The Salvadoran Civil War was a military conflict between successive US-supported right-wing military governments of El Salvador and a coalition of five left-wing rebel factions under the banner of the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (named after a peasant farmer who led a short-lived insurgency against the government during The '30s) that started in The '80s and ended in 1992 after the signing of the peace accords in Mexico.
The reasons for the conflict are similar to other revolutions of the Cold War; many among the lower classes and the educated getting fed up with an authoritarian regime plagued by corruption, and rising up with the support of the Soviet Union, Red China and/or Cuba. But the lead up to the war is a lot more complicated than that, what with a series of events that futher deteriorated an already-fragile small nation.
Background
El Salvador, like many countries of Latin America, had been dominated earlier in the Twentieth Century by an incestuous alliance between sugar and coffee oligarchs, the military, and foreign companies who owned much of the arable land with a good deal of the local population being large dirt-poor families of farmers. On top of overpopulation and widespread poverty, the populace had to deal with a lot of political and military oppression from governments that would barely last a year or two before being taken out of office in a military coup, sometimes simply for making moves towards supporting agrarian reform or workers' rights. All of this led to tens of thousands of farmers leaving the country and settling illegally in the larger and less densely-populated neighboring country of Honduras. By 1969, over 300,000 Salvadorans lived in Honduras, making up 20% of the country's population.In The '60s, Honduras underwent an anti-communist military coup, and later fraudulent elections, during a time of serious economic problems. Fearing that their actions combined with the bad economy would lead to a dangerous populist uprising, the government decided to lay the blame for the country's problems on the large number of Salvadoran immigrants and squatters, claiming they were taking land and jobs and reducing the value of labor, with the government later issuing an aggressive agrarian reform program that essentially stripped Salvadorans living in Honduras of whatever property and land they had, redistributing it to native-born Honduran citizens. Unsurprisingly, this would lead to the persecution and deportation of nearly all Salvadorans living in Honduras, with many either fleeing or being forcibly repatriated back to El Salvador.
The Salvadoran government would denounce Honduras' actions with little-to-no success, partly for humanitarian reasons, and partly because the refugee crisis caused by the huge number of Salvadorans fleeing or being deported back was increasingly straining their resources and causing political instability. Thus began the tensions between the two countries...
During the 1970 World Cup qualifiers, El Salvador and Honduras played against each other three times, with each game just increasing the tensions between the populations of the two nations. The Salvadoran government, getting overwhelmed by tens of thousands of expatriates from Honduras, declared war on Honduras the day after El Salvador beat Honduras during the last qualifying game. This was the beginning of the infamous Football War.
The Football War would last four days before ending in an Organization of American States-brokered ceasefire, but it would leave a long-lasting impact. It left approximately 3000 people dead and hundreds of thousands of Salvadorans displaced and homeless with their government unwilling or unable to solve their growing humanitarian crisis.
Prelude to the Civil War
Communism and socialism would gain a good deal of popularity and support among farmers and the expatriates as a consequence of the humanitarian crisis. Attempts from the government to compromise would almost invariably receive an extremely hostile response from foreign companies, the oligarchs and the military, who would threaten to take over the government under the pretext of fighting communism and Soviet/Cuban/Nicaraguan influence. By the late 70s, various left-wing groups of the political and paramilitary type would appear to fight or protest the government's abuses, which often led to crackdowns where many supporters and sympathizers were arrested and even executed. The situation was so bad that the president General Carlos Humberto Romero was pressured by the army to step down due to his inability to fix the situation without pissing off the oligarchs and the rich landowners, which led to the formation of the first Revolutionary Junta that would be led by civilians and the military. However, due to the military members of the Junta pushing for a campaign of terror against "subversives" in order to bring stability rather than fixing the root problems of the nation caused the civilian members of the Junta to leave or be expelled. In 1980, five of the most prominent left-wing factions' leaders would attend a meeting in Cuba, officially announce the formation of the F.M.L.N and declare war on the Junta that was officially recognized and supported by the United States and other members of the Western bloc.Following the Nicaraguan Revolution, the United States grew nervous at the prospect of another leftist revolution in Central America. Vowing that there would never again be another such success, they would increase their support for the Salvadoran government by giving them huge amounts of weapons, vehicles and other equpiment left over from the Vietnam War.
