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Irma Amaya
Irma Amaya
Member of the Central American Parliament
	Incumbent
	Assumed office ; 2011
Constituency	El Salvador
President of the Central American Parliament
	In office; 2018–2019
Deputy of the Legislative Assembly of El Salvador
	In office; 1997–2009
Personal details
Born	Irma Segunda Amaya Echeverría; 28 June 1961 (age 63)[citation needed]
Political party	Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front
Children	Cristina Cornejo
Alma mater	Universidad Nueva San Salvador
Website	www.irmaamaya.com

Irma Segunda Amaya Echeverría (born 28 June 1961^{[citation needed]}) is a Salvadoran feminist, human rights activist, former guerrilla fighter, and politician. She was a member of the Legislative Assembly of El Salvador and the first Salvadoran female President of the Central American Parliament (PARLACEN) for the term 2018–2019.

She is currently Central American Deputy for the State of El Salvador for her second consecutive term and National Women's Secretary of the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN)

Early life

Irma Amaya joined the basic ecclesial communities (BECs) in the late 1970s. Subsequently, she joined the Fuerzas Populares de Liberación Farabundo Martí (FPL), one of the five armed organizations that formed the FMLN guerrillas in 1980. During the Salvadoran Civil War, she adopted the nom de guerre Carolina, and lived in hiding until the signing of the Chapultepec Peace Accords.

Career

In 1992 she founded the Mélida Anaya Montes Women's Movement Association (Las Mélidas) within the framework of the Peace Accords, and has been an activist for the organization ever since. She was president of its board of directors for the term 2015–2019.^[1]

Amaya was a national deputy of the Legislative Assembly of El Salvador for three consecutive terms, from 1997 to 2009, joining the Justice and Human Rights Commission and the Electoral and Constitutional Reforms Commission.^[2] She was also a legislative advisor on gender and women's rights from 2009 to 2011.

She earned a licentiate in legal sciences from the Universidad Nueva San Salvador in 2013.^[3]

She served as president ad honorem of the government's Injured and Disabled Protection Fund (FOPROLYD) for two consecutive terms, from 2009 to 2019.^[3]^[4] She was initially appointed by President Mauricio Funes, and ratified during the term of Salvador Sánchez Cerén. Under her management, FOPROLYD made a payment on the historical debt that the Salvadoran state owed the beneficiary population from 1993 to 1995, giving said cancellation to 46 beneficiaries, for a total amount of $92,528.60.^[4]

A PARLACEN deputy elected for two consecutive terms, from 2011 to 2021, Amaya has served as president of the Committee on International Relations and Migration Affairs (2016–2017), secretary of the Board of Directors (2017–2018), and president of the Board of Directors (2018–2019), becoming the first Salvadoran woman to hold the latter post. She was elected to it with the widest margin of votes in the history of the regional forum.^[5]^[6]

She is a founder and member of the FMLN, and served as its Deputy National Secretary from 2001 to 2002 and Municipal Secretary of Santa Tecla from 2015 to 2019. In 2019 she became its National Women's Secretary, with a term ending in 2024.^[7]

Her daughter, Cristina Cornejo, was elected to the Legislative Assembly in 2018.^[8]

References

^ "Celebramos el reciente nombramiento de Irma Amaya, como Presidenta del PARLACEN" [We Celebrate the Recent Nomination of Irma Amaya as President of PARLACEN] (in Spanish). Mélida Anaya Montes Women's Movement Association. Retrieved 24 January 2020.
^ Ayala, Lya (24 November 2006). "Mujeres en la política, voces silenciosas" [Women in Politics, Silent Voices]. El Diario de Hoy (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 5 July 2019. Retrieved 24 January 2020.
^ ^a ^b "Irma Segunda, Amaya Echeverría" (in Spanish). Government of El Salvador Public Information Access Institute. Retrieved 24 January 2020.
^ ^a ^b Memoria de Labores [Work Report] (PDF) (in Spanish). FOPROLYD. 2017. pp. 8–10. Archived from the original (PDF) on 5 July 2019. Retrieved 24 January 2020.
^ "Diputada Irma Amaya primera mujer salvadoreña en ser electa Presidenta del PARLACEN" [Deputy Irma Amaya First Salvadoran Woman To Be Elected President of PARLACEN] (in Spanish). Central American Parliament. 26 October 2018. Retrieved 24 January 2020.
^ Campos Madrid, Gabriel (26 October 2018). "Irma Segunda Amaya fue electa como nueva presidenta del PARLACEN" [Irma Segunda Amaya Elected as New President of PARLACEN]. La Prensa Gráfica (in Spanish). Retrieved 24 January 2020.
^ Soriano, Antonio (20 May 2019). "Amaya, nueva Secretaria de Mujer de FMLN" [Amaya, New FMLN Women's Secretary]. El Mundo (in Spanish). Retrieved 24 January 2020.
^ "'Quisiéramos que la gente que se fue a Nuevas Ideas regrese al FMLN'" ['We Would Like People Who Went to New Ideas to Return to the FMLN']. Diario1.com (in Spanish). 17 May 2019. Retrieved 30 January 2020.