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Antonio Saca
	Antonio Saca
	;
President of El Salvador
	In office; 1 June 2004 – 1 June 2009
Vice President	Ana Vilma de Escobar
Preceded by	Francisco Flores Pérez
Succeeded by	Mauricio Funes
Born	9 March 1965 (age 44); Usulután, El Salvador
Political party	Nationalist Republican Alliance (ARENA)
Spouse(s)	Ana Ligia Mixco
Religion	Evangelicalism

Elías Antonio Saca González (born in Usulután, 9 March 1965) is a Salvadoran politician and was the President of El Salvador. He was elected President in 2004 to serve a five-year term that ended in 2009.

Saca is descended from Palestinian (Catholic Christian) immigrants who arrived in El Salvador in the early 20th century from the West Bank town of Bethlehem. Prior to becoming President he was a broadcast journalist, specializing in sports radio and a prominent businessman. He attended to the University of Central America. He is an outspoken Evangelical Protestant and has expressed his faith through his historic friendliness with Salvadoran and American Protestant churches.

On 21 March 2004 Saca was elected President of El Salvador, and on 1 June 2004 succeeded President Francisco Flores. Both Saca and Flores are members of the conservative Nationalist Republican Alliance party, generally known by its Spanish-language acronym ARENA.

During the election campaign, some commentators criticized Saca's lack of political experience. In the election, Saca defeated leftist Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN) candidate, Schafik Handal, also of Palestinian descent. The election results were:

Antonio Saca (ARENA) 57.7%
Schafik Handal (FMLN) 35.6%
Héctor Silva (CDU-PDC) 3.9%
Other 2.8%

With his embracing of the free-market and pro-United States policies like those pursued by Flores, Saca was the clear favorite of George W. Bush's administration in the 2004 presidential election^{[citation needed]}. Saca was the only leader of a Latin American nation to maintain troops in Iraq on extended deployment, having sent Salvadoran troops in 2003^[1]^[2]. El Salvador's military commitment in Iraq ended in February 2009.^[3]

[edit] References

^ "Iraq Coalition Troops". February 2007. http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/ops/iraq_orbat_coalition.htm. Retrieved 2008-10-08.
^ "Two Years of Ka-Saca in El Salvador". June 19, 2006. http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/328/74/. Retrieved 2008-10-08.
^ http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hAPMMdUoNsolY51KKFrnlOfPbbTgD966UH1O0

[edit] External links

Political offices
Preceded by Francisco Flores Pérez	President of El Salvador 2004 – 2009	Succeeded by Mauricio Funes

This article about a Salvadoran politician is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.

[0] "Iraq Coalition Troops". February 2007. http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/ops/iraq_orbat_coalition.htm. Retrieved 2008-10-08.

[1] "Two Years of Ka-Saca in El Salvador". June 19, 2006. http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/328/74/. Retrieved 2008-10-08.

[2] ttp://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hAPMMdUoNsolY51KKFrnlOfPbbTgD966UH1O0

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