The Nationalist Republican Alliance (, abbreviated ARENA) is a conservative,

The party arose in response to "the insurgency of the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front, FMLN, a group that united peasant farmers, unionists and intellectuals, which tried, through arms, to overthrow the dictatorship and to install a state regime inspired by the governments of revolutionary Cuba and Sandinista Nicaragua".

The ideology the party claims to believe in is a system of democratic and representative government, emphasizing individual rights, the family as the nucleus of society and the respect for private property.

In February 2007, three ARENA politicians were murdered in Guatemala, including Eduardo D'Aubuisson, the son of party founder Roberto D'Aubuisson, in what was considered by the police as a crime related to drugs.

In 2009, ARENA took out a full-page ad in a Salvadoran newspaper calling on President Mauricio Funes to recognise the interim Honduran government of Roberto Micheletti installed after the military had expelled President Manuel Zelaya.

On 21 July 2022, Gustavo López Davidson, the leader of ARENA from August 2019 to February 2020, committed suicide amidst an ongoing investigation against him for embezzlement and arms trafficking.

From 2021 to 2024, the party was the second largest in the Legislative Assembly. Following the election of Nuevas Ideas' Nayib Bukele, the party has lost members of its party delegation to the ruling party.

Structure

The National Executive Council (, abbreviated COENA) is the leadership board of ARENA. Carlos García Saade has been the president of COENA since 27 February 2023.

In addition to the COENA, there are 14 Directors-in-Chief, one for each department and departmental councils called "Juntas Directivas Conjuntas" to coordinate political work in their respective department. In each department, a director is chosen who works with a specific member of COENA. The director's role is to organize and co-ordinate electoral campaigns and help the councils form party structures in the municipalities of their departments.

ARENA's party headquarters is located at 2429 Arce Street & North 45-47 Avenue in San Salvador. As of 2024, ARENA had 116,000 members.

ARENA also lost both 2019 presidential election and 2021 legislative election dominated by Nuevas Ideas, the party of current president Nayib Bukele. In 2024 election, ARENA got only two seats in the Legislative Assembly, while Bukele's Nuevas Ideas got supermajority.

Electoral history

Presidential elections

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"

|-

! rowspan="2" | Election

! rowspan="2" | Candidate

! colspan="3" scope="col" | First round

! colspan="3" | Second round

! rowspan="2" | Result

! rowspan="2" |

|-

! Votes

! %

!

! Votes

! %

!

|-

! 1982

|

| 17

|

| 2nd

| colspan="3"

| rowspan="2" | Lost

|

|-

! 1984

|

| 376,917

|

| 2nd

| 651,741

|

| 2nd

|

|-

! 1989

|

| 505,370

|

| 1st

| colspan="3"

| rowspan="4" | Elected

|

|-

! 1994

|

| 641,108

|

| 1st

| 818,264

|

| 1st

|

|-

! 1999

|

| 614,268

|

| 1st

| colspan="3"

|

|-

! 2004

|

| 1,314,436

|

| 1st

| colspan="3"

|

|-

! 2009

|

| 1,284,588

|

| 2nd

| colspan="3"

| rowspan="4" | Lost

|

|-

! 2014

|

| 1,047,592

|

| 2nd

| 1,489,451

|

| 2nd

|

|-

! 2019

|

| 857,084

|

| 2nd

| colspan="3"

|

|-

! 2027

| colspan="4" | To be determined

| colspan="3"

|

|

|}

Legislative Assembly elections

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"

|-

! Election

! scope="col" | Votes

! scope="col" | %

! Position

! scope="col" | Seats

! +/–

! Status in legislature

!

|-

! 1982

| 430,205

| 29.28%

| rowspan="2" | 2nd

|

| 19

|

|

|-

! 1985

| 286,665

| 29.70%

|

| 6

|

|

|-

! 1988

| 447,696

| 48.10%

| rowspan="5" | 1st

|

| 18

|

|

|-

! 1991

| 466,091

| 44.33%

|

| 8

|

|

|-

! 1994

| 605,775

| 45.03%

|

| 0

|

|

|-

! 1997

| 396,301

| 35.40%

|

| 11

|

|

|-

! 2000

| 436,169

| 36.04%

|

| 1

|

|

|-

! 2003

| 446,233

| 31.90%

| rowspan="4" | 2nd

|

| 1

|

|

|-

! 2006

| 620,117

| 39.40%

|

| 7

|

|

|-

! 2009

| 854,166

| 38.55%

|

| 2

|

|

|-

! 2012

| 620,117

| 39.40%

|

| 2

|

|

|-

! 2015

| 885,374

| 38.90%

| rowspan="2" | 1st

|

| 2

|

|

|-

! 2018

| 886,365

| 41.72%

|

| 5

|

|

|-

! 2021

| 305,108

| 12.22%

| 2nd

|

| 23

|

|

|-

! 2024

| 227,357

| 7.29

| 2nd

|

| 12

|

|

|-

! 2027

| colspan="6" | To be determined

|

|}

See also

  • List of political parties in El Salvador
  • Politics of El Salvador

Notes

References

Citations

Bibliography

  • Official website
  • Youth wing website