11) OLIGARCHY AND MILITARY DICTATORSHIP IN EL SALVADOR

 

By Larry Wasslen, Ottawa, part of a series of articles on the history and politics of El Salvador

 

            There has been a long history of close relations between the ruling class and the military in El Salvador, where the privileged minority could only maintain control with the backing of military muscle.

 

            This relationship shifted into high gear in December 1931, when Vice‑President General Maximiliano Sanchez Martinez overthrew President Arturo Araujo. The military would be in direct control until Alvaro Alfredo Magana Borjo was installed by a junta in 1982. The Christian Democratic Party candidate Jose Napoleon Duarte was elected in 1984. To understand the current revolutionary situation in El Salvador, it is important to have a clear picture of the period of direct military rule.

 

            The stage was set by liberal land reforms such as the Ley de Extincion de Ejidos (1882) and the Ley de Extincion de Comunidades (1891) which forced First Nations peoples off their communal lands.

 

            By the turn of the century the conservative and liberal branches of the oligarchy had made peace with each other and developed a cozy power‑sharing arrangement, whereby the presidency alternated between ruling class families. Between 1913 and 1931 the Melendez and Quinonez families rotated in and out of the presidential office.

 

            Pio Romero Bosque, the final member of the Quinonez dynasty, broke with tradition. Although repression continued, Romero Bosque lifted the state of siege, tolerated open trade union organization and refused to name a successor. This set the stage for the election of Arturo Araujo of the Salvadoran Labor Party/National Republican Party. Araujo, a landowner who had travelled extensively in Europe, ran on a platform of "safeguarding everyone's right to the minimum necessities of life" with land reform and social welfare high on his agenda. This concerned both the oligarchy and Washington, while urban and rural workers continued to organize.

 

            The Salvadorian capitalist economy depended almost exclusively on coffee exports. By 1920, 70% of the work force was made up of landless agricultural workers. As long as foreign markets were expanding and the domestic working class could be controlled, life for the 65 leading families remained comfortable, and there was no need for direct military rule.

 

            The crash of 1929 had a direct effect on El Salvador. State finances were hard hit by a drop in the price of coffee. The ruling class cut wages and food allowances to protect their profit margins, and the First Nations, working class, and peasantry fought back.

 

            The Federacion Regional de Trabajadores Del Salvador (FRTS), formed in the 1920s with a strong Marxist perspective, played a key role in the development of the Communist Party of El Salvador (CPS), founded in secret on March 28, 1930. Agustin Farabundo Marti Rodriguez, after whom the FMLN is named, was a founding member of the CPS. The class struggle intensified in El Salvador and 80,000 people marched in the May Day parade in 1930. The CPS was also organizing in rural El Salvador. Respected aboriginal leaders such as Feliciano Ama and Chico Sanchez joined the CPS. Large numbers of First Nations people joined the Party which offered the only possible solution to the economic and land crisis of the 1930s.

 

            Romero Bosque dropped his liberal disguise and banned all demonstrations and left‑wing publications. Mass arrests followed: 600 peasants in Sonsonate and 1200 activists including leading members of the CPS.

 

            By the time Araujo took over, peasant strikes had spread throughout the western provinces. The vital interests of the ruling class were in jeopardy. Martial law was declared after a student demonstration in July. Soldiers in San Salvador went on strike. On December 2, 1931, a group of colonels from the capital staged a coup. General Maximiliano Hernandez Sanchez, Araujo's vice‑president and Minister of War, became President.

 

            Mass agitation expanded, especially in the center and western parts of the country where the CPS had been organizing. Municipal elections called for the first two weeks of January 1932 proved inoperative, as victories by the CPS were either annulled or reversed by fraud.

 

            Armed insurrection was now seen as the only option to defeat the forces of oppression. An uprising was set for January 16, but changed twice (18th and 22nd) to allow for better preparation. The dictatorship discovered the plans, and many of the principal organizers were arrested, including Marti. Several were executed immediately.

 

            The rising that did occur was supported by the CPS even though key leaders were in prison or dead. Local aboriginal leaders, including prominent communists such as Ama, stepped forward to lead the uprising. The main targets were particularly brutal landlords or foremen. A few towns in the western part of the country were liberated, but important centers held out, including San Salvador. By January 24, the regime was able to counter‑attack and retake most of the liberated villages.

 

            What followed can only be described as genocide. Hernandez Sanchez ordered Jose Tomas Calderon to "head the repression". Between 30,000 and 40,000 peasants, mostly from the Pipil First Nation, were rounded up and executed over just a few days. Any aboriginal with a machete was deemed to be a revolutionary. Anyone who spoke Pipil or wore traditional aboriginal clothing was systematically murdered. Militants of the CPS were hunted down and shot. Jose Feliciano Ama was lynched and then hacked to pieces by a racist mob. Marti was executed on February 1.

 

            The "Matanza" slaughter was the calling card of military dictators for the next 50 years. During this period, 14 military governments held political power, giving unflinching support for the landed oligarchy. All these governments used massive repression against workers, peasants, professionals and students who opposed the ruling class. The period was also characterized by a constant series of coups and counter-coups by different elements of the military, and the formation of political parties to provide the appearance of democracy.

 

            The 1970s were a period of repression with promises of reforms by the Partido de Conciliacion Nacional (PCN, National Conciliation Party). The military delivered on repression, and the oligarchy blocked the reforms.

 

            But resistance to oppression was a constant reality. After the Matanza, the CPS went underground, and continued to organize in trade unions, among non‑unionized peasant farmers and in the universities. Various organizations emerged, including the Fuerzas Populares de Liberacion Farabundo Marti (1970), the Ejercito Revolucionario del Pueblo (1972), Resistencia Nacional and the Partido Revolucionario de los Trabajadores Centroamericanos (1975).

 

            A "Revolutionary" junta overthrew the PCN generals on October 15, 1979, and governed until 1982. Meanwhile, the revolutionary forces united to form the Frente Farabundo Marti para la Liberacion Nacional (FMLN) on October 10, 1980.

 

            People's Voice will continue coverage of the revolutionary process taking place in El Salvador today, with an article on the Salvadorian Civil War, the Peace Accords and the current electoral struggle against neo‑liberalism.

 

(The above article is from the March 16-31, 2014, issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading socialist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $30/year, or $15 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $45 US per year; other overseas readers - $45 US or $50 CDN per year. Send to People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 706 Clark Drive, Vancouver, BC, V5L 3J1.)