Peruvian author Mario Vargas Llosa interviews President Álvaro Alfredo Magaña Borja at the Presidential Palace in San Salvador, El Salvador, May 10, 1984. Vargas Llosa was reporting on the 1984 Salvadoran presidential elections for Time magazine. José Napoleón Duarte of the Partido Demócrata Cristiano, Christian Democratic Party, PDC, was elected president on May 12, 1984. This victory can be largely attributed to the more than $3 million in aid, both overt and covert, provided by the United States to finance the elections in an effort to produce a moderate reformist government compliant with Washington's interests.