He served five consecutive terms in the Legislative Assembly as part of ARENA’s fraction before being elected Mayor of San Salvador in 2009 and reelected in March of this year. While city beautification projects sponsored by private businesses have earned him a solid base of support from the capital’s middle and upper class, his municipal administration has also been characterized by violent evictions of street vendors, massive firings of municipal employees, and a refusal to cooperate with the central government even in road improvements and health campaigns for the capital. In Quijano’s first public appearance as presidential candidate, he criticized the School Uniform program as overspending—a criticism that has also been made by the International Monetary Fund (IMF)—and said his administration would do away with it.