1979 Salvadoran coup d'état#Background

The National Conciliation Party (PCN) had held a firm grasp on Salvadoran politics since the 1961 Salvadoran Constitutional Assembly election and the 1962 Salvadoran presidential election, following the dissolutions of both the Junta of Government in 1961 and the Civic-Military Directory in 1962.{{cite web |title=Presidentes de El Salvador – 1931–2004 |trans-title=Presidents of El Salvador – 1931–2004 |url=http://www.casapres.gob.sv/presidentes/dir5.htm |website=Presidente Elías Antonio Saca El Salvador |access-date=10 September 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090228031652/http://www.casapres.gob.sv/presidentes/dir5.htm |archive-date=28 February 2009 |language=es}}{{cite book |last=Nohlen |first=Dieter |title=Elections in the Americas: A data handbook |volume=1 |date=2005 |page=276}} The PCN government was supported by the United States, for, as a military dictatorship, it was seen as "the most effective [way of] containing Communist penetration in Latin America".{{cite journal |last=Beverley |first=John |title=El Salvador |journal=Social Text |publisher=Duke University Press |issue=5 |pages=55–72 |date=1982 |jstor=466334 |doi=10.2307/466334}} The Salvadoran National Guard was equipped and trained by the United States and the CIA, both of which directly supported the PCN regime.

Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, many political groups arose in opposition to the military government of the National Conciliation Party. The Christian Democratic Party (PDC) was the chief opponent of the PCN, gaining significant influence in the Legislative Assembly. In the 1972 presidential election, PDC candidate José Napoleón Duarte, under the banner of the National Opposition Union (UNO), was declared to have won the election by 6,000 votes by the Central Election Board, but the result was cancelled and the Legislative Assembly instead voted to install PCN candidate Arturo Armando Molina as president.{{cite book |last1=Herman |first1=Edward S. |last2=Brodhead |first2=Frank |title=Demonstration elections: U.S.-staged elections in the Dominican Republic, Vietnam, and El Salvador |publisher=South End Press |location=Boston, MA |date=1984 |page=94}} Duarte was arrested, tortured, and exiled to Venezuela for his victory in the 1972 election.

File:Humberto Romero 1977.jpg who was overthrown by the coup]]

Other, less political, groups which appeared included the United Front for Revolutionary Action (FUAR), Party of Renovation (PAR), Unitary Syndical Federation of El Salvador (FUSS), Unified Popular Action Front (FAPU), and the Christian Federation of Salvadoran Peasants (FECCAS).{{cite journal |last=Montgomery |first=Tommie Sue |title=The Church in the Salvadoran Revolution |journal=Latin American Perspectives |publisher=Sage Publications Inc. |volume=10 |issue=1 |pages=62–87 |date=1983 |s2cid=144912142 |jstor=2633364 |doi=10.1177/0094582X8301000105}}{{cite web |author=Resource Information Center |title=El Salvador: Information on the Federación Cristiana de Campesinos Salvadoreños (FECCAS), Christian Federation of Salvadoran Peasants |url=https://www.refworld.org/docid/3decd91a4.html |publisher=United States Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services |date=23 August 2001 |access-date=19 August 2020}} In order to combat the political and militant opposition to the government, President Julio Adalberto Rivera established the National Democratic Organization (ORDEN).{{cite web |title=The 1970s: The Road to Revolt |url=http://countrystudies.us/el-salvador/12.htm |website=countrystudies.us |publisher=U.S. Library of Congress |access-date=6 September 2020}}{{cite book |last=Popkin |first=Margaret |title=Peace Without Justice: Obstacles to Building the Rule of Law in El Salvador |publisher=The Pennsylvania State University Press |location=University Park, PA |date=2000 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/peacewithoutjust0000popk/page/26/mode/2up 26–48] |isbn=9780271019970 |oclc=41488798}} The organization was headed by General José Alberto Medrano and placed under the administration of the National Security Agency of El Salvador (ANSESAL). ORDEN was a group of several government-controlled death squads that were used to arrest and torture political opponents, intimidate voters, rig elections, and kill peasants.{{cite book |last=Stanley |first=William|title=The Protection Racket State Elite Politics, Military Extortion, and Civil War in El Salvador |publisher=Temple University Press |date=1996 |pages=107–132 |isbn=9781566393911 |jstor=j.ctt14bswcg}} ORDEN claimed to have somewhere between 50,000 and 100,000 members at its peak in the late 1960s.{{cite web|url=https://www.historyisaweapon.com/defcon1/nairnelsalvadorbtds.html|title=Behind the Death Squads: An Exclusive Report on the US Role in El Salvador's Official Terror|website=History is a Weapon|author=Nairn, Allan|date=1984}} Some of the most notorious death squads included the Anti-Communist Armed Forces of Liberation – War of Elimination (FALANGE) and the White Warrior's Union (Mano Blanca).

