José Napoleon Duarte

José Napoleon Duarte (born November 23, 1925, San Salvador, El Salvador—died February 23, 1990, San Salvador) was the president of El Salvador (1984–89) who unsuccessfully tried to reduce poverty and halt the prolonged civil war in his country.

Duarte studied civil engineering at the University of Notre Dame in the United States (B.S., 1948). In 1960 he was a founder of the centrist Christian Democratic Party (Partido Demócrata Cristiano; PDC), which opposed the ruling National Conciliation Party (Partido de Conciliación Nacional; PCN). While he was mayor of San Salvador (1964–70), his administration was instrumental in building new schools and providing such basic services as street lighting, sewerage systems, and trash collection. He ran for president in 1972; when his election seemed likely, the incumbent military administration halted the election and declared Col. Arturo Molina the winner. Following a radio broadcast supporting a coup, Duarte was arrested by the army, beaten, and sent into exile in Venezuela for more than seven years.

Duarte returned in 1980, amid civil war, and became provisional president of a military-civilian junta. He could not halt the brutal repression by the army and police during his tenure, and his party lost control of the constituent assembly to the rightist Nationalist Republican Alliance (Alianza Republicana Nacionalista; ARENA). Duarte was ousted in 1982.

Elected president in 1984 with the support of the constituent assembly, under pressure from the military and the United States, Duarte attempted to stabilize the economy and end the war, helped by massive aid from the United States. But he failed in his attempts to distribute major landholdings to the peasants and to end death-squad activity; his negotiations with the rebels were also failures. The pressure from leftist and rightist groups and from rebel guerillas obstructed Duarte’s attempts at any kind of political, economic, or social reform. Duarte served as president until 1989, when he was succeeded by Alfredo Cristiani of ARENA. In February 1990 Duarte died from stomach cancer.