Jaime Abdul Gutiérrez Avendaño (5 April 1936 – 9 August 2012) was
Salvadoran military officer and politician. He was one of the leaders of the
1979 Salvadoran coup d'état
The 1979 Salvadoran coup d’état was a military coup d'état that occurred in El Salvador on 15 October 1979. The coup, led by young military officers, bloodlessly overthrew military President Carlos Humberto Romero and sent him into exile. T ...
which overthrew President General
Carlos Humberto Romero
General Carlos Humberto Romero Mena (29 February 1924 – 27 February 2017) was a Salvadoran army general politician who served as President of El Salvador from 1 July 1977, until his overthrow in a coup d'état on 15 October 1979.
Early l ...
and established the
, ending 48 years of exclusive
military rule in the country. The coup started the 12-year-long
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 ...
which lasted until 1992.
Gutiérrez served as a representative of 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 ...
(FAES) in the Revolutionary Government Junta from 1979 until the dissolution of the junta in 1982. He also serves as the junta's chairman in 1980, as its
vice president
A vice president, also director in British English, is an officer in government or business who is below the president (chief executive officer) in rank. It can also refer to executive vice presidents, signifying that the vice president is on ...
from 1980 to 1982, and served as commander-in-chief of the armed forces 1980 to 1982.
Early life
Jaime Abdul Gutiérrez Avendaño was born on 5 April 1936 in
Sonsonate,
El Salvador
El Salvador (; , meaning " The Saviour"), officially the Republic of El Salvador ( es, República de El Salvador), is a country in Central America. It is bordered on the northeast by Honduras, on the northwest by Guatemala, and on the south ...
.
He graduated from the
Captain General Gerardo Barrios Military School
The Captain General Gerardo Barrios Military School (Spanish: ), abbreviated as the EMCGGB, is a military academy in El Salvador. It was established in 1868 and is named after Captain General Gerardo Barrios who served as President of El Salvad ...
.
He served in 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 ...
as an engineer, and received a degree from the Higher Military Engineering School of Mexico in 1968. In July 1969, he returned to El Salvador and took part in
Football War
The Football War ( es, La guerra del fútbol; colloquial: Soccer War), also known as the Hundred Hours' War or 100 Hour War, was a brief military conflict fought between El Salvador and Honduras in 1969. Existing tensions between the two countr ...
with neighboring
Honduras
Honduras, officially the Republic of Honduras, is a country in Central America. The republic of Honduras is bordered to the west by Guatemala, to the southwest by El Salvador, to the southeast by Nicaragua, to the south by the Pacific Oce ...
.
Revolutionary Government of the Junta
In 1979, Gutiérrez joined a military conspiracy to overthrow the regime of President General
Carlos Humberto Romero
General Carlos Humberto Romero Mena (29 February 1924 – 27 February 2017) was a Salvadoran army general politician who served as President of El Salvador from 1 July 1977, until his overthrow in a coup d'état on 15 October 1979.
Early l ...
. The conspiracy culminated in a
coup d'état
A coup d'état (; French for 'stroke of state'), also known as a coup or overthrow, is a seizure and removal of a government and its powers. Typically, it is an illegal seizure of power by a political faction, politician, cult, rebel group, m ...
on 15 October 1979. After the overthrow of Romero, the ''Juventud Militar'', which lead the conspiracy, established the
.
Gutiérrez was one of the two military representatives on the junta, with the other being Colonel
Adolfo Arnoldo Majano.
Gutiérrez was considered the second most important person in the junta after Majano.
The other members of the junta were
Mario Antonio Andino
Mario Antonio Andino Gómez was a Salvadoran politician who the vice president of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of El Salvador (CCIES) and a member of the Revolutionary Government Junta of El Salvador
, national_anthem = '' Himn ...
, the vice president of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of El Salvador,
Román Mayorga Quirós, a member of the
Central American University
José Simeón Cañas Central American University ( es, Universidad Centroamericana "José Simeón Cañas"), also known as UCA El Salvador, is a private university with nonprofit purposes in San Salvador, El Salvador, run by the Society of J ...
, and
Guillermo Ungo, a
democratic socialist
Democratic socialism is a left-wing political philosophy that supports political democracy and some form of a socially owned economy, with a particular emphasis on economic democracy, workplace democracy, and workers' self-management within ...
politician.
Gutiérrez and Majano disagreed on how to solve El Salvador's deepening political crisis; Majano sought radical social reform, while Gutiérrez, who represented the conservative-minded army, preferred conservative military methods. On 12 May 1980, right-wingers within the military removed Majano as the chairman of the junta and Gutiérrez took over as chairman and commander-in-chief of the armed forces.
He led the transition to open civil war. Over the following months, terror escalated and hostilities spread throughout the country.
After Majano was removed from the junta, the third Revolutionary Government Junta was formed on 13 December 1980.
Christian Democrat
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 ...
was appointed
president of El Salvador while Gutiérrez took over as vice president and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces.
Over the next year and a half, the new government managed not only to maintain a military advantage and retain power, but also to hold elections to the Constitutional Assembly on 28 March 1982. On 2 May 1982, both Duarte and Gutiérrez resigned, ending the Revolutionary Government Junta and transferring power to the interim president-elect
Álvaro Magaña
Álvaro Alfredo Magaña Borja (October 8, 1925 – July 10, 2001) was a Salvadoran lawyer, economist and politician who was the president of El Salvador from 1982 to 1984.
Biography
He was born in Ahuachapán, El Salvador, and received his ...
.
Retirement
Gutiérrez resigned as commander-in-chief of the army on 18 May 1982.
He took over as president of the National Communications Administration (ANTEL), was chairman of the Executive Commission of the Hydroelectric Complex on the
Lempa River (CEL), and held a number of other important posts.
Death
Military authorities reported that Gutiérrez died on 9 August 2012 at his home in La Libertad.
He was buried on 10 August 2012 at the Montelena Funerary Complex in
Antiguo Cuscatlán
Antiguo Cuscatlán ''(colloquially known as Antiguo)'' is a municipality in the La Libertad department of El Salvador, and its eastern tip lays in San Salvador Department part of the Metropolitan Area of San Salvador, southwest of San Salvado ...
after a funeral Mass.
Legacy
Gutiérrez is a controversial figure in Salvadoran society: some consider him a dictator and conductor of
state terror
State terrorism refers to acts of terrorism which a state conducts against another state or against its own citizens.Martin, 2006: p. 111.
Definition
There is neither an academic nor an international legal consensus regarding the proper de ...
, others consider him an honest military man who "did not sit down at the negotiating table with criminals" and provided stability to the country. His participation in the 1979 coup is also debated: one view is he helped end the bloody dictatorship of Romero, another accuses him of removing a regime that had ensured stability since 1962.
The National Institution of General and Engineer Jaime Abdul Gutiérrez in Sonsonate, founded on 6 July 1981, is named after him.
See also
*
Adolfo Arnoldo Majano
References
Citations
Bibliography
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gutierrez, Jaime Abdul
1936 births
2012 deaths
Leaders who took power by coup
People from Sonsonate Department
People of the Salvadoran Civil War
Salvadoran military personnel
Vice presidents of El Salvador
Captain General Gerardo Barrios Military School alumni