The Football War between El Salvador and Honduras in July 1969 saw 300,000 Salvadoran refugees leave Honduras for safety in El Salvador. They increased rates of unemployment and crime, weakening the nation's economy. The refugees coming from Honduras overpopulated the already densely populated country. They lived in poverty and had to sustain themselves without any government assistance.{{cite book|last1=Anderson|first1=Thomas P.|title=The War of the Dispossessed: Honduras and El Salvador, 1969|location=Lincoln|publisher=University of Nebraska Press|date=1981|pages=1–203}} The impoverished citizens supported opposition candidates in elections since the government did little to nothing to support them, but the results were always rigged by the government and the poor were harassed by ORDEN. The increase of impoverished Salvadorans in the nation allowed militant groups such as the Farabundo Martí People's Forces of Liberation (FPL), Communist Party of El Salvador (PCES), National Resistance (RN), and the People's Revolutionary Army (ERP) to grow in size and numbers.

In March 1979, President Carlos Humberto Romero attempted to negotiate with his political opponents due to the outbreak of the Nicaraguan Revolution the year prior, hoping to prevent a revolution against his own government.{{cite web|url=http://www.casapres.gob.sv/presidentes/pres/junta11979.htm|title=Presidentes de El Salvador – Primera Junta Revolucionaria de Gobierno|website=Presidente Elías Antonio Saca El Salvador|language=es|trans-title=Presidents of El Salvador – First Revolutionary Government Junta|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090302073338/http://www.casapres.gob.sv/presidentes/pres/junta11979.htm|archive-date=2 March 2009}} As a result, opposition forces, who saw weakness, organized strikes and marched in the streets of San Salvador and the crowds seized public buildings. Romero's soldiers crushed the strikes and marches by using live ammunition on the protesters. The event was broadcast across the United States and Europe and resulted in Costa Rica, Japan, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and West Germany, closing their embassies in El Salvador citing an "uncontrollable spiral of violence".

{{Campaignbox Salvadoran Civil War}}

In July 1979, the regime of Anastasio Somoza Debayle was overthrown in the Nicaraguan Revolution and the Sandinistas gained power in Nicaragua. The event caused many military officials in El Salvador to fear that Romero's government would likely soon fall to the left-wing guerrilla forces with Sandinista support, and several military officers planned a coup to prevent El Salvador from "suffering the same fate as Nicaragua."{{cite web|url=http://countrystudies.us/el-salvador/13.htm|title=El Salvador – The Reformist Coup of 1979|website=countrystudies.us |access-date=11 October 2019|publisher=U.S. Library of Congress}}{{cite journal|title=Continuity and Change in U.S. Foreign Policy: Carter and Reagan on El Salvador|last=Pastor|first=Robert|journal=Journal of Policy Analysis and Management|volume=3|issue=2|pages=170–190|date=1984|publisher=Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management|jstor=3323931|doi=10.1002/pam.4050030202}}{{cite journal|last=Gleijeses|first=Piero|title=The Case for Power Sharing in El Salvador|journal=Foreign Affairs|date=1983|volume=61|issue=5|pages=1048–1063|publisher=Council on Foreign Relations|jstor=20041635|doi=10.2307/20041635}} The 800-strong officer corps of the military decided to act to remove Romero and install their own government with support from the United States.

