Stephen Blasy
Professor Volker Frank
SOC 357
30 July 2014
The Inevitability of Civil War in El Salvador
Throughout history, countries in Central and South America have proven to be amorphous in terms of political, social, and economic development. Time and time again, military regimes have formed and held power in Latin-American countries and have subsequently influenced social and economic development in these countries. Military dictatorships often (if not always) produce opposition forces and/or political parties, and it is with these oppositions to military regimes that we see enormous change and transformation. El Salvador is no exception to this phenomenon. Due to enormous wealth deficits between the rich and the poor, economic
…show more content…
It can be argued that the United States facilitated this civil war, and that may very well be the case. However, upon deeper investigation it appears that civil war was inevitable, and though the United States may have sped up the process I believe that the wealth deficit, economic struggle, and political corruption would have inevitably led El Salvador to a civil war with or without the influence of the United States. When El Salvador began it's “colonization,” the Spanish sought the reap the land of it's gold and silver reserves. Once the Spanish realized that there was little to no gold and silver to be mined, they began to utilize the country's sole exploitable resource: land. The Spanish appropriation of the land (and inter-racial marrying of whites and indigenous peoples) eventually led to a rapid decline in the …show more content…
The military killed 30,000 people, targeting those that wore traditional dress or spoke an indigenous language. Thus began a fifty year period where every president that came into power was a military officer; the military was the commanding power in El Salvador. The economy was controlled by the rich and the majority of the country lived in poverty. The military dictatorship caused opposition forced to organize and grow stronger. This caused the government to hire groups of people called “death squads” whose sole purpose was to assassinate “submersives,” or people who opposed government authority. As the opposition grew stronger, the government grew more corrupt and practiced flagrant ballot manipulation, stealing multiple elections. By the 1970's, small guerrilla groups had formed out of the opposition forces. After the election of 1977 was manipulated in favor of the military, people began to gather in the main square in San Salvador and protest. The government responded by firing into the crowd of people and assassinating a rural priest named Father Rutilio Grande. In response to the assassination, Monsignor Oscar Romero, the Archbishop of San Salvador, led a memorial mass attended by 100,000 people. This drew plenty of international attention. At this time, the United States president was Jimmy Carter whose platform was
Before reading this, I, like I am sure so many others, had no idea of the magnitude of injustices that can occur during these conflicts. Also, this was not very long ago, nor far away, and it speaks volumes of the differences in government ideology and politics. El Salvador is an extreme case of how a government will treat its citizens. Massacre at El Mozote truly was an eye-opener and I doubt I will soon forget it.
Models for post-revolutionary Latin American government are born of the complex economic and social realities of 17th and 18th century Europe. From the momentum of the Enlightenment came major political rebellions of the elite class against entrenched national monarchies and systems of power. Within this time period of elitist revolt and intensive political restructuring, the fundamental basis for both liberal and conservative ideology was driven deep into Latin American soil. However, as neither ideology sought to fulfill or even recognize the needs or rights of mestizo people under government rule, the initial liberal doctrine pervading Latin American nations perpetuated racism and economic exploitation, and paved the way for all-consuming, cultural wars in the centuries to come.
All throughout the 20th century we can observe the marked presence of totalitarian regimes and governments in Latin America. Countries like Cuba, Chile, Brazil, Argentina, Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic all suffered under the merciless rule of dictators and military leaders. Yet the latter country, the Dominican Republic, experienced a unique variation of these popular dictatorships, one that in the eyes of the world of those times was great, but in the eyes of the Dominicans, was nothing short of deadly.
The war on crime is constantly being fought in El Salvador. El Salvador is one of the
The people who had the power were the Marxism government, the National Guard of El Salvador and the wealthy people in El Salvador. Since his main purpose being an Archbishop of San Salvador was to take care of anyone who needs it his help, also give the Salvadorians the faith and the believe that they needed. During February of 1977, the people who had the power was many of the Salvadorians were protesting against the government because they wanted “A true election, a free elect...
Originally Spain found success with finding gold or other mineral wealth not by colonizing, but by conquering and enslaving the local population, such as the Aztecs. As a result, Spain discovered that there was no gold or other mineral wealth to be found past t...
The Civil War in El Salvador lasted from 1980 to 1992, and the El SAlvadoran government was doing their best to minimize the threat of their opposition. Their main opposition, The Frente Farabundo Marti Para La Liberacion Nacional; otherwise known as the FMLN, was a guerrilla group that was organized to fight the corruption in the country. 175). One of the main goals of the organization was to create a new society that is not degrading its citizens and promotes equality. Throughout El Salvador’s history, one organization to the next would run the country through repressive actions and social injustice. One of the main reasons that the FMLN fought the acting government were due to these social restraints on the lower- class citizens in El Salvador.
Oscar Romero was born on August 15, 1917 in El Salvador. He was appointed Archbishop of El Salvador on February 23, 1977. When Romero was appointed as an Archbishop many priests were disappointed, especially those openly aligning with Marxism. On 12 March 1977, Rutilio Grande, a progressive Jesuit priest and personal friend of Romero who had been creating self-reliance groups among the poor campesinos, was assassinated do to what he was doing to help out the poor people in the community. His death had a profound impact on Romero, who later stated, "When I looked at Rutilio lying there dead I thought, 'If they have killed him for doing what he did, then I too have to walk the same path'". Romero urged the government to investigate, but they ignored his request. Romero started to investigate himself to see how he could help the people of the campesinos that have been kidnap. Later Romero spoke out against poverty, social injustice, assassinations and torture and the ones that were kidnap as political prisoners. When he spoke of this this brought many more enemies towards his way because they did no wanted a archbishop speaking of such things and saying that El Salvador government was not doing and this made the people with power furious and they decided to take actions in their hands. Also, Archbishop Oscar Romero utilized the broadcast as an oral newspaper: every documented case of killing, assault, disappearance, or torture – whether by the left or the right was broadcast. To let everyone know how El Salvador was and to show the ones with power that he was not afraid to talk about what was happening and why they weren’t doing their job in find out what was going on in the community.
