HISTORY

BACKGROUND

It is said that the Pipils Indians, which are descendants of the Aztecs migrated to the region in the 11^th century. As time passed in 1525, Pedro de Alvarado, which was a lieutenant of Cortes, conquered El Salvador marking the territory as theirs. With decades passing by El Salvador, with other countries of Central America, declared their independence from Spain on September 15, 1821, this independence created a federation of Central American states that dissolved in 1838. For decades, after releasing themselves from the ruling of Spain, El Salvador experienced numerous revolutions and wars against other Central American republics and with those struggles there came a series of military dictatorships from 1931 to 1979. During these military dictatorships, in 1969 El Salvador invaded Honduras after Honduran landowners deported thousands of Salvadorans. It became known as the “football war” since it broke out during a soccer game between both republics, lasting four days. A year later in the 1970’s a civil war broke loose as there was a discontent between the poor people and the military power. The antigovernment guerrilla units had a leading group called the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN) and the government group National Conciliation Party (PCN), being the party that had the military power at that time. The U.S. intervened on the side of the military dictatorship, regardless of the fact that human rights were being violated. Between the years of 1979 and 1981 there was an estimate of 30,000 people killed. A modern civilian Jose Napoleon Duarte was president from 1984 to 1989 and tried to stop the war, but was unsuccessful. In 1989, Alfredo Cristiani from the National Republican Alliance (ARENA) was elected and was successful to have a signed peace treaty with the guerrilla forces, on January 16, 1992, formally ending the 12 year civil war that killed an estimated total of 75,000 people. In 2004 Antonio Saca of ARENA was elected president and with that the nation implemented a free-trade agreement (CAFTA) with the U.S. in March 2006. In 2009 Mauricio Funes a member of the FMLN party was elected president in March 2009 ending the two decades of conservative rule in El Salvador.

 

In the Name of the People : El Salvador's Civil War 1985 Documentary

This documentary is based on the U.S. involvement in the Civil War of El Salvador