Representatives of the Frente Democrático Revolucionario, Revolutionary Democratic Front, FDR, Guillermo Ungo, center left of microphone, and Rubén Zamora, center right of microphone, with representatives of the guerrilla coalition Frente Farabundo Martí para la Liberación Nacional, Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front, FMLN, Facundo Guardado, far left, Fermán Cienfuegos, speaking in microphone, Lucio Rivera, second right of microphone, and Nidia Díaz, far right, address the press during peace talks with the Salvadoran government in La Palma, El Salvador, October 15, 1984. A military stalemate led to direct public peace negotiations for the first time in the civil conflict between the Salvadoran government and members of the FDR-FMLN. The two sides would engage in peace talks intermittently throughout the country’s twelve-year civil war before the signing of the 1992 Chapultepec Peace Accords.
Salvadoran government officials Julio Adolfo Rey Prendes, left in white, Minister of Defense General Carlos Eugenio Vides Casanova, middle, and President José Napoleón Duarte, middle speaking in microphone, address the press during peace talks with the insurgency coalition FDR-FMLN in La Palma, El Salvador, October 15, 1984. A military stalemate led to direct public peace negotiations for the first time in the civil conflict between the Salvadoran government and members of the Frente Farabundo Martí para la Liberación Nacional, Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front, FMLN, and their political counterpart the Frente Democrático Revolucionario, Revolutionary Democratic Front, FDR. The two sides would engage in peace talks intermittently throughout the country’s twelve-year civil war before the signing of the 1992 Chapultepec Peace Accords.
Salvadoran government officials Julio Adolfo Rey Prendes, left in white, Minister of Defense General Carlos Eugenio Vides Casanova, middle, and President José Napoleón Duarte, middle speaking in microphone, address the press during peace talks with the insurgency coalition FDR-FMLN in La Palma, El Salvador, October 15, 1984. A military stalemate led to direct public peace negotiations for the first time in the civil conflict between the Salvadoran government and members of the Frente Farabundo Martí para la Liberación Nacional, Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front, FMLN, and their political counterpart the Frente Democrático Revolucionario, Revolutionary Democratic Front, FDR. The two sides would engage in peace talks intermittently throughout the country’s twelve-year civil war before the signing of the 1992 Chapultepec Peace Accords.
Representatives of the Frente Democrático Revolucionario, Revolutionary Democratic Front, FDR, Guillermo Ungo, center left of microphone, and Rubén Zamora, center right of microphone, with representatives of the guerrilla coalition Frente Farabundo Martí para la Liberación Nacional, Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front, FMLN, Facundo Guardado, far left, Fermán Cienfuegos, speaking in microphone, Lucio Rivera, second right of microphone, and Nidia Díaz, far right, address the press during peace talks with the Salvadoran government in La Palma, El Salvador, October 15, 1984. A military stalemate led to direct public peace negotiations for the first time in the civil conflict between the Salvadoran government and members of the FDR-FMLN. The two sides would engage in peace talks intermittently throughout the country’s twelve-year civil war before the signing of the 1992 Chapultepec Peace Accords.
Representatives of the Frente Democrático Revolucionario, Revolutionary Democratic Front, FDR, Guillermo Ungo, speaking in microphone, and Rubén Zamora, center right of microphone, with representatives of the guerrilla coalition Frente Farabundo Martí para la Liberación Nacional, Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front, FMLN, Facundo Guardado, far left, Fermán Cienfuegos, center left of microphone, Lucio Rivera, second to right, and Nidia Díaz, far right, address the press during peace talks with the Salvadoran government in La Palma, El Salvador, October 15, 1984. A military stalemate led to direct public peace negotiations for the first time in the civil conflict between the Salvadoran government and members of the FDR-FMLN. The two sides would engage in peace talks intermittently throughout the country’s twelve-year civil war before the signing of the 1992 Chapultepec Peace Accords.
