Miguel Mármol (4 July 1905 – 23 June 1993) was a Salvadoran communist activist and the founder of the Communist Party of El Salvador.

Biography

Miguel Mármol was born on 4 July 1905 in

Ilopango Ilopango is a town and district in the San Salvador Department, San Salvador department of El Salvador. It is a few miles east of the nation's capital, San Salvador and part of the San Salvador metropolitan area. It is located near Lake Ilopango ...

El Salvador El Salvador, officially the Republic of 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 by the Pacific Ocean. El Salvador's capital and largest city is S ...

. Mármol became a shoemaker, but when the

October Revolution The October Revolution, also known as the Great October Socialist Revolution (in Historiography in the Soviet Union, Soviet historiography), October coup, Bolshevik coup, or Bolshevik revolution, was the second of Russian Revolution, two r ...

occurred in

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

, he began to have an interest in left-wing politics. In Ilopango, he met Agustín Farabundo Martí, a prominent left-wing Salvadoran activist, and together they founded the Society of Workers, Peasants and Fishermen of Ilopango (SCOPI), and they used the ideologies of

Augusto César Sandino Augusto César Sandino (; 18 May 1895 21 February 1934), full name Augusto Nicolás Calderón Sandino, was a Nicaraguan revolutionary, founder of the militant group EDSN, and leader of a rebellion between 1927 and 1933 against the United Sta ...

as a guide. On 30 March 1930, he founded the Communist Party of El Salvador. On 22 January 1932, indigenous and communist peasants staged a revolution in

against the regime of President

Maximiliano Hernández Martínez Maximiliano Hernández Martínez (21 October 1882 – 15 May 1966) was a Salvadoran military officer and politician who served as president of El Salvador from 4 December 1931 to 28 August 1934 in a provisional capacity and again in an offi ...

. The rebels took over large portions of western El Salvador and killed an estimated 100 people during the first day. In response, President Hernández Martínez ordered the

Army An army, ground force or land force is an armed force that fights primarily on land. In the broadest sense, it is the land-based military branch, service branch or armed service of a nation or country. It may also include aviation assets by ...

to put down the uprising by force. The ensuing killings became known as

La Matanza ( Spanish for 'The Massacre') refers to a communist- Indigenous rebellion that took place in El Salvador between 22 and 25 January 1932. After the revolt was suppressed, it was followed by large-scale government killings in western El Salv ...

where anywhere from 10,000 to 40,000 people were killed. Agustín Farabundo Martí was executed following the uprising and Miguel Mármol was arrested. He was released and later rearrested and rereleased in 1934 while attempting to flee to

Honduras Honduras, officially the Republic of Honduras, is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the west by Guatemala, to the southwest by El Salvador, to the southeast by Nicaragua, to the south by the Pacific Ocean at the Gulf of Fonseca, ...

. While he was incarcerated, the chief of police told him that was going to surely die. He remained in El Salvador and later became the president of the National Alliance of Shoemakers. In 1947, Mármol left El Salvador for

Guatemala Guatemala, officially the Republic of Guatemala, is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the north and west by Mexico, to the northeast by Belize, to the east by Honduras, and to the southeast by El Salvador. It is hydrologically b ...

. He was forced to flee back to El Salvador in 1954, however, due to the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

-backed coup which brought

Carlos Castillo Armas Carlos Castillo Armas (; 4 November 191426 July 1957) was a Guatemalan military officer and politician who was the 28th president of Guatemala, serving from 1954 to 1957 after taking power in a coup d'état. A member of the far-right Nationa ...

to power. In 1988, Mármol recounted his escape from Guatemala in an interview with William Bollinger and Georg M Gugelberger: Mármol participated in a steel workers' strike against the government of

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 Zacatecolu ...

. He fled El Salvador again on 13 July 1980 after receiving death threats from several Salvadoran

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

. Mármol returned to El Salvador and died in

San Salvador San Salvador () is the Capital city, capital and the largest city of El Salvador and its San Salvador Department, eponymous department. It is the country's largest agglomeration, serving as the country's political, cultural, educational and fin ...

on 23 June 1993.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mármol, Miguel 1905 births 1993 deaths People from San Salvador Department Salvadoran communists Communist Party of El Salvador politicians Salvadoran revolutionaries

Biography

See also

References