Death squads in El Salvador ( es, escuadrones de la muerte) were

far-right Far-right politics, also referred to as the extreme right or right-wing extremism, are political beliefs and actions further to the right of the left–right political spectrum than the standard political right, particularly in terms of being ...

paramilitary A paramilitary is an organization whose structure, tactics, training, subculture, and (often) function are similar to those of a professional military, but is not part of a country's official or legitimate armed forces. Paramilitary units carr ...

groups acting in opposition to Marxist–Leninist guerrilla forces, most notably of the

Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front The Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front ( es, Frente Farabundo Martí para la Liberación Nacional, FMLN) is a left-wing political party in El Salvador. The FMLN was formed as an umbrella group on 10 October 1980, from five leftist gu ...

(FMLN), and their allies among the civilian population before, during, and after the

Salvadoran Civil War The Salvadoran Civil War ( es, guerra civil de El Salvador) was a twelve year period of civil war in El Salvador that was fought between the government of El Salvador and the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN), a coalition or ...

. The death squads committed the vast majority of the murders and massacres during the civil war from 1979 to 1992 and were heavily aligned with the United States-backed government.

History

Pre-civil war

Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, many political groups arose in opposition to the

military government A military government is generally any form of government that is administered by military forces, whether or not this government is legal under the laws of the jurisdiction at issue, and whether this government is formed by natives or by an occup ...

of the

National Conciliation Party The National Coalition Party ( es, Partido de Concertación Nacional, PCN) is a nationalist political party in El Salvador. Until 2011 it was known as the National Conciliation Party ( es, Partido de Conciliación Nacional, PCN). It was the most ...

(PCN). The

Christian Democratic Party __NOTOC__ Christian democratic parties are political parties that seek to apply Christian principles to public policy. The underlying Christian democracy movement emerged in 19th-century Europe, largely under the influence of Catholic social tea ...

(PDC) was the chief opponent of the PCN, gaining significant influence in the Legislative Assembly. Nohlen, D (2005) ''Elections in the Americas: A data handbook, Volume I'', p276 In the 1972 presidential election, PDC candidate

José Napoleón Duarte José Napoleón Duarte Fuentes (23 November 1925 – 23 February 1990) was a Salvadoran politician who served as President of El Salvador from 1 June 1984 to 1 June 1989. He was mayor of San Salvador before running for president in 1972. He l ...

, under the banner of the

National Opposing Union The National Opposing Union ( es, Unión Nacional Opositora, abbreviated as UNO) was a Salvadoran political coalition which existed from 1972 to 1979. The coalition was composed of the Christian Democratic Party, the National Revolutionary Mo ...

(UNO), was declared to have won the election by 6,000 votes by the Central Election Board, but the result was canceled and the Legislative Assembly voted PCN candidate

Arturo Armando Molina Colonel Arturo Armando Molina Barraza (6 August 1927 – 18 July 2021) was a Salvadoran politician and military officer, who served as President of El Salvador from 1972 to 1977. He was born in San Salvador. He served between 1 July 1972 and ...

as president.'' Other, less political groups which appeared included the

United Front for Revolutionary Action The United Front for Revolutionary Action (, abbreviated as FUAR) was a short-lived militant organization which was the paramilitary wing of the Communist Party of El Salvador from 1962 to 1964. The organization, which was led by Schafik Handal, ...

(FUAR), Party of Renovation (PAR), Unitary Syndical Federation of El Salvador (FUSS), and the

Christian Federation of Salvadoran Peasants The Christian Federation of Salvadoran Peasants (, abbreviated as FECCAS) was a Salvadoran peasant union which had connections to the Christian Democratic Party. History The Christian Federation of Salvadoran Peasants was created by the Natio ...

(FECCAS). In order to combat the political and militant opposition to the government, President

Julio Adalberto Rivera Carballo Julio Adalberto Rivera Carballo (2 September 1921 – 29 July 1973) was a Salvadoran politician and military officer, who was the 34th President of El Salvador, in office from 1962 to 1967. Early life and career Rivera was born in Zacatecol ...

established the National Democratic Organization (ORDEN).Popkin, Margaret. Peace Without Justice (University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2000) The organization was headed by General

José Alberto Medrano José Alberto Medrano (2 November 1917 – 23 March 1985) was a Salvadoran general who, starting in the 1960s, headed the National Security Agency of El Salvador (ANSESAL) and the Nationalist Democratic Organization (ORDEN), a paramilitary grou ...

and placed under the administration of the

National Security Agency of El Salvador The National Security Agency of El Salvador (, abbreviated as ANSESAL) was the national intelligence agency of El Salvador during the History of El Salvador (1931–1979), military regime and the Salvadoran Civil War, civil war. The organizatio ...