Representatives of the Frente Democrático Revolucionario, Revolutionary Democratic Front, FDR, Guillermo Ungo, speaking in microphone, and Rubén Zamora, center right of microphone, with representatives of the guerrilla coalition Frente Farabundo Martí para la Liberación Nacional, Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front, FMLN, Facundo Guardado, far left, Fermán Cienfuegos, center left of microphone, Lucio Rivera, second to right, and Nidia Díaz, far right, address the press during peace talks with the Salvadoran government in La Palma, El Salvador, October 15, 1984. A military stalemate led to direct public peace negotiations for the first time in the civil conflict between the Salvadoran government and members of the FDR-FMLN. The two sides would engage in peace talks intermittently throughout the country’s twelve-year civil war before the signing of the 1992 Chapultepec Peace Accords.
A deserted building lies in disrepair in Cinquera, Cabañas department, El Salvador, September 8, 1984. At the time the town was continuously changing hands between Salvadoran government soldiers and guerrillas from the Fuerzas Populares de Liberación, FPL, in a bitter war of attrition that marked the twelve-year conflict.
A television crew from ABC films a young fighter from the Ejército Revolucionario del Pueblo, ERP, as guerrillas stop commercial traffic along the Pan American Highway in Usulatán department, El Salvador, May 1, 1983. Guerrilla tactics for disrupting the transportation of commercial goods were employed in protest of economic inequality and to show defiance to the authoritarian state regime.
Three agricultural advisers stand in a sugar cane field on the cooperative El Sunza in Sonsonate, El Salvador, October 7, 1983. The Salvadoran political elite viewed labor unions and land reform advocates as subversive enemies of the state and considered its leaders to be as dangerous as the guerrilla insurgency. El Salvador is a country burdened with one of the most rigid class structures in all of Latin America. Resistance to labor unions and land redistribution can be attributed to the economic oligarchy's overwhelming influence in the political and military spheres.
International media crowd United States Ambassador at Large to Central America Richard Stone as he prepares to depart at Ilopango Airport, San Salvador, El Salvador, August 1, 1983. Stone was facilitating preliminary peace talks between guerrilla leaders from the Frente Farabundo Martí para la Liberación Nacional, Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front, FMLN, and the Salvadoran government. Negotiations between the groups were ongoing throughout the twelve-year civil war. United States involvement in the Salvadoran armed conflict can be traced to a strategic hegemonic dominance favored by U.S. policy in Latin America, as well as Cold War-era concerns over the spread of communism after the revolutions in Cuba and Nicaragua.
A woman holds a picture of Archbishop Óscar Romero on the fourth anniversary of his assassination, San Salvador, El Salvador, March 24, 1984. Romero spoke out against the increasing violence and economic inequality sustained by the Salvadoran state regime and was murdered during mass on March 24, 1980 by a right-wing death squad under the orders of Roberto D’Aubuisson. The martyred Romero was officially canonized as a saint by Pope Francis in 2018.
Salvadoran Archbishop Arturo Rivera y Damas (1923-1994) accompanied by his clerical assistants and political leaders visit a town in central El Salvador, May 1, 1984. Rivera y Damas was named Archbishop in February of 1983 after the post was left unfilled following the March 1980 assassination of Archbishop Óscar Romero. Rivera y Damas was similarly outspoken in denouncing injustice and crimes committed by the state and he led the Church as a monitor in the country’s 1992 UN-backed peace process.
Journalists from western news organizations listen to leftist guerrilla officials from the Fuerzas Populares de Liberación, FPL, as they respond to questions during a press conference in La Palma, El Salvador, February 6, 1983. FPL, as a member of the coalition Frente Farabundo Martí para la Liberación Nacional, Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front, FMLN, acquired arms and strategic support from socialist parties in Vietnam, Nicaragua, Cuba, and the Soviet Union to fund their campaigns. The FMLN and their political counterpart the Frente Democrático Revolucionario, Revolutionary Democratic Front, FDR, were recognized as the established insurgency in El Salvador and played an integral role in the 1992 peace accords.