Before the coup was staged, three different groups each started plotting their own coup attempts.{{cite journal|last=Jung|first=Harald|title=The Civil War in El Salvador|journal=Boletín de Estudios Latinoamericanos y del Caribe|date=1982|issue=32|pages=5–13|publisher=Centrum voor Studie en Documentatie van Latijns Amerika (CEDLA)|jstor=25675122}} In May 1979, Colonel Ernesto Claramount, a Christian Democrat who was living in exile in Costa Rica, called for the army to overthrow Romero. Constitutionalists in the army under Colonel Adolfo Arnoldo Majano Ramos wanted to bring several economic and political reforms to El Salvador, while those with pro-U.S. sympathies, who wanted moderate reforms and to crush left-wing organizations, supported Colonel Jaime Abdul Gutiérrez Avendaño. Meanwhile, oligarchs supported extreme reactionaries in the army to protect their own interests. According to the memoirs of Colonel Gutiérrez Avendaño, the coup was postponed three times. He claimed that Romero found out about the conspiracy but failed to take any serious action to prevent it.

{{Covert United States involvement in regime change}}

On 15 October 1979 at 8:15{{nbsp}}a.m. local time, the group of military officers, called the Military Youth, rallied the Armed Forces of El Salvador to overthrow Romero's government.{{cite web|url=http://diario1.com/zona-1/2013/09/memorias-de-un-golpista/|title=Jaime Abdul Guitérrez, memorias de un golpista|date=September 19, 2013|website=Diario1.com}} The armed forces were led by Colonels Majano Ramos and Gutiérrez Avendaño.{{cite news|url=http://elpais.com/diario/1980/05/14/internacional/327103210_850215.html|title=El coronel Adolfo Majano, desplazado del control del ejército salvadoreño Jaime Abdul Gutiérrez representará a las fuerzas armadas en la junta de gobierno|date=May 14, 1980|access-date=19 August 2020|website=El País}} The coup succeeded with no casualties and resulted in Romero's resignation.{{cite journal|last=Fisher|first=Stewart W.|title=Human Rights in El Salvador and U. S. Foreign Policy|journal=Human Rights Quarterly|date=1982|volume=4|issue=1|pages=1–38|publisher=The Johns Hopkins University Press|jstor=761988|doi=10.2307/761988}} He was charged with corruption, electoral fraud, and human rights violations, but Romero fled for exile in Guatemala after negotiating a deal with the military to leave El Salvador by 6:30{{nbsp}}p.m. local time. Divisional General Federico Castillo Yanes (Minister of National Defense), and Colonels Antonio Corleto (Director of the National Guard), Antonio López (Director of the National Police), Oscar René Serrano (Director of the Treasury Police), and Roberto Santibáñez (Director of the Political Police) also left the country for exile.{{cite news|url=https://elpais.com/diario/1979/10/17/internacional/308962803_850215.html|title=La junta militar salvadoreña decreta el estado de sitio|date=October 16, 1979|access-date=September 5, 2020|website=El País}}{{cite web|url=https://www.fuerzaarmada.mil.sv/?page_id=737|title=Exministros de Defensa|website=Ministerio de la Defensa Nacional|access-date=September 4, 2020|archive-date=1 October 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201001232646/https://www.fuerzaarmada.mil.sv/?page_id=737|url-status=dead}}