(ANSESAL). ORDEN was a group of several government controlled

death squad A death squad is an armed group whose primary activity is carrying out extrajudicial killings or forced disappearances as part of political repression, genocide, ethnic cleansing, or revolutionary terror. Except in rare cases in which they are f ...

s which were used to arrest and torture political opponents, intimidate voters, rig elections, and kill peasants. ORDEN claimed to have somewhere from 50,000 to 100,000 members at its peak in the late 1960s.

During the civil war

During the

, the

Revolutionary Government Junta of El Salvador , national_anthem = '' Himno Nacional de El Salvador'' , image_map = LocationElSalvador.svg , capital = San Salvador , common_languages = Spanish , religion = , demonym = Sal ...

officially dissolved the National Democratic Organization, leaving its paramilitaries to break free and operate independently. The paramilitaries openly targeted members of the FMLN and civilians, notably workers of human rights organizations. Despite officially having no connection to the government, the death squads and paramilitaries were almost always soldiers from the

Armed Forces of El Salvador The Armed Forces of El Salvador ( es, Fuerza Armada de El Salvador) are the official governmental military forces of El Salvador. The Forces have three branches: the Salvadoran Army, the Salvadoran Air Force and the Navy of El Salvador. Histor ...

, meaning the death squads were indirectly funded and armed by the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

. Further funding also came from right-wing politicians and businessmen. Several death squads held

fascist Fascism is a far-right, authoritarian, ultra-nationalist political ideology and movement,: "extreme militaristic nationalism, contempt for electoral democracy and political and cultural liberalism, a belief in natural social hierarchy and the ...

ideologies.

Post-civil war

During negotiations to end the civil war in what are now the

Chapultepec Peace Accords The Chapultepec Peace Accords were a set of peace agreements signed on January 16, 1992, the day in which the Salvadoran Civil War ended. The treaty established peace between the Salvadoran government and the Farabundo Martí National Liberat ...

, part of the agreements were that the government of El Salvador would crack down on and suppress the paramilitaries that fought alongside them during the civil war. The accords stated that the government would " ppress paramilitary entities (Civil Defense Patrols)." Most of the paramilitaries that existed in the country before and during the civil war have since ceased to exist but one notable exception,

Sombra Negra The ''Sombra Negra'' (Spanish for "Black Shadow"), also known as ''El Clan de Planta'' ("The Plant Clan"), are (as of 2014) death squad groups based in El Salvador, allegedly composed mostly of police and military personnel, that target criminal ...

, continues to operate in the country, targeting gang members of

MS-13 Mara Salvatrucha, commonly known as MS-13, is an international criminal gang that originated in Los Angeles, California, in the 1970s and 1980s. Originally, the gang was set up to protect Salvadoran immigrants from other gangs in the Los Ange ...

and

18th Street Gang 18th Street, also known as , , , or simply in Central America, is a multi-ethnic (largely Central American and Mexican) transnational criminal organization that started as a street gang in Los Angeles. It is one of the largest transnational ...

as a form of

vigilante justice Vigilantism () is the act of preventing, investigating and punishing perceived offenses and crimes without legal authority. A vigilante (from Spanish, Italian and Portuguese “vigilante”, which means "sentinel" or "watcher") is a person who ...

Human rights violations

During the civil war, the paramilitaries, often labeled as

s, came to public attention when on March 24, 1980, Archbishop of San Salvador

Óscar Romero Óscar Arnulfo Romero y Galdámez (15 August 1917 – 24 March 1980) was a prelate of the Catholic Church in El Salvador. He served as Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of San Salvador, the Titular Bishop of Tambeae, as Bishop of Santiago ...

was assassinated while giving Mass. The Salvadoran government investigated but was unable to identify who assassinated Romero. The investigation did identify Major

Roberto D'Aubuisson Roberto D'Aubuisson Arrieta (23 August 1943 – 20 February 1992) was a neo-fascist Salvadoran soldier, politician and death squad leader. In 1981, he co-founded and became the first leader of the far-right Nationalist Republican Alliance ...

