In late 1979, the violence that had originally characterized the political life of the small Central American state of El Salvador escalated, plunging the country into a protracted civil war that left over 75,000 people dead, a long list of citizens missing, thousands of families displaced, and a culture of violence and crime. which still plagues society. Although the civil war was never officially declared, its beginning is attributed to 1979-1980, when armed conflicts broke out between the national army and paramilitary organizations, on the one hand, and popular rebel movements, on the other.

Long history of violence and authoritarianism

El Salvador became one of the mosaics of the fragmented political landscape that took shape in Central America after independence from the Spanish Empire in 1821 and the collapse of the Federal Republic of Central America in 1839. successive conflicts between the liberal and conservative factions. The predominance of the former in 1871 paved the way for the monoculture of coffee and the dominance of the oligarchy of landowners who tied their power to the export of this particular product. The expansion of plantations was supported by a series of reforms that, among other things, forced the abolition of the communal lands of the indigenous peasant population, which led to the liberalization of the land market and the concentration of land ownership in the hands of a few. The inequality and social discontent resulting from this process are considered to be among the root causes of the civil war of the 1980s.

A milestone on the long road to civil war was the Peasants’ Revolt of 1932, which killed an unspecified number of peasants, mostly indigenous, estimated at 15,000 to 30,000. The brutal suppression of the uprising was given away by General Hernandez Martínez, who seized power in a 1931 coup, paving the way for a series of military governments that lasted until 1979.

The decisive role in the 1932 uprising was played by Farabundo Marti, a leading figure in the Communist Party of El Salvador, after whom the revolutionary Front, which played a leading role in the civil war of the 1980s, would later be named. 1893-1932) was an adherent of Marxism and spent years in exile in Central America, Cuba and the United States, where he took an active part in international communist organizations. In the late 1920s, he was a close associate of Santino, the great popular hero of Nicaragua. For his leadership role in organizing the peasant uprising of 1932, Farabundo Marti was executed, becoming a martyr for a significant part of Salvadoran society.

Kidnappings, murders and mass executions

In the 1970s, El Salvador looked like a cauldron ready to explode. Military governments used brutal repression against any form of protest, while at the same time paramilitary organizations were created that set about destroying and disappearing dissidents from various social spaces. Any attempts to overthrow military governments or return to democratic institutionalism ended in failure, which contributed to the radicalization of society.

In this climate, and while guerrilla movements were spreading throughout Latin America, a significant part of society perceived armed action as the only way forward. In 1970, the first partisan organization, the People’s Liberation Forces (PNF), was formed, which was looking for its social base in rural communities. Other organizations that ideologically combined Marxism with other theoretical starting points, such as liberation theology and Gebarism, gradually emerged through the political forces of the left, the student movement, and trade union organizations.

In February 1971, the Omada guerrilla kidnapped and killed businessman Regalado Duenias, starting a series of kidnappings and murders of businessmen and government officials that the guerrilla organizations carried out as political repression and to secure their funding.

Despite disagreements over strategy, the various guerrilla movements managed to form a united front. On October 10, 1980, negotiations between the People’s Liberation Forces (FLO), the People’s Revolutionary Army (ERP) and the armed wings of the Communist Party, the Central American Workers’ Revolutionary Party and the National Resistance Movement (RN) led to the formation of the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN) , which will play a major role in the civil war in El Salvador.
Due to the fact that the beginning of the war was not officially announced, there are various dates that are understood as the point of its beginning. In a sense, the war really only began after the March 24, 1980 assassination of Salvadoran Archbishop Oscar Romero in office. Romero, who went down in history as the “voice of the silent”, repeatedly asked the military government to stop the repression. His protests against the killing of civilians and clerics who supported the villagers earned him international recognition and awards for his contributions to world peace.

According to another version, the war began on January 10, 1981, when the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front announced a general offensive, thanks to which it managed to take control of a significant part of the country’s territory. In any case, the first phase of the war, which lasted until 1983, was characterized by systematic violence and terror of the entire society. The Salvadoran army, considering farmers as the base of guerrilla movements, organized a series of counter-revolutionary operations that went on to liquidate entire settlements and mass executions of civilians. The most famous case is the so-called “Mosota massacre” in December 1981, when about 1,000 villagers were killed by military and paramilitaries. According to a UN Truth Commission report, paramilitary “death squads” operating unhindered in the countryside killed some 35,000 civilians in the first three years of the war. In the second phase, which lasted from 1983 to 1987, the war spread to urban centers, but the activities of paramilitary organizations were more controlled.

Dimensions of Cold War conflict and peace without retribution

From the beginning of the 20th century, Central America was attached to the political and economic chariot of the United States, and after the Second World War began to play a key role in the inter-American system. After the Cold War in the 1960s and 1970s, the United States strengthened the armed forces of the countries of Central America through generous funding, the provision of modern military equipment and training. During the Salvadoran Civil War, the United States supplied the national army with weapons and helicopters for patrols, and also took care of the formation of elite corps specialized in counterrevolutionary warfare. Ronald Reagan, who took over as President of the United States in January 1981, emphasized the issue of El Salvador and presented the activities of the Farabundo Marti Front as evidence of Soviet infiltration into Latin America.

On the other hand, some wings of the front, and especially the Communist Party of El Salvador, maintained close relations with the Soviet Union. The Front’s relations with Cuba were, of course, close, especially in strategic matters, and to a greater extent with Nicaragua, the Sandinistas, who seized power in 1979. Of these countries, Nicaragua was the one that most actively supported the El Salvador National Liberation Front, systematically supplying it with military equipment, mostly Soviet-made. In addition, many members of the Sandinistas went to El Salvador to fight on the front lines. Deliveries of military equipment from Nicaragua ceased in 1982 after corresponding US complaints from the UN forum.

Beginning in the mid-1980s, the United States began playing the card of a return to democratic normality in El Salvador and Guatemala to isolate Sandinista Nicaragua. Ultimately, the UN assumed a central role in advancing plans to restore peace in Central America. In the case of El Salvador, the civil war finally ended on January 16, 1992, when the so-called Chapultepec Accords were signed in Mexico City. The agreements provided for the reorganization of the national armed forces, as well as the disarmament of the rebels with guarantees of their participation in the political system. It was also decided to establish a Truth Commission to find out the truth about human rights violations. However, the passage of a controversial amnesty law prevented justice for the terrible crimes committed during the twelve-year civil war, especially during its first, bloodiest period.

Ms. Maria Damilaku is an assistant professor of history at the Ionian University.