Armando Calderón Sol (24 June 1948 – 9 October 2017) was a Salvadoran politician, lawyer, and businessman who served as the 38th President of El Salvador from 1994 to 1999 as a member of the Nationalist Republican Alliance. He also served as Mayor of San Salvador, the country's capital city, from 1988 to 1994. He was El Salvador's first president elected after the end of the Salvadoran Civil War (1979–1992).
Calderón Sol studied at the University of El Salvador and became a lawyer. He became politically active in 1979 as a member of the (MNS) with which he allegedly had links to far-right death squads. In 1981, he was a founding member of the Nationalist Republican Alliance (ARENA) and served on its National Executive Council (COENA). He served as a deputy of the Legislative Assembly from 1985 to 1988. From 1988 to 1994, Calderón Sol was both the mayor of San Salvador and the leader of ARENA.
Calderón Sol won the 1994 presidential election in the second round with over 68% of the vote. During his presidency, he focused on privatizing government owned industry, criminal justice reform, and leading El Salvador in its post-civil war transition period. His government received criticism for a controversial increase of the value-added tax in 1995 and for facing violence from civil war veterans dissatisfied with the terms of the Chapultepec Peace Accords, which Calderón Sol helped negotiate as mayor of San Salvador. He remained active in politics after he left the presidency. Calderón Sol died in Houston, Texas, United States in 2017 to lung cancer and he was buried in San Salvador.
Early life and education
Armando Calderón Sol was born on 24 June 1948 in San Salvador, El Salvador. Calderón Sol attended the Externado San José school in San Salvador for his primary and secondary education. He graduated as a Bachelor of Arts and Science. He later attended the University of El Salvador where he completed his Doctorate of Jurisprudence and Social Sciences in 1977. After Calderón Sol's graduation, he operated his own legal practice and ran businesses.
Early political career
Calderón Sol became active in Salvadoran politics in 1979 shortly after the overthrow of General Carlos Humberto Romero, the president of El Salvador. That year, he was recruited as a member of the (MNS) by Alfredo Mena Lagos, one its founders. The MNS opposed the reformist Revolutionary Government Junta (JRG) established after the 1979 coup.
The MNS had connections with far-right death squads, and Calderón Sol allegedly had links to some groups. According to Lieutenant Isidro López Sibrián, a death squad member, Calderón Sol was involved in bombings committed against Ministry of Agriculture facilities to protest agrarian reforms implemented by the JRG. According to William G. Walker, the United States ambassador to El Salvador from 1988 to 1992, Major Roberto D'Aubuisson plotted the kidnapping of the president of the Salvadoran Football Federation in Calderón Sol's home in 1981 but that there was no evidence that Calderón Sol himself was involved.
Calderón Sol won the first round with 651,632 votes (49.11%) and faced Rubén Zamora of the FMLN–Democratic Convergence coalition in the second round. There, Calderón Sol defeated Zamora with 818,264 votes (68.35%). Calderón Sol was the first Salvadoran president elected after the end of the civil war. He stepped down as ARENA's president after his election as President of El Salvador. Calderón Sol became President of El Salvador on 1 June 1994 succeeding Cristiani. Enrique Borgo Bustamante was Calderón Sol's vice president. El Salvador's telecommunications and electricity companies were privatized in 1996 and 1997, respectively, Despite this promise, spending only ever reached around 25% of the budget each year. During the visit, Calderón Sol asked Clinton to delay the deportation of Salvadorans back to El Salvador and to grant amnesty to those in the United States illegally. The following day, Calderón Sol attended a summit in Antigua Guatemala, Guatemala with Clinton, Guatemalan president Álvaro Arzú, Honduran president Carlos Roberto Flores, Costa Rican president Miguel Ángel Rodríguez, Dominican president Leonel Fernández, and Belizean prime minister Said Musa.
Post-presidency
thumb|right|upright=1.0|alt=A photograph of Armando Calderón Sol and former ARENA presidents and first ladies|Calderón Sol (third from left) with former ARENA presidents [[Alfredo Cristiani, Antonio Saca and Francisco Flores in 2009]]
At the end of Calderón Sol's presidency in 1999, an opinion poll conducted by UCA's Institute of Public Opinion (IUDOP) found that he had a final approval rating of 58.9%, the highest of his presidency. for atrocities committed by the Salvadoran government during the civil war such as the El Mozote massacre. Calderón Sol remarked that "the State should never apologize" (""). for a year. That month, he was admitted to an intensive care unit at a hospital in Houston, Texas, United States. He died there on 9 October 2017 at 12:30 a.m. CDT.
The day after Calderón Sol's death, the Legislative Assembly declared three days of national mourning at ARENA's request. The National Party-led Honduran government also declared three days of national mourning the day prior as the party described Calderón Sol as "always demonstrating himself as a friend of Honduras" ("").
Awards and honors
During Calderón Sol's presidency, he was awarded the Order of General José Dolores Estrada, Battle of San Jacinto by Nicaragua, the grand cross of the Order of the Sun of Peru by Peru, the collar of the Order of Isabella the Catholic by Spain, and the grand cordon of the Order of Brilliant Jade by Taiwan. He also received an honorary doctorate from Sōka University in Japan and the George F. Hixson Award from Kiwanis Club International in the United States.