When we think of communism, the first thing that comes to mind for most people is the Soviet Union. Communism also made its way into other countries like El Salvador.
“Search Media.” Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?search=%2BSalvadoran%2BCommunist%2BParty&title=Special%3AMediaSearch&go=Go&type=image.
The Salvadoran Communist Party was founded in 1930, but it truly came to fruition through Augustín Farabundo Martí leadership in 1932. The party was in favor of the campesinos (farmers), who were getting their land taken without being paid a livable wage. This lead to a revolt against the militaristic dictatorship that El Salvador was in at the time; the lower class citizens in El Salvador attacked military barracks and property of the rich in an attempt to make their voice heard. In retaliation, the president, Hernández Martínez, ordered for the killing of at least 10,000 people who were suspected in participating, or even people who were just indigenous-looking. This is one of the biggest events that has happened in Salvadoran history, it is now know today as “La Matanza” (“The Slaughter”).
Orr, Katie. “Jan. 22, 1932: La Matanza (‘The Massacre’) Begins in El Salvador.” Zinn Education Project, 23 Jan. 2021, https://www.zinnedproject.org/news/tdih/la-matanza.
Skipping forward to 1967, this was the year when Col. Fidel Sánchez Hernández was elected president in El Salvador. At this point in time, the country was facing some economic difficulties, especially in regards to Honduras; known as “La Guerra del Fútbol” (“The Football War”) or “Guerra de Cien Horas” (“100 Hour War”). The name comes from the football matches that El Salvador has had against Honduras in the World Cup; although it may seem insignificant, the conflict was way deeper than this and the situation only got more tense with FIFA (1970). Honduras is three times the size of El Salvador and even though both countries were under a similar government dictatorship, the Salvadoran people thought that they would have a better chance of making a living in Honduras. Unfortunately, Hondurans did not receive the Salvadoran people warmly, in fact they established a land reform act to place blame on the immigrants and began to deport them. Everything really went down on the last match that El Salvador and Honduras had, on July 14th, 1969, El Salvador beat Honduras 3-2, the war began. El Salvador invaded Honduras and more than 6,ooo Hondurans and 100,000 Salvadorans died at the result of this conflict. It did not last long, hence the name 100 Hour War, but it is unfortunate to see so many lives lost and the tension between these two countries that still exist today.
MiPatria. “Resumen De La Guerra De Las 100 Horas.” MIPATRIA.NET, 10 Nov. 2019, https://mipatria.net/guerra-de-las-100-horas/.
I hope y’all learned something interesting from this because I definitely did. For the next blog I will be going into depth about the civil war that occurred in El Salvador.
Thank you! 🙂
Really great read! It’s fascinating to learn about the history of a country that my high school history class really didn’t cover at all. Crazy that the spark that started the war between El Salvador and Honduras was a football game. Although there were obviously much deeper causes, I can’t imagine the amount of football hype that must have developed.
Amazing research as always. Always a great read. It’s crazy such a simple thing could cause so much tension