In the wake of the coup, the military established the center-left wing Revolutionary Government Junta.{{cite book|isbn=978-0-8330-4159-3|last=Rabasa|first=Angela|chapter=El Salvador (1980–1992)|title=Money in the Bank: Lessons Learned from Past Counterinsurgency (COIN) Operations|date=2007|pages=39–48|publisher=RAND Corporation|jstor=10.7249/op185osd.12|editor1-last=Rabasa|editor1-first=Angel|editor2-last=Warner|editor2-first=Lesley Anne|editor3-last=Chalk|editor3-first=Peter|editor4-last=Khilko|editor4-first=Ivan|editor5-last=Shukla|editor5-first=Paraag}} The junta consisted of Colonels Majano Ramos and Gutiérrez Avendaño, and three civilians: Guillermo Manuel Ungo Revelo, Mario Antonio Andino, and Román Mayorga Quirós. Ungo Revelo was a democratic socialist politician who had opposed the PCN government in the 1970s, Andino was the ex-vice president of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of El Salvador (CCIES), and Mayorga Quirós was a member of the Central American University.{{cite web|url=http://www.fundaungo.org.sv/ungo/bio.html|archive-date=13 May 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070513055018/http://www.fundaungo.org.sv/ungo/bio.html|title=Dr. Guillermo Manuel Ugno Biografía|date=1988|website=Fundaungo|access-date=19 August 2020}} The Salvadoran National Guard supported the coup and most of its leadership became loyal to the junta.{{cite web|url=https://www.elpueblosv.com/2019/10/15/hace-40-anos-le-dieron-golpe-de-estado-al-general-romero/|title=Hace 40 años le dieron golpe de estado al General Romero|date=October 15, 2019|website=Diario El Pueblo|author=Medina, Luis|access-date=26 August 2020|archive-date=28 August 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200828103510/https://www.elpueblosv.com/2019/10/15/hace-40-anos-le-dieron-golpe-de-estado-al-general-romero/|url-status=dead}} Brigadier General José Guillermo García was appointed to Minister of National Defense by the junta.

The junta dissolved ORDEN which resulted in the death squads operating independently throughout what became the Salvadoran Civil War. The junta itself was the source of human rights violations such as mass murder, torture, executions, and unexplained disappearances. Despite dissolving ORDEN, the junta utilized its own death squads to commit the atrocities.

The United States government took an active role in the coup. Plotters stated that they had first attained prior U.S. approval for the coup. It is clear that the U.S. was aware of the plan beforehand.{{cite book|last1=Williams|first1=Philip|first2=Knut|last2=Walter|title=Militarization and Demilitarization in El Salvador's Transition to Democracy|date=1997|publisher=University of Pittsburgh Pre|isbn=0822971860|pages=99–100}} The U.S. had been Romero's biggest supporter, but by October 1979, the U.S. decided it needed a regime change. The officers the U.S. recruited promised reforms, political rights, and amnesty for all political prisoners.{{cite journal |last=Dutta |first=Sujit |title=El Salvador: Towards Another Vietnam |journal=Social Scientist |volume=10 |issue=2 |pages=4–17 |date=1982 |jstor=3516972 |doi=10.2307/3516972}} Following the coup, the United States immediately recognized the junta's legitimacy as the government of El Salvador. Under Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan, the junta and subsequent civilian government received massive aid and funding{{clarify|date=October 2024}} from the United States.{{cite book|title=The Killing Zone: The United States Wages Cold War in Latin America|last=Rabe|first=Stephen|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2016|isbn=9780190216252|location=New York|pages=144–175}}{{cite journal|last=Pastor|first=Robert|date=Winter 1984|title=Continuity and Change in U.S. Foreign Policy: Carter and Reagan on El Salvador|journal=Journal of Policy Analysis and Management|volume=3|issue=2|pages=175–190|doi=10.1002/pam.4050030202}}{{Cite book|title=Reagan and the World: Imperial Policy in the New Cold War|last=McMahan|first=Jeff|publisher=Monthly Review Press|year=1985|isbn=085345678X|location=New York|page=123|url=https://archive.org/details/reaganworldim00mcma}}

The coup was proclaimed as a "reformist coup" which established a "reformist junta," similar to the Military Revolutionary Council in South Vietnam during the 1963 South Vietnamese coup d'état which overthrew Ngô Đình Diệm. In both instances, the United States sent increased support to the new government.

