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 Salvadoran army soldier stands over a dead guerrilla from the Fuerzas Populares de Liberacion, FPL, killed in a battle in Tejutepeque, El Salvador, March 26, 1984. The Salvadoran army lost 57 soldiers in the battle while FPL guerrillas lost 16 when they attacked two army positions 20 miles from San Salvador, the nation's capital. The twelve-year armed conflict would claim over 75,000 lives before peace negotiations concluded in 1992.
Salvadoran army soldiers gather body bags of 57 dead soldiers killed by guerrillas from the Fuerzas Populares de Liberación, FPL, in Tejutepeque, El Salvador, March 26, 1984. FPL guerrillas lost 16 fighters when they attacked two army positions 20 miles from San Salvador, the nation's capital. The conflict would claim over 75,000 lives before peace negotiations concluded in 1992.
Salvadoran army soldiers gather body bags of 57 dead soldiers killed by guerrillas from the Fuerzas Populares de Liberación, FPL, in Tejutepeque, El Salvador, March 26, 1984. FPL guerrillas lost 16 fighters when they attacked two army positions 20 miles from San Salvador, the nation's capital. The conflict would claim over 75,000 lives before peace negotiations concluded in 1992.
Salvadoran army soldiers gather the body bags of 57 dead soldiers killed by guerrillas from the Frente Farabundo Martí para la Liberación Nacional, Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front, FMLN, in Tejutepeque, El Salvador, March 26, 1984. Guerrillas attacked two army positions in Tejutepeque, 20 miles from San Salvador, and reported 16 of their own killed in the ambush. The country was engaged in a twelve-year civil war that claimed over 75,000 lives before peace negotiations concluded in 1992.
Salvadoran army soldiers gather the body bags of 57 dead soldiers killed by guerrillas from the Frente Farabundo Martí para la Liberación Nacional, Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front, FMLN, in Tejutepeque, El Salvador, March 26, 1984. Guerrillas attacked two army positions in Tejutepeque, 20 miles from San Salvador, and reported 16 of their own killed in the ambush. The country was engaged in a twelve-year civil war that claimed over 75,000 lives before peace negotiations concluded in 1992.
Salvadoran army soldiers gather the body bags of 57 dead soldiers killed by guerrillas from the Frente Farabundo Martí para la Liberación Nacional, Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front, FMLN, in Tejutepeque, El Salvador, March 26, 1984. Guerrillas attacked two army positions in Tejutepeque, 20 miles from San Salvador, and reported 16 of their own killed in the ambush. The country was engaged in a twelve-year civil war that claimed over 75,000 lives before peace negotiations concluded in 1992.
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.
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.
Local residents mourn as a truck carrying caskets of dead relatives arrives in Guadalupe, San Vicente department, El Salvador, May 9, 1983. The dead were members of a local civil defense force killed by guerrillas from the Frente Farabundo Martí para la Liberación Nacional, Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front, FMLN. Civil defense units in El Salvador were under military command and operated particularly in rural areas where guerrilla support was high.
A member of the guerrilla organization Fuerzas Populares de Liberación, FPL, speaks to the media after he was captured by Salvadoran security forces near a FPL safe house containing weapons, explosives, medical supplies and pieces of guerrilla propaganda in San Salvador, El Salvador, September 1, 1983. FPL was comprised primarily of union workers, university students, and social Christian groups and was one of five organizations within the guerrilla coalition Frente Farabundo Martí para la Liberación Nacional, Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front, FMLN.
A member of the guerrilla organization Fuerzas Populares de Liberación, FPL, speaks to the media after he was captured by Salvadoran security forces near a FPL safe house containing weapons, explosives, medical supplies and pieces of guerrilla propaganda in San Salvador, El Salvador, September 1, 1983. FPL was comprised primarily of union workers, university students, and social Christian groups and was one of five organizations within the guerrilla coalition Frente Farabundo Martí para la Liberación Nacional, Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front, FMLN.
Leftist guerrillas from the Fuerzas Populares de Liberación, FPL, interrogate a family member involved in the paramilitary group Organización Democrática Nacionalista, National Democratic Organization, ORDEN, seated left, after a takeover of a nearby village in Santa Anita, El Salvador, February 22, 1981. ORDEN was established in the late 1960s with support from the United States Army Special Forces by General José Alberto Medrano, known as the father of Salvadoran counterinsurgency. ORDEN, along with the Agencia Nacional de Seguridad Salvadoreña, National Security Agency of El Salvador, ANSESAL, widely considered to be the origin of the death squads, were employed by the military to infiltrate and terrorize rural populations considered subversive to the regime. Although ORDEN was nominally disbanded in 1979, many of its members were folded into civil defense units who continued to use extrajudicial violence and torture to repress the civilian population throughout the armed conflict.
Leftist guerrillas from the Fuerzas Populares de Liberación, FPL, interrogate a family member involved in the paramilitary group Organización Democrática Nacionalista, National Democratic Organization, ORDEN, seated center right, after a takeover of a nearby village in Santa Anita, El Salvador, February 22, 1981. ORDEN was established in the late 1960s with support from the United States Army Special Forces by General José Alberto Medrano, known as the father of Salvadoran counterinsurgency. ORDEN, along with the Agencia Nacional de Seguridad Salvadoreña, National Security Agency of El Salvador, ANSESAL, widely considered to be the origin of the death squads, were employed by the military to infiltrate and terrorize rural populations considered subversive to the regime. Although ORDEN was nominally disbanded in 1979, many of its members were folded into civil defense units who continued to use extrajudicial violence and torture to repress the civilian population throughout the armed conflict.
The body of a dead Salvadoran civilian is taken away in a vehicle after a previous day's firefight between members of the Frente Farabundo Martí para la Liberación Nacional, Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front, FMLN, and Salvadoran security troops in San Salvador, El Salvador, October 24, 1984. The man was leaving work for his home in a government housing project. The twelve-year armed conflict would claim over 75,000 lives before peace negotiations concluded in 1992.