/84	23	Opposition

Municipal Councils

	Votes	%	Municipal Councils
			Mayors	+/-
2009	867.273	39.04 %	122/262	-
2012	896.892	38.8 %	116/262	6
2015	944.859	39.93 %	129/262	13
2018	962.807	41.80 %	139/262	10
2021	502.274	18.99 %	35/262	104