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- A Violent Past
Since achieving independence from Spain in 1821, El Salvador has endured a succession of dictators and military leaders, numerous violent rebellions, and interference from neighboring countries. Salvadoran troops point their guns towards Honduras in July 1969, when a border dispute between the two nations led to a four-day war. In the 1970s, overpopulation, poverty, and social unrest resulted in terrorism and murder carried out by left-wing guerrilla soldiers and -- especially -- right-wing "death squads." In 1979, a military junta yielded to full-scale civil war between government troops and the guerrillas of the Farabundo Martà National Liberation Front or FMLN, a revolutionary and socialist political party. Credit: AP Photo
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- Civil War and the Civilians
Members of the Salvadoran emergency rescue units during combat in one of the areas of the capital that were heavily hit during a major guerrilla offensive that was launched by the FMLN in November 1989. The intensity of the guerrillas' fighting led the military to often not distinguish between armed combatants and unarmed civilians, contributing to the war's tremendous death toll -- an estimated 75,000, most at the hands of the military regime. During this period, hundreds of millions of dollars in U.S. aid was used to fight the war. Credit: Reuters/Str MA
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- End of Civil War
A resolution to El Salvador's civil war began in 1989, with the election of President Alfredo Cristiani, who, with the help of the United Nations, negotiated a settlement with the FMLN in the form of the 1992 Chapultepec Accords. The army was reined in and violence on both sides came to a halt. Here, military school cadets guard the monument CHRIST FOR PEACE on January 16, 1998 -- the sixth anniversary of the signing of the accords. Credit: AP Photo/Luis Romero
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- Paramilitaries
Members of a riot squad subdue a protestor during a 1995 clash between police and former paramilitaries. Such encounters have taken place numerous times since the signing of the 1992 Chapultepec Accords as former soldiers, who fought for the government and helped overwhelm the leftist guerrillas during the war, demand what they feel is long-overdue compensation for their work. In 2001 their cries turned to violence as they overtook San Salvador's city center, forcing the government to temporarily shut down. Credit: AP Photo/Douglas Engle
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- Gangs
El Salvador is struggling to cope with growing gang violence. The violence is exacerbated by ongoing social unrest, economic devastation from the civil war, the breakdown of families and social structures, and the presence of refugees turned gang members from the United States -- who came home or were deported after 1996. One of the biggest social problems in postwar El Salvador has been rural unemployment. This has caused increased migration to the cities and to other countries, especially the United States. Unofficial estimates say that the United States is home to some two million Salvadorans. Credit: Neil Harvey
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- Natural Disasters
El Salvador has been devastated by a series of natural disasters while trying to recover from its 12-year civil war. In 1998, Hurricane Mitch ravaged the country, leaving 200 dead and more than 30,000 homeless. A tremendous landslide wiped out a portion of the town of Santa Tecla, near San Salvador, in the wake of a 7.6 magnitude earthquake that hit on January 13, 2001. The earthquake killed 844 people, left nearly 5,000 injured, and damaged roughly 20 percent of the country's viable housing. Later that year, a drought destroyed 80 percent of El Salvador's crops and brought famine to its poorer, non-urban populations. In response, the United States extended refugee status to nearly 300,000 Salvadorans affected by the earthquake. Another, smaller earthquake hit the nation in October 2005. Credit: AP Photo/La Prensa Grafica
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- Human Rights
An employee of the Human Rights Committee of El Salvador shows a photo album of alleged torture victims from the country's civil war. In July 2002, a U.S. jury ordered two former Salvadoran generals to pay $54.6 million in damages to torture victims. The generals, both of whom live in the United States, were tried under the auspices of the Torture Victim Protection Act, which permits civil lawsuits against those accused of committing torture or murder "under actual or apparent authority, or color of law, of any foreign nation" and the Alien Tort Claims Act of 1789, which states that U.S. federal courts "shall have original jurisdiction of any civil action by an alien for a tort only, committed in violation of the law of nations or a treaty of the United States." Credit: AP Photo/Luis Romero
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- President Saca
In San Salvador on Wednesday, March 29, 2006, El Salvador's President Tony Saca decorated soldiers of contingent five of the Cuscatlan Battalion, who recently returned from Iraq. Unlike a number of other countries in the region (Venezuela, Brazil, Bolivia), El Salvador has not made a hard turn to the left, politically; its ties with the United States remain strong. Since 2003, El Salvador has stationed nearly 400 troops in Iraq -- a move that has been widely and vehemently protested at home. In April 2004, one Salvadoran soldier was killed and several were injured during a gun battle with insurgents near Najaf. Credit: AP Photo/Luis Romero
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Mr. Aaron Brown, I want to thank you from the deepest part of my heart for showing such great and informative programs. I was born in El Salvador and my family and I immigrated to the United States in the early 70’s. On August 4th, Wide Angle presented a program about the gangs in El Salvador. I am planning to use this information in the several projects that I have to present while I complete my master degree in Education. I have plans to continue my studies and complete a doctorate in Sociology. Your documentary about the gangs in El Salvador is going to help me teach my students the importance of taking advantage of their education.
Once again, Mr. Brown, million thanks for bringing this information to our televisions. I will encourage other teachers and principals to watch WIDE ANGLE. ANGLEdifficult is during my intership and
Just want to add something on the historical perspective. There was a second big earthquake in Feb.,2001, in the Department of Cuscatlan. In Oct., 2005, Hurricane Mitch caused amy landslides. I know 6 people who were killed in one such mudslide.
In reference to the Civil War, please include mention of the scortched earth policy carried out here as Operation Phoenix in the rurual areas. That, too, accounts for many civilian deaths.
Land was also an issue in the war as 2% of the population owned more than half of the good farming land. In the early 30’s there was a great massacre of
the Indigenous population, about 30,000 farmers.
Very vocal in behalf of a negotiated settlement of the war, was assassinated Archbishop Oscar Romero. The deaths of 6 Jesuits, their cook, and her daughter in 1989 also made the US Congress question continued military funding of this war, a six billion dollar total not counting what went to the CIA.
Thank you for your consideration of these items, as well as your exposure of the gangs. For 19 summers, I have seen the war end in one way, but continue in another with the economy and gang violence.