# Arturo Araujo

Arturo Araujo Fajardo (1878 – 1 December 1967) was a Salvadoran politician and engineer who served as the president of El Salvador from 1 March 1931 to 2 December 1931. He was overthrown in a military coup led by junior officers, and was forced to flee the country for Guatemala.

## Early life

Arturo Araujo was born in 1878 in Santa Tecla, El Salvador. His parents were Doctor Eugenio Araujo and Enriqueta Fajardo de Araujo.
Araujo studied in Liverpool and obtained a degree in engineering. Through his studies in the United Kingdom, he became an admirer of the British Labour Party and its policies.
Araujo was a wealthy landowner from Armenia, a municipality in the Sonsonate department. Due to his admiration of British Labour policies, developed a reputation for being generous to his workers, paying them twice the average wage and offering them housing and medical care. In 1918, artisans in Armenia bestowed upon him the title of "Benefactor of the Workers".

## Early political career
### 1919 election and 1920 invasion

Araujo founded the Salvadoran Laborist Party. He announced that he would seek election as president of El Salvador during the 1919 presidential election. Incumbent provisional president Alfonso Quiñónez Molina of the National Democratic Party did not want Araujo to win and rigged the election to ensure that his preferred candidate, Jorge Meléndez (his brother-in-law), would in the election. Government officials went to polling stations to instruct them to cast votes in favor of Meléndez first and Pío Romero Bosque (one of Quiñónez's allies) second. In the final results, Araujo came in third place with 1,022 votes; Romero came in second with 4,370 votes and subsequently became minister of war, while Meléndez came in first with 166,441 votes, becoming president.
After Araujo's defeat, he began plotting to overthrow Meléndez's government. In March 1920, the government discovered Araujo's plot and attempted to arrest him at this hacienda in Armenia. A shootout ensued between the National Guard and Araujo's supporters, and Araujo fled the country for Honduras. While in exile, he raised an army numbering between 300 and 1,000 men, and in May 1920, he launched an invasion into northern El Salvador. His army attacked two military outposts in Arcatao in the Chalatenango department, but the Salvadoran Army responded quickly and forces Araujo and his army to flee back to Honduras. He remained in exile until 1923 when Quiñónez, who had since become president, allowed Araujo to return to Armenia.

### 1931 presidential election

In 1927, Romero became president. Although he was expected to continue the National Democratic Party's political dynasty, he implemented political reforms in an attempt to turn El Salvador into a democracy with free and fair elections.
During the 1931 presidential election, Araujo came in first place with 46.65 percent of the vote (a total of 106,777 votes). Election observers believed that the election was free and fair. Enrique Córdova believed that Romero may have rigged the election in favor of Araujo, but he did accept that the election was "democratic, instructive, and realized in peace".

## Presidency

Araujo assumed office on 1 March 1931; Brigadier General Maximiliano Hernández Martínez was his vice president. He appointed the following cabinet ministers: Doctor Héctor David Castro as minister of foreign relations, justice, public instruction, and charity; Doctor Joaquín Novoa as minister of government, promotion, agriculture, labor, and sanitation; Doctor Francisco José Espinosa as minister of finance, public credit, industry, and commerce, and Martínez as minister of war, the navy, and aviation.
Alberto Masferrer had proposed a nine-point reform program of the country, based on which the president promised food, cloth, work and housing to every Salvadoran. However, government corruption and the Great Depression created disadvantage for the president.
Soon he was overthrown in a military coup, and with his overthrow began five decades of military rule in the country.

## Personal life

Araujo married twice. First, he married Dora Morton whom he met while studying in the United Kingdom; the couple had one daughter, Helen. Then, he married Rosa Amelia Guzmán; the couple had one son, Armando.

## Death

Araujo died on 1 December 1967 at the age of 88 at the Military Hospital of San Salvador.

## Electoral history

| Year | Office | Type | Party | Party | Main opponent | Party | Party | Votes for Araujo | Votes for Araujo | Votes for Araujo | Votes for Araujo | Result | Swing | Swing | Ref. |
| Year | Office | Type | Party | Party | Main opponent | Party | Party | Total | % | P. | ±% | Result | Swing | Swing | Ref. |
| 1919 | President of El Salvador | General | | Laborist | Jorge Meléndez | | PDN | 1,022 | 0.59 | 3rd | N/A | Lost | | Hold | |
| 1931 | President of El Salvador | General | | Laborist | Alberto Gómez Zárate | | Zaratista | 106,777 | 46.65 | 1st | +46.06 | Won | | Gain | |