The chairman of the junta, Majano Ramos, had left-leaning tendencies. The United States counted on right-leaning influence from Gutiérrez, and later Duarte, drowning out Majano Ramos' leftist influence. They eventually succeeded when Majano Ramos resigned as chairman and commander-in-chief in May 1980, and then from the junta entirely in December 1980. He was later arrested by the junta in February 1981 and left for exile in Panama in March 1981 after being released.{{cite web|url=http://www.mcnbiografias.com/app-bio/do/show?key=majano-adolfo-arnaldo|title=Majano, Adolfo Arnaldo (1937-VVVV).|website=Le web de las Biografías|access-date=19 August 2020|author=Enciclonet|date=8 December 2012 }}{{cite web|url=https://www.csmonitor.com/1980/0609/060943.html|title=Resignation Threat Shakes Tottering El Salvador Junta|date=May 20, 1980|author=Goodsell, James Nelson|access-date=19 August 2020|website=The Christian Science Monitor}}{{cite web|url=https://www.csmonitor.com/1980/0520/052034.html|title=Whirlwind of Violence in El Salvador|date=June 9, 1980|author=Goodsell, James Nelson|website=The Christian Science Monitor|access-date=19 August 2020}} His resignation allowed Gutiérrez Avendaño to become commander-in-chief and chairman of the junta in May 1980. He remained chairman and commander-in-chief until December 1980 when Duarte became president of the junta, where he remained until the 1982 presidential election.

{{see|Salvadoran Civil War}}

File:ERP combatants Perquín 1990 55.jpg in 1990]]

In the weeks directly following the coup, thousands of civilians marched in the streets of San Salvador. They occupied churches and gathered around government buildings, demanding that the junta release information of all those who had disappeared under the military regime. They also demanded the lowering of rent prices, a raise in wages, and the institute of land reform.{{cite journal |last=Ram |first=Susan |title=El Salvador: Perspectives on a Revolutionary Civil War |journal=Social Scientist |volume=11 |issue=8 |pages=3–38 |date=1983 |jstor=3517048 |doi=10.2307/3517048}} Despite ORDEN being officially dissolved by the junta in October 1979, its former paramilitary forces continued to operate during the civil war. Archbishop Óscar Arnulfo Romero y Galdámez cautiously endorsed the junta which was established stating that the junta's goals of reform were good willed, but he warned that "beautiful promises are not dead letters."

The coup of 1979 allowed for the rise of militant left-wing groups in the country. The five largest groups, Farabundo Martí People's Forces of Liberation (FPL), Communist Party of El Salvador (PCES), National Resistance (RN), People's Revolutionary Army (ERP), and the Revolutionary Party of the Central American Workers – El Salvador (PRTC), joined forces on 10 October 1980, nearly one year after the coup, to form the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN), the most prominent opposition force to the Salvadoran government throughout the Salvadoran Civil War.{{cite book |last=Wood |first=Elisabeth |title=Insurgent Collective Action and Civil War |publisher=Cambridge Studies in Comparative Politics |year=2003 |pages=1–4, 14–15 |isbn=0521010500}}{{cite journal |last=Karl |first=Terry Lynn |title=El Salvador's Negotiated Revolution |journal=Foreign Affairs |publisher=Council on Foreign Relations |volume=71 |issue=2 |pages=147–164 |date=1992 |jstor=20045130 |doi=10.2307/20045130}} The group was named after Augustín Farabundo Martí Rodríguez, the leader of the Communist Party during an uprising in 1932 that resulted in the massacre of 10,000 to 40,000 peasants under the rule of Maximiliano Hernández Martínez, who himself had a far-right death squad named after him.{{cite web|url=https://archive.org/details/elsalvadorcountr00hagg |title=El Salvador: A Country Study, "Right-Wing Extremism" |year=1988|publisher=Federal Research Division / Library of Congress |access-date=2020-02-23|page=235}}{{cite book|last1=Anderson|first1=Thomas P.|date=1971|title=Matanza: El Salvador's Communist Revolt of 1932|location=Lincoln|publisher=University of Nebraska Press|page=88}}

