El Salvador

civil war From 1980 to ,000 Salvadorans died

1930’s Salvador, a coffee republic El Salvador was ruled by the military and supported by the country's landowning elite. two percent of the population owned sixty percent of the land

1940’s Consul-General José Arturo Castellanos Contreras issued thousands of false citizenship papers to Jews from central Europe so that they were not deported to the concentration camps. Military leaders were pro- fascist During World War II.

1950’s José María Lemus took power in 1956 Wanted reforms El Salvador's elite were opposed to reform, and any threat to their power.

1959 Castro took power in Cuba in 1959 Salvadoran conservatives feared the influence of Communism.

1961 Military Coup d'état

1961 anti-Communist, anti- Castro military junta overthrow Julio Adalberto Rivera elected in 1962

Was the United States CIA involved? In 1963, the U.S. Green Beret Special Forces were sent to El Salvador They helped set up the the first para-military death squad in El Salvador. Organizacion Democratica Nacionalista

1967 violence erupted over a soccer competition between Honduras and El Salvador. The Hondurans expelled Salvadorans from their country, including several thousand migrants.

1969 A border dispute erupted leading to the four-day ‘Football War’

1970s political unrest increased the middle and upper class favored economic progress and political stability They backed Jose Napoleon Duarte of the Christian Democrat Party

1972 the military suppressed the election Duarte protested, was jailed, tortured and sent into exile. political assassinations by secret death squads increased, paid for by rich conservatives

The ‘disappeared’

1975 the army fired on demonstrators in San Salvador reform-minded priests, secular revolutionaries, and trade unionists began to organize the rural poor. 60,000 people joined the Revolutionary Popular Bloc (the BPR) Street demonstrations, propaganda campaigns, work stoppages and seizures of buildings frightened conservatives.

Student massacre remembered

1977 Carlos Romero won the presidency people protested and were fired upon violence against civilians increased with the "Law for the Defense and Guarantee of Public Order"

eleven priests were murdered many more were beaten, tortured and exiled archbishop Oscar Romero called for an end to state repression

Romero’s plea to U.S. President Carter “The contribution of your government instead of promoting greater justice and peace in El Salvador will without doubt sharpen the injustice and repression against the organizations of the people which repeatedly have been struggling to gain respect for their most fundamental human rights.”

A Salvadoran soldier who was a graduate of the U.S. Army School of the Americas killed Romero

1980 Romero assassination 4 American Jesuit nuns were raped and murdered The U.S. cut off aid to El Salvador

unarmed demonstrators were gunned down on the steps of the National Cathedral

1981 leftist opposition groups united with guerrilla groups against the government. They formed the Frente Farabundo Marti de Liberacion or FMLN

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Anti FMLN leaflet

1980’s Reagan saw the military government of El Salvador as a barrier to communism in Central America Reagan increased military and economic aid to El Salvador.

Victims Of The Mozote Massacre, Morazán, El Salvador, January 1982