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.
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.
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.
Father Renato Pellachin, an Italian Franciscan priest, left, speaks with leftist guerrilla officials from the Fuerzas Populares de Liberación, FPL, center and right, in La Reina, El Salvador, February 4, 1983. During the twelve-year civil war, the Catholic Church in El Salvador often condemned the violence and oppression committed by the authoritarian regime, with some members of the clergy sharing guerrilla sympathies.
Father Renato Pellachin, an Italian Franciscan priest, left, speaks with leftist guerrilla officials from the Fuerzas Populares de Liberación, FPL, center and right, in La Reina, El Salvador, February 4, 1983. During the twelve-year civil war, the Catholic Church in El Salvador often condemned the violence and oppression perpetrated by the authoritarian regime, with some members of the clergy sharing guerrilla sympathies.
Students attend an outdoor grammar class in territory held by guerrillas from the Fuerzas Populares de Liberación, FPL, near Santa Anita, Chalatenango department, El Salvador, February 22, 1981. The children had been displaced by the ongoing armed conflict between guerrilla factions and government forces.
In territory held by leftist guerrillas from the Fuerzas Populares de Liberación, FPL, a displaced father holds his son near Santa Anita, Chalatenango department, February 21, 1981. About a quarter of the country’s population, nearly one million people, are thought to have been displaced during the twelve-year civil war, half of them internally while the other half fled abroad. A large number of Salvadorans who fled abroad to escape the civil war sought refuge in the United States.
Students attend an outdoor grammar class in territory held by guerrillas from the Fuerzas Populares de Liberación, FPL, near Santa Anita, Chalatenango department, El Salvador, February 22, 1981. The children had been displaced by the ongoing armed conflict between guerrilla factions and government forces.
Salvadoran workmen from an electric power company examine damage done to a utility pole by a bomb placed by guerrillas from the Frente Farabundo Martí para la Liberación Nacional, Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front, FMLN, in Chalatenango, El Salvador, May 4, 1984. The act was an attempt to sabotage the upcoming Salvadoran presidential elections set to take place 3 days ahead. By 1981, the FMLN had launched a tremendously successful campaign against economic infrastructure which affected the country's export economy and reduced the mobility of the Salvadoran Armed Forces and paramilitary forces.
Two unidentified guerrillas from the Fuerzas Populares de Liberación, FPL, pose with a banner in Santa Anita, Chalatenango department, El Salvador, February 23, 1981. Salvadoran women were present in all levels of leadership in guerrilla organizations, constituting their significant incorporation into the political struggle. An estimated 30% of the full force of the Frente Farabundo Martí para la Liberación Nacional, Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front, FMLN, was comprised of women.
Guerrillas from the Fuerzas Populares de Liberación, FPL, march behind a banner along a road in Santa Anita, Chalatenango department, El Salvador on February 23, 1981. 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, march behind a banner along a road in Santa Anita, Chalatenango department, El Salvador, February 23, 1981. At the outbreak of the civil war, the FPL joined the guerrilla coalition Farabundo Martí para la Liberación Nacional, Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front, FMLN, on October 10, 1980 with the primary strategy and demands of dissolving the army and paramilitary security forces and establishing effective national agrarian reform. Despite ideological differences between the organizations in the coalition, the FMLN became the strongest guerrilla army in Latin America in the Cold War period.
Guerrilla fighters from the Fuerzas Populares de Liberación, FPL, interrogate family members of a right-wing death squad, right with cap, following an overnight attack on a nearby village in Santa Anita, El Salvador, February 22, 1981. At the time the FPL controlled the majority of the mountainous Chalatenango department. FPL merged with four leftist organizations in 1980 to form the Frente Farabundo Martí para la Liberación Nacional, Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front, FMLN. The group drew its name from Salvadoran communist leader and revolutionary Agustín Farabundo Martí, whose 1932 peasant revolt had lasting consequences for the indigenous and campesino communities.
In territory held by the guerrilla faction Fuerzas Populares de Liberación, FPL, armed guerrillas cross a river near the Salvadoran-Honduran border in Chalatenango department, El Salvador, February 25, 1981. The country was engaged in a twelve-year civil war between successive authoritarian regimes, backed by the United States, and the guerrilla coalition Frente Farabundo Martí para la Liberación Nacional, Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front, FMLN. The conflict would claim over 75,000 lives before peace negotiations concluded in 1992.