The National Security Agency of El Salvador (, abbreviated as ANSESAL) was the national intelligence agency of
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 b ...
during the
military regime
A military dictatorship is a dictatorship in which the military exerts complete or substantial control over political authority, and the dictator is often a high-ranked military officer.
The reverse situation is to have civilian control of the m ...
and the
civil war
A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country).
The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...
. The organization was known for using
paramilitaries and death squads to carry out its activities.
History
The National Security Agency of El Salvador was established by President
Julio Adalberto Rivera
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 Zacatecolu ...
in 1965 and was originally named the National Intelligence Service (SNI).
Its original purpose was to oversee the operations of the
National Democratic Organization, a group of paramilitaries and death squads used to combat political and militant opposition to the government.
[Stanley, William. The Protection Racket State Elite Politics, Military Extortion, and Civil War in El Salvador (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1996)] The organization maintained detailed files of information of thousands of Salvadorans, with some of the files being created by the United States'
CIA
The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian intelligence agency, foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gat ...
The organization was headed by General
José Alberto Medrano and later Colonel
Roberto Eulaio Santivanez
The name Robert is an ancient Germanic given name, from Proto-Germanic "fame" and "bright" (''Hrōþiberhtaz''). Compare Old Dutch ''Robrecht'' and Old High German ''Hrodebert'' (a compound of '' Hruod'' ( non, Hróðr) "fame, glory, honou ...
.
It was dissolved in 1992 with the signing of the
Chapultepec Peace Accords
The Chapultepec Peace Accords were a set of Peace treaty, peace agreements signed on January 16, 1992, the day in which the Salvadoran Civil War ended. The treaty established peace between the El Salvador, Salvadoran government and the Farabund ...
.
See also
*
ORDEN (National Democratic Organization)
References
Salvadoran Civil War
{{El Salvador-stub