A Day On Wikipedia

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[[Image:Salvador Cayetano Carpio Yugoslavia.jpg|320px|right|thumbnail|Larín (in the light-colored coat in the centre) attending the funeral of [[Yugoslavia|Yugoslav]] politician [[Josip Broz]] ‘ Tito’ in [[Belgrade]] in 1982.[[Salvador Cayetano Carpio]] places a floral offering at his grave in the foreground.]]

”’Rafael Menjívar Larín”’ ([[January 3]] [[1935]] – [[August 7]] [[2000]]) was a [[El Salvador|Salvadoran]] [[economist]] and [[politician]]. Born in [[Santa Ana, El Salvador]] he was rector of the [[Universidad de El Salvador]] from 1970-1972.

==Biography==
Larín was the son of a [[chauffeur]] and a housewife, and studied economic sciences in the [[University of El Salvador]] between 1956 and 1962. In 1963, at 28 years of age, he graduated as a doctor specialising in the agricultural economy, and almost immediately he was elected dean of the Faculty of Economy. Between 1967 and 1969 he was general manager of the [[UES]]. In 1969 he published the book, ””Reforma agraria en [[Guatemala]], [[Bolivia]] y [[Cuba]]” ”(The Agrarian Reformation in Guatemala, Bolivia and Cuba”). During this time he travelled to [[Chile]], where during his nine month stay he undertook academic investigation into Chilean agriculture and produced ”Reforma agraria chilena” (UES, San Salvador, 1970).

By the end of the 1970s he was elected the rector of the University of Salvador, but on July 19th of 1972 the Salvadoran Legislative Assembly deprived the university of its autonomy and it fell under National Army and Police and authority control, a highly controversial move which led to Menjívar Larín and several other high civil servants being imprisoned in their protest. Menjívar Larín was missing during three days in a clandestine cell of the National Police. He was later exiled to [[Nicaragua]], but he was placed under arrest by the orders of dictator [[Anastasio Somoza Debayle]]. In October of 1972 he was released and subsequently was sent to [[Costa Rica]].

There in Costa Rica he founded the Central American School of Sociology in 1974, in company of other intellectuals of the region. He was also Secretary General of the [[Consejo Superior Universitario Centroamericano]] ([[CSUCA]]).
That same year he joined the [[Fuerzas Populares de Liberación ‘Farabundo Martí’]], a left wing party in [[El Salvador]] and became acquainted with its leader [[Salvador Cayetano Carpio]].

In January of [[1976]] he travelled with his family to [[Mexico]], where he was granted a scholarship by the Latin American Council of Social Sciences (CLACSO) to obtain a doctorate in political sciences, which he completed in 1979. During this period he wrote numerous books and papers including ”Acumulación originaria y desarrollo del capitalismo en El Salvador” and ”Formación y lucha del proletariado industrial salvadoreño”.
At the beginning of 1978 he was named vice president of Latin American Studies in the Political Sciences faculty at the [[Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México]]. Along with the Salvadoran intellectuals, [[Rafael Guidos Béjar]] and [[Ernesto Richter]] he contributed to a specific Central American field of study and cahired debates on agrarian sociology and theory of the state.

In 1980 he worked as a university professor at the [[Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales]] ([[FLACSO]]). However, in 1980 El Salvador went into political turmoil, and Menjívar Larín became increasingly involved in politics. He was appointed president of the External Commission of the [[Frente Democrático Revolucionario]]
and was involved in important diplomatic work in favor of the Salvadoran insurgency in [[Mexico]] and the rest of [[Latin America]] and [[Europe]]. In 1981 the FDR moved to France, where diplomacy between the French and the Mexicans and the [[FMLN]] began. At the same time, he acted as political adviser to the leader of the FMLN, [[Salvador Cayetano Carpio]], whilst in his spare time was active in the university at [[Sorbona]].

After the suicide of Carpio on April 12 1983, which shook the FMLN party and Menjívar Larín, he retired from politics and rededicated himself to academic work. In May 1983 he was appointed Academic Director of director academic of Latin American FLACSO, a position he occupied until 1989. He then became a director in [[Costa Rica]], and during his administration he worked extensively with many noted Central American intellectuals, and was active all over El Salvador, Guatemala, [[Honduras]], the [[Dominican Republic]] and [[Cuba]]. He published over ten books on economics and sociology, and directed investigations into the [[Economy of Costa Rica|Costa Rican economy]] and supported Costa Rican programs of micro-development and the increasing operation of smaller companies.

En 1998 se retiró de FLACSO para dedicarse a sus trabajos pendientes. En 1999, sin embargo, fue nombrado director de un programa de microempresas de la Organización Internacional del Trabajo (OIT), que sólo pudo cumplir durante algunos meses: en agosto de ese año fue diagnosticado de cáncer. Moriría un año más tarde. Sus restos están sepultados en el cementerio Montesacro, de San José de Costa Rica.

Es padre del escritor y periodista [[Rafael Menjívar Ochoa]] y del sociólogo e historiador [[Mauricio Menjívar Ochoa]].

==References==
*”This article incorporates text translated from Spanish wikipedia”
{{DEFAULTSORT:Larin, Rafael}}
[[Category:Salvadoran economists]]
[[Category:Salvadoran politicians]]
[[Category:1935 births]]
[[Category:2000 deaths]]
[[es:Rafael Menjívar Larín]]
[[ru:Менхивар Ларин, Рафаэль]]