From Small Insurrection to Open Conflict
All of this would culminate in the public assassination of Archbishop Óscar Romero, who was an avid supporter of the lower class and farmer families and a fierce critic of the military junta. Officially, his murder remains unsolved, but most believe he was killed on the orders of far-right politician Roberto D'Aubuisson. His death was what many believe to be the point of no return to all-out war.On January 1981, the F.M.L.N launched its first military campaign against the government which consisted of simultaneous attacks and raids against police and military targets across the nation. This would showcase their organization and preparation in contrast to the fractured Guatemalan rebel factions, and they would score a few victories against the Salvadoran government even after a counter-offensive that pushed the rebels back to the mountains with heavy casualties, something that would lead to the United States exerting greater control over the Salvadoran armed forces by sending "advisors" and training their mechanized battalions and elite forces themselves, with the U.S government feeling that the only reason the Salvadoran government was able to push back the rebels was because most citizens refused to join the rebel forces in their campaign due to their distrust of the F.M.L.N (since most Salvadorans were very conservative and didn't want to live under communism), out of fear of retribution from Death Squads, or both.
On December 11, 1981, a US-trained anti-guerrilla force would perpetuate one of the most infamous atrocities of the conflict; El Mozote Massacre, were 800 civilians of the rural town of El Mozote were systematically killed just because of their proximity to rebel-controlled areas and towns. The Salvadoran government and military would deny the massacre even happened or heavily downplay the casualties, all while claiming that they had good reasons to do what they did.
The war was mostly contained to the San Miguel, Morazan and La Union departments (States) with many recorded skirmishes outside of San Salvador city and La Libertad department. The military was known for its bombing raids and scorched earth tactics on rebel-controlled towns and areas while the FMLN forces were known for their guerrilla and hit-and-run tactics against convoys and patrols.
No dirty war would be completed without death squads, and they became the one of the most infamous aspects of the conflict, being members of the military that were hired by party leaders and oligarchs to seek out and execute any person that was suspected of anti-government support or sympathy, regardless of age, gender, or even if there was any evidence that they really were supporters.
The persecution of the lower classes and the scorched earth tactics on rural towns would lead to tens of thousands to leave the country. Some left for the United States as legal or illegal immigrants. Others went to neighboring Honduras to live in dirt-poor refugee camps. Honduras' growing frustration at the steady influx of Salvadoran refugees would lead to the Sumpul River massacre when both the Salvadoran and Honduran governments would join forces to massacre escaping refugees in the Sumpul River.
Throughout the course of the war, many foreign humanitarian workers would be threatened or killed by government forces just for trying to help the wounded and the homeless. The most well-known were five American women who were intercepted after leaving an airport, then raped and executed, causing outrage from humanitarian and Christian organizations in the United States.
The United States government — particularly the intelligence community — would religiously cover-up any atrocities committed by the Salvadoran government under the Ronald Reagan administration.
During the war, the ruling Military Junta would change members on a regular basis due to disagreements and would eventually dissolve itself in 1984, paving a way for Jose Napoleon Duarte to take power via fraudulent elections. While Duarte attempted to make the armed forces more accountable, the armed forces still committed atrocities, political assassinations and more suspiciously, made foreign-owned plantations free-fire zones (read: the army would shoot you if they saw you inside them).
In 1987, the government and the FMLN attempted to negotiate an end to the conflict. However, due to the continued assassinations committed by the death squads, the U.S opposing any negotiations and the fact that the armed forces wanted complete amnesty for war crimes and crimes against humanity, the peace talks failed.