Beginning in the late 1970s Liberation Theology, Marxism, and U.S. Cold War policy collided in El Salvador culminating in a civil war that lasted over a decade and ultimately produced democratic political institutions that persist into the 21st century. Despite the prejudices against the church on behalf of government and media organizations in the U.S. and El Salvador, religious actors fought for human rights and the implementation of democratic institutions throughout the period of conflict. The Salvadoran Civil War, which occurred in the context of the Cold War, was one of the bloodiest and longest events in the history of Latin America after the Guatemalan Civil War. The conflict lasted from 1979 to 1992, left approximately 75,000 people dead, and a country in ashes. The conflict started after the fraudulent elections of the Coronel Arturo Armando Molina (1972), who focused his term on repressing the communist political parties that wanted to work for a social reform. This aroused the anger of the popular sectors, which started to organize groups and demonstrations demanding fair election and improvement of social conditions. The government responded to their demands with savage violence, focusing primarily on the oppression of campesinos because they were the ones who supported the revolutionary leftist forces. These actions alienated the Salvadoran population even more and caused many people in the Catholic Church to start denouncing the government’s actions. Thus, as the Civil War started to rise, the church started to radicalize and to and spoke up against the government’s actions. One of its most fervent advocates was Monsignor Oscar Arnulfo Romero, who during his short time as the Archbishop of San Salvador manifested hi...
The Contra War consisted of many parties, although primarily included the Contras, the Sandinistas or FSLN, and the United States Government. The Nicaraguan Revolution spanned from 1970 to 1990, while the Contra War in which the Contras rebelled against the Sandinistas occurred from 1979 to 1990. The Contras rebelled with the support of the United States against the Sandinistas who recently obtained power in Nicaragua. The current state of tension created by the Cold War, having to do with Communist and Democratic disputes, set the stage for the conflict. The Contra War was a highly controversial period of conflict in Nicaraguan history that comprised of many clashing perspectives. The major parties involved in the war included the United States Government that supported the rebelling Contras and strongly opposed the Sandinista authority in Nicaragua. Along with the Contras or counterrevolutionaries that were disaffected by the Sandinista policies and wanted freedom from the Sandinista Government. A final major party involved in the conflict was Sandinistas, who detested the U.S. backed Contras and were fighting for peace in Nicaragua, after a long period of turmoil and insurrection.
Guatemala held democratic elections in 1944 and 1951, they resulted in leftist government groups holding power and rule of the country. Intervention from the United States and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) backed a more conservative military minded regime. A military coup took place in 1954 to over throw the elected government and install the rule of Carlos Castillo Armas. Carlos Armas was a military general before the coup and with the CIA orchestrated operation he was made President from July 8th 1954 until his assassination in 1957. Upon his assassination, similar militant minded presidents rose to power and continued to run the country. Due to the nature of military dictatorship, in 1960, social discontent began to give way to left wing militants made up of the Mayan indigenous people and rural peasantry. This is the match that lit Guatemala’s Civil War, street battles between the two groups tore the country and pressured the autocratic ruler General Miguel Ydigoras Fuentes to fight harder against the civilian insurrection. Similar to the government Abductions th...
From the time of its colonization at the hands of Spanish Conquistadors in the early 1500’s, Guatemala has suffered under the oppression of dictator after dictator. These dictators, who ruled only with the support of the military and only in their own interests, created a form of serfdom; by 1944, two percent of the people owned 70 percent of the usable land. The Allies’ victory in WWII marked democracy’s triumph over dictatorship, and the consequences shook Latin America. Questioning why they should support the struggle for democracy in Europe and yet suffer the constraints of dictatorship at home, many Latin Americans rallied to democratize their own political structures. A group of prominent middle–class Brazilians opposed to the continuation of the Vargas dictatorship mused publicly, “If we fight against fascism at the side of the United Nations so that liberty and democracy may be restored to all people, certainly we are not asking too much in demanding for ourselves such rights and guarantees.”
Himmelfarb, Martha. Tours of Hell: An Apocalyptic Form in Jewish and Christian Literature. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1983.
A developing country that continually shows growth will soon with time become a developed country, however, the situation could go both ways for El Salvador. On the western side of the hemisphere in Central America lies a country Southwest of Guatemala and Southeast of Honduras, namely El Salvador. Although El Salvador is a very small country in comparison to other members of Central America, it was not forgotten by the Conquistadors ultimately making El Salvador become one of Spain’s colonies. However, El Salvador finally achieved independence from Spain in 1821 and complete independence in 1839 after the failure of the Central American Federation (Factbook). Usually, the economic sector in El Salvador consists of a free-trade economy as most
War and violence in Central America is a result of governmental injustice due to the United States’ foreign policies. The United States supported El Salvador with weapons and money throughout the civil war. As a result of enforcing these policies, El Salvador’s poverty, population and crime rate increased. The books “…After…” by Carolina Rivera Escamilla and “The Tattooed Soldier” by Hector Tobar give us a glimpse of the issues Central Americans faced.