El Salvador Research Paper

Americas Watch. 1991. El Salvador’s Decade of Terror: Human Rights since the Assassination of Archbishop Romero. New Haven and London: Yale University Press.

Imagine living in a country where you know you could die at any moment but don’t know how much longer till it happens. That was how much of the population of El Salvador used to feel when the government could not control the big coffee corporations. These out of control corporations, highly feared that the people would want to revolt against them so they hired murderers to kill innocent people to spread fear in the minds of the people of El Salvador. Fear, hate, and sorrow were the common feelings felt by the poor and innocent major population of El Salvador caused by the evil wrongdoings of the government during October 1979 – 16 January 1992. This is how the main character, Jose Luis, of the novel “Mother Tongue” by Demetria Martinez, felt before escaping his beautiful yet over constantly dangerous country, which depended on its cash crop, coffee beans to sell on a foreign market as the country’s main income. However, following the stock-market crash of 1929, a drop in coffee prices became apparent and affected everyone in El Salvador, but the poor especially. Making things worse, the glorious United States was funding the men whom were doing all the innocent killings with more weapons and money to increase their military power. So for Jose Luis the safe haven that he had escaped to was also blatantly funding the war that was killing so many innocent people he knew and had forced him to escape for his own safety. With nowhere else to go in order to find safety the United

Given these circumstances, El Salvador’s economy was largely shaped by the Guatemalan elite. Although, Guatemala had size and power, El Salvador was able to resist takeovers but it left them tough and often violent, leaving the perfect atmosphere to foster El Salvador’s gangs. Likewise, El Salvador has also had a history of violence because of the Salvadoran Civil War that lasted from 1979 to 1992. This civil war took the lives of approximately 80,000 soldiers and civilians in El Salvador (Wood, 1). The Civil War separated families as some were granted temporary protection in the United States during the war, and while others lived as undocumented migrants. Once the war ended, many migrants were sent back to El Salvador where conditions were not good. With a government recovering from a war, gangs saw an opportunity to build and start battling for territory. There are an estimated 25,000 gang members at large in El Salvador, while roughly another 9,000 are in prison (Guillermoprieto, 2). The two major gangs that rule El Salvador are MS13, which stands for Mara Salvatrucha, and Barrio 18, which references “18th Street” in Los

The Massacre at El Mozote as told by Mark Danner takes place El Salvador. El Salvador is the smallest country in Central America. It shares borders with Guatemala and Honduras. El Salvador is divided into 14 departments and El Mozote is a village in one of the Departments called Morazan. According to the author, the Salvadoran Civil War 1979-1992 was a conflict waged by the Military led Government of El Salvador and coalition of left-leaning militias or guerillas called the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN).The FMLN was supported by peasants and indigenous Indian people. The United States supported the El Salvador Military government.

As a result poverty grew and the conflict between the poor and the rich became a big problem El Salvador had to deal with during the 20th century. A Central American Socialist Party was born and lead people against the government and in response the government of El Salvador at the time supported military death teams who killed anyone who supported that party.

About eleven years after the Massacre took place; a survivor named Rufina Amaya Márquez came forward and shared her story, an eye witness account of what happened at El Mozote (Danner 7). Much of the world, including the United States refused to believe her (Danner 8). The United States knew the Salvadoran government and the military were fighting left-wing rebels, who, they believed to be pro-communist, but when Rufina’s story appeared on the

(Marx, 4).Therefore, Marx states that the way civilians are treated depends on production of goods and services. Therefore, it can be argued that citizens of El Salvador were subjugated during colonization because of the way cash crops were being exploited. Things slowly began to change when people revolted against this mode of production. Marx would argue that the Salvadoran Civil War began because of materialistic motives such as the change from feudalistic policies to more industrialized ones which is evident in its history. Marx argued that the mode of production

The Civil War in the early 1980s in El Salvador cost the lives of about 100,000 people. Besides, two million people are reported to have immigrated to the United States, due to the uncertain political and social conditions there. A big chunk of the refugees arrived and settled in the Rampart area of Los Angeles. They needed low cost housing and employment. That area was already afflicted with gangs and crimes. For the local population of Mexican-Americans, this was the most unwelcome development. The combustible youth immigrants from Salvador took the problem of their survival in response to the victimization at the hands of local gangs, as a serious challenge and formed a new gang by name Mara Salvatrucha,

The Spanish civil war is often seen as a fundamental divide between right and left- the first major struggle between Fascism and Communism. The Spanish civil war started distinctly as a Spanish civil war born out of Spanish disputes, but it was soon to take on an international character. The military situations were practically equal to both sides before the foreign intervention. However, after Germany, Italy, and USSR intervened the situation changed dramatically.

El Salvador is a country known for its beautiful beaches, mountainous landscape, and coffee export. Unfortunately, this perfect picture is only a wall that hides the true violence that occurs in the country. El Salvador’s violence is an ongoing cycle, so how does today’s violence differ and compare from the violence in the 1980’s? The differences and similarities of violence in El Salvador from now and then involve root cause, political involvement, and economic issues.

El Salvador’s history might contain harsh episodes, but they all ended in a peaceful agreement. For example, there is the country’s struggle for Independence. El Salvador became a Spanish colony after indigenous resistance was crushed (BBC News). At length, the country achieved Independence from Spain on September

The social condition in El Salvador concerning the people was divided from wealthy people to poor campesinos. Discriminated against the campesinos because the people with the power in the community want to control what they do and don’t want them to do nothing for them. Poor housing because there houses are not build in the proper way for a person to live

Twentieth century El Salvador is made up of violence, suffering, and hardships. After the independence of El Salvador, the elite took control of this country which produced discontent amongst the lower classes. During the 1920’s this discontent grew because of political abuse and increased poverty. According to John Chasteen in Born In Blood and Fire, Salvadoran indigenous people were pushed into volcanic land by the

The Reagan administration substantially increased both military and economic aid to El Salvador. The civil war raged on in El Salvador, fueled by U.S. aid to the Salvadoran military. The government harshly repressed dissent, and at least 70,000 people lost their lives in killings and bombing raids waged against civilians throughout the countryside. The country's infrastructure had crumbled, and the nation. The government military also start force recruitment to the children who are already twelve years old for becoming the child soldier. so does the geurillas.

Preston also argues that the Spanish Civil War and its outbreak is best explained by analyzing the events from 1931-1936. The different aims of the moderate republicans, socialists and anarchists clashed, causing tension. Things had worsened when the united right (The CEDA party) won the elections in 1933. However, several reforms of the left were deeply hated the Right. The army and the church also resented these reforms. There was a general belief that a united coalition against the left could defeat the threat of socialism in the 1933 elections. However, the right failed to do so as the coalition had fallen apart. Tension began to rise as the CEDA