Lemus, José María (1911–1993)

José María Lemus was president of El Salvador from 1956 to 1960. Born on July 22, 1911, in La Unión of humble origins, Lemus attended the National Military Academy. He served as El Salvador's undersecretary of defense (1948–1949), and as President Oscar Osorio's (1950–1956) minister of the interior (1950–1955); in the latter post he antagonized his colleagues by fighting corruption. Lemus was Osorio's choice to succeed him, and in 1956 he won a disputed election.

A man of democratic impulses, he brought a number of distinguished civilians into government. He repealed Osorio's antisedition law and permitted political exiles to return to El Salvador, thereby antagonizing the military. He also offended the press by requiring newspapers to print replies to news stories and editorials.

The use of production controls to combat the 1958 drop in coffee prices infuriated the growers, while rising prices and unemployment alienated the workers. A disputed congressional election in 1960 exacerbated tensions. Lemus responded by announcing reforms in health, education, and minimum wages. With the support of the Roman Catholic Church, he organized a mass rally in support of the government. This was followed by student demonstrations praising the Cuban revolution. The subsequent roundup of students and other dissidents led to Lemus's arrest and exile on October 26, 1960. He lived in exile in New York with his wife and eight children until death, from Hodgkin's disease, on March 31, 1993.

See alsoEl Salvador; Osorio, Oscar.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Franklin D. Parker, The Central American Republics (1964).

Stephen Webre, José Napoleón Duarte and the Christian Democratic Party in Salvadoran Politics, 1960–1972 (1979).

James Dunkerly, The Long War: Dictatorship and Revolution in El Salvador (1982).

                                      Roland H. Ebel