In 1988, after far-right and US-supported ARENA candidate Alfredo Cristiani won the national elections via voter intimidation, the FMLN essentially said 'enough' and launched an all-or-nothing offensive in 1989 on the capital city of San Salvador, which lasted days with various upper-class suburbs becoming battlefields with one notable battle inside a luxurious hotel that lasted hours. Eventually, the armed forces repelled the FMLN out of San Salvador and went on a renewed campaign of political terror against dissidents. The US Vice President Dan Quayle would visit the country to "ask the government to stop the atrocities". However, some sources have alleged that in secret, US advisors essentially told the government to "keep killing commies, but this time try and be less obvious about it".
Following the failed offensive, the conflict slowed to a near-crawl while political assassinations continued across the country as the FMLN offensive left both the military and the government shaken with many feeling that a military victory against the FMLN was no longer an option in the short-term. Eventually talks of a ceasefire and eventual peace talks started in 1990 between the ARENA government and the FMLN's leadership.
In 1992, after months of negotiations, the peace talks were held in Mexico, overseen and backed by the UN, and the Chapultepec Peace Accords were signed, officially ending the civil war.
Aftermath
The Accords demanded the reduction of the military to a fourth of its size during the height of the civil war and the complete reorganization of law enforcement, this time led by civilians rather than the military, and the virtual abolition of the death penalty. Also the FMLN would need to disband its military wing completely, with them eventually reorganizing as a conservative left-wing political party.The ARENA government of Alfredo Cristiani wasted no time and immediately put in motion Reagan-esque neoliberal policies to heal the nearly-ruined economy of the country, leading to heavy industrialization and privatization around San Salvador. Later, president Francisco Flores (1999 - 2004) would make the US Dollar the main currency of the country in 2001, citing the national currency; the Colon, losing their competitiveness in both a regional and continental level.
For a time there was tense peace with the poor and the affected demanding reparations for the war and with minor crimes increasing in the poorer areas of the country but still was a peace nonetheless.
Things changed when the first Salvadoran (and other Hispanic) gangs formed in the United States started getting notoriety for their activities. This led to increasing numbers of people pressuring the government to do something about them due to increased crime and/or fear of crime. The Clinton government responded by creating a law that demanded the deportation of criminals without citizen-status, leading to the deportation of thousands of Salvadoran gang members to a weak, post-civil war El Salvador. The Salvadoran government at the beginning thought they were just petty criminals that were deported for theft or other minor crimes but these gang members, upon seeing the state of affairs and lack of opportunities for the poor in the aftermath of the war, quickly reorganized themselves by recruiting from the poor and the disaffected and thus began a major crime wave in the country, especially in the poorer neighborhoods of the cities.
It wouldn't be until the mid-2000s that the government of Tony Saca would attempt to crush them with force and intimidation with minor success.
By The New '10s, El Salvador has become infamous for its high levels of crime and murder but is still more politically stable than its neighbors. Honduras is currently plagued with so much crime, corruption and nepotism that it has been classified and one of the most corrupt countries in the world. Nicaragua meanwhile, has become a corrupt authoritarian aristocracy ruled by the Ortega family, as of 2021.
Many outside the country have stated that the accords are the only thing that has kept El Salvador from becoming a corrupt autocracy like Honduras and Nicaragua. However, current president Nayib Bukele has shown contempt for the accords with him feeling that they "hold the country back" and them "being a relic of the past" and has made moves to diminish or downright take out most of its guarantees and protections (since his party holds more than half of the Legislative Assembly) such as the denial of presidential re-election * , protections to free-press and rights to information, and some of his proposed changes to the constitution include the ability to pass laws based on public referendums rather than the assembly * , longer presidential terms (from five years to six and a half) and even the ability to shut down political parties and opponents based on corruption charges, which have raised alarms with Human Rights groups and in the United States' government. It remains to be seen if his proposed reforms are passed or he steps back due to pressure from the United States, the country's biggest economic partner, to which the Salvadoran economy is highly dependent.
