Violeta Menjívar

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Violeta Menjívar (b. 1952) is a Salvadorean politician affiliated with the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front. She is the current mayor of San Salvador.

Born Elvia Violeta Menjívar in Arcatao, Chalatenango, she studied medicine at the University of El Salvador. In 1979 she became a member of the Fuerzas Populares de Liberación "Farabundo Martí" or FPL, one of five leftist organizations that united to form the current Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (generally known by its Spanish-language acronym FMLN). During the civil war she provided medical aid to combatants and civilians in the Chalatenango Department.

In 1992 she was elected deputy to the Legislative Assembly of El Salvador, representing the FMLN, a position for which she was re-elected in 2000 and 2003. She was designated by her party as the candidate for the Mayor of San Salvador elections in 2005, defeating the ultra-conservative candidate of the ARENA Rodrigo Samayoa. She is the first woman to serve as mayor of San Salvador.