During the rule of the junta from 1979 to 1982, around 20,000 Salvadoran civilians were killed, with human rights organizations estimating that up to 80% were killed directly by the junta. In 1980, the U.S.-equipped National Guard massacred 300–600 civilians in Chalatenango, and in 1981, the U.S.-trained Atlácatl Battalion massacred 800 civilians in the village of El Mozote.{{cite web|url=http://www.derechos.org/nizkor/salvador/informes/truth.html|title=Report of the UN Truth Commission on El Salvador|last1=Betancur|first1=Belisaric|last2=Planchart|first2=Reinaldo Figueredo|last3=Buergenthal|first3=Thomas|date=1 April 1993|website=derechos.org|publisher=Equipo Nizkor and Derechos Human Rights|access-date=19 August 2020}}{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/08/international/americas/08salvador.html?_r=0|title=O.A.S. to Reopen Inquiry Into Massacre in El Salvador in 1981|author=Urbina, Ian|date=8 March 2005|work=The New York Times|access-date=19 August 2020|archive-date=30 January 2013|archive-url=https://archive.today/20130130135513/http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/08/international/americas/08salvador.html?_r=1&|url-status=live|df=mdy-all}} The junta denied the accusations of utilizing death squads to protect itself, instead claiming that it was a problem it could not control.{{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=laXQnJfpTlc|archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211114/laXQnJfpTlc|archive-date=14 November 2021|url-status=live|date=13 March 1981|publisher=ThamesTv|title=El Salvador Civil War – Military Junta – Salvadoran Civil War – TV Eye – 1981|website=YouTube|access-date=19 August 2020}}{{cbignore}} The resulting civil war killed anywhere from 70,000 to 80,000 people and lasted twelve years from 1979, starting with the coup, until 1992, with the signing of the Chapultepec Peace Accords.{{cite web|url=https://www.baltimoresun.com/1992/02/02/civil-war-ends-at-last-in-el-salvador-but-differences-persist-after-cease-fire/|date=2 February 1992|website=The Baltimore Sun|title=Civil War Ends at Last in El Salvador, but Differences Persist after Cease-fire|access-date=19 August 2020|archive-date=7 October 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171007170551/http://articles.baltimoresun.com/1992-02-02/news/1992033025_1_el-salvador-san-salvador-peace-commission|url-status=live}}

The coup of 1979 was the last successful military coup in Salvadoran history.{{cite web|url=https://www.panoramas.pitt.edu/news-and-politics/el-salvadors-attempted-coup|title=El Salvador's Attempted Coup|date=28 February 2020|author=Bristol, Mia|access-date=19 August 2020|website=Panoramas|archive-date=15 January 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210115234831/https://www.panoramas.pitt.edu/news-and-politics/el-salvadors-attempted-coup|url-status=dead}}

{{portal|El Salvador}}

• List of Salvadoran coup d'états

{{reflist}}

{{1979 Salvadoran coup d'état}}

{{Salvadoran coups}}

{{Americas coup d'état}}

Category:1979 in El Salvador

Category:Conflicts in 1979

Category:1979 in politics

Category:October 1979 in North America

Category:1970s coups d'état and coup attempts

Category:Cold War conflicts

Category:Cold War in Latin America

Category:Military coups in El Salvador

Category:Salvadoran Civil War