Figure 1.-- A low-level insurgency steadily escalated in El Salvador during the 1970s. A reformist military coup (1979) sought to defuse the situation. The Sandinista victory in Nicaragua, however, meant that Cuban weapons could reach guerilla groups in greater qunatity. Thus the level of violence increased. Here civilians caught between Government forces and the gurillas seek cover.

The civil-military Junta Revolucionaria de Gobierno (Revolutionary Government Junta — JRG) deposed President General Carlos Humberto Romero (Octobr 15, 1979). The reformist military coup was an effort by some of the more progressive elements in the miitary to provide moderate reform as an alternative to Communist Revolution as had occurred in Cuba and now Nicaragua. They wanted to project a moderate, progressive image tht could defuse the growing descent and Cuban military support for the revolutionary extremists through Nicaragua. The JRG was composed of Col. Adolfo Arnaldo Majano Ramo, Col. Jaime Abdul Gutiérrez Avendaño, Guillermo Ungo, Mario Antonio Andino, Román Mayorga Quirós. They governed El Salvador (1979-82). The JRG Government carried out some land reform (Decree No. 43, 6-XII-1979). This restricted landholdings to a hundred-hectare maximum. Here the JRG was limited by the fact that there was not nearly enough land for the campesinos that wanted land. Of course maximum landholdings could have been made even smaller, but smaller units were not economiclly viable beyond providing basic subsistence meaning perpetual poverty. Few of the campesinos involved were aware that in Communist countries such as Cuba, land was seized by the Government and farmed through collectives rather han given to the peasantry. The JRG also nationalised the banking, coffee, and sugar industries. Notice the Socialist oeientation even in the opposition to the Communists. (We will see this same dynamic repeated in Venezuela.) The JRG also moved to outlaw the paramilitary private death squad ORDEN. José Napoleón Duarte, the Christian Democratic Party (PDC) leader, joined the JRG as provisional-head-of-government (1980) until the scheduled March 1982 elections. This added some political credibility. The JRG was not, however, unified on the policies to pursue. They were unsure as to how to respond to the FMLN's armed insurrection. There was also the military's institutional resistance to the JRG's reforms. Many saw the JRG as FMLN sympathizers. U.S. Ambassador Robert E. White described his view of the developing situation. "The major, immediate threat to the existence of this government is the right-wing violence. In the city of San Salvador, the hired thugs of the extreme-right kill moderate-left leaders, some of them well-trained Cuban and Nicaraguan terrorists, and blow up government buildings. In the countryside, elements of the security forces torture and kill the campesinos, shoot up their houses and burn their crops. At least two hundred refugees from the countryside arrive daily in the capital city. This campaign of terror is radicalizing the rural areas, just as surely as Somoza's National Guard did in Nicaragua, also backed by the USA Government. Unfortunately, the command structure of the army and the security forces either tolerates or encourages this activity. These senior officers believe, or pretend to believe, that they are eliminating the guerrillas." [U.S. Department of State, p. 3.] The FMLN receiving Cuban arms was able to escalate attacks. Government forces (National Guard, National Police and Treasury Police) responded in kind. The Government retailated by both attacking the guerrillas as well as civilian sympathizers. The result was a greatly increased body count. Government foirces killed nearly 12,000 people (1980). [Socorro Jurídico Cristiano, pp. 1-2, 222.] Reltively few appear to have been FMLN guerrila fighters, but mostly unarmed campesinos, peasants, trade unionists, teachers, students, journalists, human rights advocates, priests, and virtually anyone working with the rural peasantry.

Created: 10:15 AM 11/1/2017
Last updated: 10:15 AM 11/1/2017