page_title: El Salvador
section_title: Foreign relations
hierarchical_section_title: El Salvador / Government and politics / Foreign relations
caption_attribution_description: English: U.S. Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo participates in a signing ceremony for the CSL Lease Extension with Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele, in San Salvador, El Salvador, July 21, 2019. [State Department photo by Ron Przysucha/ Public Domain]
context_page_description: El Salvador, officially the Republic of El Salvador, is the smallest and the most densely populated country in Central America. It is bordered on the northeast by Honduras, on the northwest by Guatemala, and on the south by the Pacific Ocean. El Salvador's capital and largest city is San Salvador. As of 2018, the country had a population of approximately 6.42 million, mostly consisting of European and Native American descent.
  El Salvador was, for millennia, controlled by several Mesoamerican nations, especially Lenca, early Mayans, then later the Cuzcatlecs up until the Spanish conquest. Archaeological monuments also suggest an early Olmec presence around the first millennium BCE. In the early 16th century, the Spanish Empire conquered the territory, incorporating it into the Viceroyalty of New Spain ruled from Mexico City. However the Viceroyalty of Mexico had little to no influence in the daily affairs of the Central American isthmus, which would be colonized in 1524.
context_section_description: In November, 1950 El Salvador helped the newly empowered 14th Dalai Lama by supporting his Tibetan Government cabinet minister's telegram requesting an appeal before the General Assembly of the United Nations to stop the Communist China's People's Liberation Army's invasion of Tibet. "Only the tiny country of El Salvador agreed to sponsor Tibet's plea.""At the UN, no one was willing to stand up beside El Salvador. The other nations had overriding self-interests, which made it impossible for them to support San Salvador's attempt to bring the invasion before the General Assembly." With no other countries in support, "the UN unanimously dropped the Tibetan plea from its agenda."
  El Salvador is a member of the United Nations and several of its specialized agencies, the Organization of American States (OAS), the Central American Common Market (CACM), the Central American Parliament (PARLACEN), and the Central American Integration System (SICA). It actively participates in the Central American Security Commission (CASC), which seeks to promote regional arms control.
  El Salvador also is a member of the World Trade Organization and is pursuing regional free trade agreements. An active participant in the Summit of the Americas process, El Salvador chairs a working group on market access under the Free Trade Area of the Americas initiative.
caption: U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo participates in a signing ceremony for the CSL Lease Extension with Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele
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