 In 1984, armed-forces chief General Gustavo Alvarez was deposed amid anti-US demonstrations in the capital, Tegucigalpa; this marked a decrease in counter-revolutionary activity, and the government continued to assist the United States' anti-Sandinista activities in Nicaragua in return for economic aid.In 1986, the Liberal Party's José Azcona del Hoyo was elected president.Allegations of human rights abuses, and summary executions by police—especially of street gangs—have diminished steadily in recent years up to the present (2009), while political violence has been a constant.