, a

neo-fascist Neo-fascism is a post-World War II far-right ideology that includes significant elements of fascism. Neo-fascism usually includes ultranationalism, racial supremacy, populism, authoritarianism, nativism, xenophobia, and anti-immigration ...

who commanded several death squads during the civil war, as having ordered the assassination. The US-trained

Atlácatl Battalion The Atlácatl Battalion (Spanish: ) was a rapid-response, counter-insurgency battalion of the Salvadoran Army created in 1981. It was implicated in some of the most infamous massacres of the Salvadoran Civil War, and as a result, it was disbande ...

of the

Salvadoran Army The Salvadoran Army (Spanish: ''Ejército Salvadoreño'') is the land branch and largest of the Armed Forces of El Salvador. Conflicts The Football War The Football War (also called The Soccer War or 100-hours War) was a term coined by Po ...

was responsible for committing two of the largest massacres during the civil war: the El Mozote massacre and the

El Calabozo massacre The El Calabozo massacre was an incident during the Salvadoran Civil War on 21–22 August 1982, in which more than two hundred people, including children and elderly, were reportedly killed at El Calabozo by the Atlácatl Battalion of the Salva ...

.Notorious Salvadoran Battalion Is Disbanded : Military: U.S.-trained Atlacatl unit was famed for battle prowess but was also implicated in atrocities.
''Los Angeles Times.'' 9 December 1992. Sombra Negra tortured victims, mostly gang members, and killed them with a point-blank shot to the head.

List of paramilitaries

(''Batallón Atlácatl''; BA) * Anti-Communist Brigade of the East (''Brigada Anticomunista de Oriente''; BACO) * Anti-Communist Front for the Liberation of Central America (''Frente Anticomunista para la Liberación de Centroamérica''; FALCA) * Anti-Communist Political Front (''Frente Político Anticomunista''; FPAC) * Armed Forces of Anti-Communist Liberation – War of Elimination (''Fuerzas Armadas de Liberación Anticomunista – Guerra de Eliminación''; FALANGE) * Black Shadow (''Sombra Negra''; SN) * General Eusebio Bracamonte Battalion (''Batallón General Eusebio Bracamonte''; BGEB) * General

Manuel José Arce Manuel José Arce y Fagoaga (1 January 1787 – 14 December 1847) was a decorated salvadoran General and president of the Federal Republic of Central America from 1825 to 1829, followed by Francisco Morazán. Background Manuel José Arce was ...

Battalion (''Batallón General Manuel José Arce''; BGMJA) * Group of Social Extermination (''Grupo de Exterminio Social''; GES) * Legion of the Caribe (''Legión del Caribe''; LC) *

Maximiliano Hernández Martínez Maximiliano Hernández Martínez (20 October 1882 – 15 May 1966) was a Salvadoran military officer and politician who served as the president of El Salvador from 4 December 1931 to 28 August 1934 in an acting capacity and again in an officia ...

Anti-Communist Brigade (''Brigada Anticomunista Maximiliano Hernández Martínez''; MHM) *

(''Agencia Nacional de Seguridad Salvadoreña''; ANSESAL) * National Democratic Organization (''Organización Democrática Nacionalista''; ORDEN) * Organization for the Liberation from Communism (''Organización para la Liberación del Comunismo''; OLC) * Patriotic Association of Liberty or Slavery (''Asociación Patriótica de Libertad o Esclavitud''; APLE) * Salvadoran Anti-Communist Brigade (''Brigada Anticomunista Salvadoreña''; BACSA) * Salvadoran Anti-Communist Command (''Comando Anticomunista Salvadoreño''; CAS) * Salvadoran Proletariat Brigade (''Brigadas Proletarias Salvadoreñas''; BPS) * Secret Anti-Communist Army (''Ejército Secreto Anticomunista''; ESA) * Squadron of Death (''Escuadrón de la Muerte''; EM) * White Warrior's Union (''Unión Guerrera Blanca''; UGB, also called Mano Blanca)

References

Citations

Bibliography

*{{cite journal, last1=Beverley, first1=John, title=El Salvador, date=1982, journal=Social Text, language=en, publisher=Duke University Press, issue=5, pages=55–72, doi=10.2307/466334, jstor=466334 Salvadoran Civil War Anti-communist terrorism Far-right terrorism Fascism in El Salvador Crime in El Salvador Far-right politics Law enforcement units Political repression State-sponsored terrorism