History
ARENA was founded shortly following the assassination of Óscar Romero in 1980; its founder is generally considered responsible for Romero's killing and linked to death squads, kidnappings and torture, but died before he could be charged.
The party arose in response to the insurgency of the Frente Farabundo Martí for the National Liberation, 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..
By its strong anti-communist line, ARENA had the support of some members of the Republican Party of the United States, like the ex- American senator Jesse Helms, who supported Roberto D'Aubuisson in the process of development of the party. The ideology the party affirms 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 2009, ARENA took out a full-page ad in a Salvadorean newspaper calling on President Mauricio Funes to recognise the interim Honduran government of Roberto Micheletti installed after the military had expelled President Manuel Zelaya.
Read more about this topic: Nationalist Republican Alliance
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