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Spanish adventurer Pedro de Alvarado conquers El Salvador.
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El Salvador gains independence from Spain. Conflict ensues over territory's incorporation into Mexican empire under Creole general Agustin de Iturbide.
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El Salvador becomes fully independent following the dissolution of the United Provinces of Central America.
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Some 30,000 people are killed during the suppression of a peasant uprising led by Agustine Farabundo Marti.
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Right-wing National Conciliation Party (PCN) comes to power after a military coup.
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FMLN attacks intensify; another Arena candidate, Alfredo Cristiani, voted the president in elections widely believed to have been rigged.
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Government declares amnesty for those implicated by UN-sponsored commission in human rights atrocities.
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El Salvador - along with Honduras, Nicaragua, Guatemala - agrees on a free-trade agreement with the US. The government ratifies the pact in December 2004.
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Three members of the governing Arena party are murdered in Guatemala. There are suspicions that an organized crime syndicate is behind the killings.
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The US boosts aid and speeds up deportations to cope with the growing number of migrants from Central America. El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala are to receive millions of dollars to combat gang violence and help citizens repatriated from the US.
