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4 unusual facts about José Napoleón Duarte


Álvaro Magaña

José Napoleón Duarte willingly relinquished his power as head of state and head of the Junta to Magana, briefly, and instead focused on building up his own Christian Democrat Party with the help of the United States and planned to take back power in the 1984 elections.

José Napoleón Duarte

His regime is noted for large-scale human rights abuses and massacres amongst the civilian population, backed by the Reagan Administration and the Central Intelligence Agency.

He lost to Arturo Armando Molina in an election that was widely viewed as fraudulent, with Molina declared the winner even though Duarte was said to have received a majority of the votes; poll watchers claimed the real vote tally was 327,000 for Duarte and 318,000 for Molina.

The entire process of exchanging prisoners, which took place in various parts of the country, was carried out through the International Committee of the Red Cross.


Organización Democrática Nacionalista

ORDEN helped control the 1972 elections, in which reform-minded José Napoleón Duarte lost to Arturo Armando Molina (of Rivera's party, the Party of National Conciliation (PCN) due to fraud.


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